Assembly Line Learning

Learning in the 19th - 20th Century tended to emphasize the Reptilian Brain (repeat, repeat, repeat) because of the early industrial culture (the factory and the assembly line!) where most people made their living in routine, repetitive, reptilian-type jobs.

Beyond Lizard Learning

We're now in a world of rapid change that no longer favors the "repeat, repeat, repeat" tactics of the Reptilian Brain. People today need to develop and use their social and emotional skills (the Limbic System) and their ability to think, adapt, create, and learn (the Neocortex) in order to thrive.

The Role of the Limbic System in Learning

The Limbic System (the social/emotional brain) is central to learning. It controls the quality and quantity of learning:

Negative feelings in the Limbic System can create "downshifting": when the Limbic System interprets a potential learning situation as being negative in some way (e.g., fearful, stressful, inhumane, socially tense, painful, irrelevant, boring, etc.) it will downshift into the Reptilian Brain where survival is the concern. Then learning slows or is stopped altogether.

When feelings are positive, the Limbic System can upshift the mind's focus into the Neocortex, the learning brain.

Upshifting: The Key to Accelerated Learning

A learning facilitator should make the total learning environment as positive as possible so upshifting can occur in the learner.