A Whole New Mind Part 1 Reflection

1.     L-Directed thinking as described by Pink, “is a form of thing and an attitude of like that is characteristic of the left hemisphere of the brain—sequential, literal, functional, textual and analytic”. (pg 26) Where as R-Directed thinking is a “form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the right hemisphere of the brain—simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, contextual, and synthetic”. (pg 26) Historically speaking my content area (mathematics), has been predominantly L-Directed thinking. With test such as the SAT’s and CAHSEE, and value placed on the content standards, schools placed a strong focus on procedural work. However, now that the common core is coming into the school system, it seems that the R-Directed thinking approach is being valued more. Its emphasis is on having students be more holistic learners.

2.     Abundance, Asia and Automation are all reducing the importance of L-Directed thinking in business and schools. Abundance in todays society has hindered one to stand out from the rest. With so many similar products out in the market that perform the same task, there need to be something unique that sets it apart from everything else. That is where R-Directed thinking comes in—creativity, aesthetics, and beauty give the product more meaning. Asia is a country that has been known for producing individuals with great L-Directed thinking. They succeed in subjects such as computer programing and mathematics. Thus, businesses have found outsourcing jobs to countries such as Japan or India more beneficial and cost effective. In result, diminishing the need of L-Directed thinkers in our own country. In other words, to have a successful career in this country one needs to have more than just L-Directed thinking skills.

3.     High concept, as described by Pink, is ”the ability to create artistic and emotional beauty, to detect patters and opportunities, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into a novel invention”. High touch is “the ability to empathize, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in ones self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond the quotidian, in pursuit of purpose and meaning” (pg 52). High concept and high touch influence my teaching in that I want to create meaningful learning experiences for my students. In mathematics, it is true that mathematics has been thought in a rote kind of way but I believe that there also needs to be an element of collaborative work to discover mathematical ideas. This way they discover math instead of me telling them what to know about math.

4.     The flaws of the education system that only values IQ is that it is very limited as to what it can tell you about a person. For instance, it can tell us what profession one may work best in but it does tell us success we will have in it. Although IQ scores allow comparison between individuals more easily than other tests, it is this strong value of IQ that has driven school to be so standards based and leave out the high concept and high touch out of the school system. The focus has shifted from the students well being to making sure we perform better than another school. AS for EQ, I believe it does have a place in education. However, the documentation and assessment process is what I believe will be the most difficult for schools. Since EQ can be measure in a number of distinct ways, it will vary form content areas.