I thought it might be nice to share some of the fruits of labours from uni this semester if anyone if interested. At the beginning of the year, I began a Masters in Steiner Education and recently wrote an assignment on Steiner Education in the light of modern neuroscientific findings. I was heartened to find that much modern research echoes the ideas and philosophies that Steiner himself came up with 100 years ago. Following is the first part of the paper:

Contemporary Education in the Light of Neuroscientific Research: How Steiner Pedagogies May Support Healthy Brain Development in Children: Part 1

The aim of educational neuroscience is to generate research that will provide a new transdisciplinary account of learning and teaching which is capable of informing education. Due to advances in modern technology, researchers in the last few decades have been able to obtain a detailed look at the brain’s inner workings. This report examines the findings of recent neuroscientific research in the field of education and the ways in which Steiner pedagogies may support these, thus resulting in the healthy brain development of children.

1. The Brain is Plastic

Perhaps the most interesting development in the field of neuroscience has been the findings around the plasticity of the brain. While once it was thought of as fixed and limited to the mental abilities it was born with, researchers are now proving that even highly damaged brains are quite capable of remarkable change (Cherry, 2019).

Modern neuroscience thus tells us that the brain changes constantly as a result of learning, and remains ‘plastic’ throughout life. Each time we learn a new skill, our brain changes and these changes also revert when practise of the skill ceases (The Royal Society, 2011). In addition, young brains generally tend to be more sensitive and responsive to experiences than much older brains (Cherry, 2019), and the structure and connectivity of the brain suggest that there are sensitive periods in brain development extending beyond childhood and into adolescence (The Royal Society, 2011).

This is of particular significance for educators, perhaps especially so for those in a Steiner/ Waldorf setting. Despite the peers of Steiner’s time believing the brain to be something of a super-computer, the abilities of which were largely determined by genetics, Steiner appears to have had an early insight into the true nature of the brain. While his contemporaries hung firmly onto the idea that it was nature rather than nurture that determined cognitive ability, Steiner emphasised the value of education in changing or developing the brain. He also believed that the brain was no more than the ground into which the activities of speaking and thinking imprinted what was received from the surrounding world, as embodied in the following statement: “The brain is not the cause, but the ground on which the soul develops” (Steiner 1996, p.65), thus paralleling contemporary findings on the mutability of the human brain.   

2. Memory matters

Over the last few decades, mainstream education has largely shunned the practise of rote-learning or memorisation tactics in schools, instead emphasising the development of critical-thinking or problem solving skills.

However, rote-learning can be an important tool in building a foundation for higher-level critical thinking skills, and memorisation is in fact a cornerstone of critical thinking (Klemm 2013). As

Klemm (2013), senior professor of neuroscience at Texas A&M University, points out: “We think and solve problems with what is in working memory, which in turn is memory of currently available information or recall of previously memorised information. Numerous studies show that the amount of information you can hold in working memory is tightly correlated with IQ and problem-solving ability.”

Neuroscientific researchers have also found that when young maths students memorise the basics, their brains reorganise to accomodate the greater demands of more complex math (Brain Balance Achievement Centres, 2019). The memorisation of long poems or chanting of multiplication tables so oft found in Steiner schools can often draw questions or criticism around the rote-learning tactics or seemingly lower-order thinking skills being utilised. However, this research shows that these actives may well well be beneficial for early brain development.

3. Stress Disrupts

The past few decades have seen a boom in parents and educators wanting to get a head-start in accelerating their children academically, as can be witnessed in the proliferation of early-learning ‘hyper-stimulation’ programs such as ‘Baby-Einstein’. However, over two decades ago, neurological scientist and researcher David Elkind warned that education was not ‘a race’ (Weiner 1986). He believed that generations of children were increasingly missing out on free time, unstructured play and the space to daydream. This is a sentiment which has been largely echoed by Steiner schools and communities around the world and is now largely supported by modern neuroscience.

The ‘fight or flight’ mechanisms of the brain are a product of our evolution, designed to ensure our survival. These have changed very little over time, and the stimulation of such a stress response elevates cortisol levels, hindering thinking and shutting down learning. These powerful brain chemicals can impact on the growth and development of important regions of the brain, especially when children have not yet acquired a repertoire of skills for handling stress (Nagel 2009).

What this means for eduction is that when academic expectations are not developmentally appropriate and the child is afraid of “failing”, their brain can become flooded with cortisol and they then enter a fight/flight/freeze stress response (Nagel 2009). Interestingly, a recognised suppressant of cortisol is laughter. Rudolf Steiner himself said that everything should be tinted with spontaneous humour (Steiner 1996 p.159), and that at school we must do everything we can to awaken love (Steiner 1996 p. 163). It has subsequently been found that when teachers use strategies to reduce stress and build a positive emotional environment, students gain emotional resilience and learn more efficiently and at higher levels of cognition (Willis 2014).

Partly in recognition that schools should be low-stress environments, Steiner education integrates thinking, feeling and will (cognition, emotion and physiological aspects) in equal measures, with knitting, recorder playing and painting being regarded as equally valuable as activities of a more academic nature. The entire Steiner curriculum is based on a harmonious, ‘breathing’ rhythm, where each ‘in-breath’ is followed by a metaphorical ‘out-breath’. Rhythmically-based pursuits such as singing, poetry recitation and even sawing wood which occur throughout the Steiner school day also regulate the breathing and therefore the heart rhythms (Davidow, 2019). The results of a recent study, in which Steiner students appeared to have a more balanced Autonomic Nervous System than their public and private school counterparts (Davidow 2019), could perhaps by attributed somewhat to the three ‘R’s of the Steiner school- rhythm, routine and repetition.

4. Media may have a detrimental effect on the developing brain

Much research has been carried out on the effects of ‘screen time’ during childhood. The subsequent findings have caused many to advocate for a screen-minimised childhood for the sake of healthy brain development. As Davidow (2013) points out, we know that children’s brains are being formed every second of the day, so it matters enormously what they repeatedly do. She states, “As our children sit quietly in front of a screen, behaving themselves and thankfully not causing any trouble, their hearts might be racing and their bodies are potentially flooded with stress hormones. They are glued to the screen in what is often a virtual life-or-death battle with real physiological consequences” (Davidow 2014, p.112).

In addition to the physiological side-effects media consumption may have on children, an additional problem with video games and other media is that it reduces theory of mind. In neuroscientific terms, Theory of mind (often abbreviated "ToM") is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions that are different from one's own (Bergland 2014). But perhaps most pertinent for education is the recognition in Steiner schools that television can hinder imagination. Although television hadn't been invented during Steiner’s time, he stated “Of prime importance for the cultivation of the child’s feeling-life is that the child develops a relationship to the world in a way such as that which develops when we are inclined towards fantasy” (Steiner 2008).

Steiner primary schools are therefore well known for the absence of computers or digital technology. Backing up this stance is a global report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report suggested that education systems that have invested heavily in computers have seen “no noticeable improvement” in their results for reading, maths and science in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests (Jenkin 2015).

5. Engaging the feelings is the way forward

Neurobiological research has just begun to identify the brain networks that are active when processing stories, finding that when students become engrossed in a novel, brain connectivity and function is enhanced (Bergland 2014). These findings may be of particular interest to Steiner educators, for whom stories are often the vehicle through which curriculum content is delivered. Although the study explicitly focused on ‘novels’ rather than the oral-storytelling so prominent in Steiner schools, it could be argued that any mode of story that engages and causes children to become ‘engrossed’ could have similar positive effects. After all, brain research demonstrates that superior learning takes place when classroom experiences are motivating and engaging. Positive motivation impacts brain metabolism, conduction of nerve impulses through the memory areas, and the release of neurotransmitters that increase executive function and attention (Willis 2014).

 In the words of Post (2010), what affective neuroscience tells us is that reasoning, decision-making, and processes related to language, reading, and math do not function correctly without emotion.  Emotions affect performance and learning, as well as our ability to recruit previously learned material and apply what we have learned in school to decisions and situations in the rest of our lives, even in nonemotional contexts.  Following this premise, Steiner educators in the primary school seek to provide content that is ‘alive’ and relevant to both the child and the human condition, heeding Steiner’s statement that stirrings of feelings aid memory (Steiner 1996) as well as his warning that when we teach or bring something ‘dead’, we wound what is alive in the child (Steiner 1996). In Melrose’s (2013) words, Steiner teachers “involve and nourish the sensing, feeling parts of the brain, those easily accessed by young children, so that essential foundational neural connections needed for later academic learning are solidly laid.”

Additionally, the above-mentioned study also found that reading fiction improved the reader's ability to put themselves in another person’s shoes and flex the imagination in a way that is similar to the visualisation of a muscle memory in sports (Berns, Blaine et al. 2013). This research appears to confirm Steiner’s theories on the importance of imagination for brain development, and his view that for young children, “thinking can only unite with what is pictorial” (Steiner 1996 p. 79).

Allowing the children to live deeply and slowly into a Steiner main lesson block without ‘jumping around’ disconnectedly from subject to subject may also prove beneficial for brain development. As SmartMinds (2018) points out, multitasking is an enemy of learning as it introduces interference and noise and blocks neurons from creating strong connections in the brain (Smart Minds, 2018).

Bibliography

Bergland, C. (2014). Reading Fiction Improves Brain Connectivity and Function. Psychology Today.

Berns, G. S., K. Blaine, M. J. Prietula and B. E. Pye (2013). "Short- and long-term effects of a novel on connectivity in the brain." Brain Connect 3(6): 590-600.

Davidow, S. (2014). Raising Stress-Proof Kids.

Jenkin, M. (2015). "Tablets out, Imagination in: The Schools that Shun Technology." The Guardian.

Klemm, W. R. (2013). "Memorization is not a Dirty Word." Psychology Today.

Nagel, M. (2009). Fighting First Day Fear. Sydney’s Child.

Nagel, M. (2009). "Too Much, Too Soon." Brisbane’s Child.

Steiner, R. (1996). The Child’s Changing Consciousness, Anthroposophic Press.

Steiner, R. (1996). Education for Adolescents. Switzerland, Anthroposophic Press.

Steiner, R. (2008). An Introduction to Waldorf Education and Other Essays, SMK Books.

Weiner, L. M. (1986). "Parent Pressure Cited as Harmful." The New York Times.

Willis, J. (2014). "The Neuroscience Behind Stress and Learning."