The keys to success: graft and 'bouncebackability'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9zSVu76AX3I

The Question pitch

Asking questions to get your message across. An interesting idea: http://vimeo.com/66508882

Another thought-provoking video

What does it mean to be an educated person? Well worth a watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ZmM7zPLyI&feature=player_embedded#!

The teenage brain - another great talk from TED

“Fifteen years ago, it was widely assumed that the vast majority of brain development takes place in the first few years of life,” says professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, who heads up the Developmental Group at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. “Back then we didn’t have the ability to look inside the living human brain and track development across the lifespan.” But that’s all changed. Blakemore’s work is now devoted to understanding how and when the human brain develops using technology that lets us do just that. And as it turns out, “It’s not all over in early childhood, but continues right throughout adolescence and into the twenties and thirties,” she says. First, a definition of what she studies. “Adolescence is defined as the period of life that starts with the biological, hormonal and physical changes of puberty and ends at the age at which an individual attains a stable, independent role in society,” she says. The audience chuckles, and she acknowledges: “It can go on a long time.” Brain-wise, the most dramatic change during those years happens to the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain involved in high level cognitive functions such as decision-making, planning, social interaction and self-awareness. MRI studies show that this region undergoes quite dramatic change during adolescence. In fact, there’s a significant decline in the prefrontal cortex in adolescence. “That might sound bad, but it’s really important,” says Blakemore. We should think of it like pruning a rose bush, she advises. Just as you might prune away weak branches to ensure the remaining branches stay strong, the brain is finetuning itself. Blakemore is particularly interested in the social brain, and she and her team are working to understand the network of brain regions we use to interact with other people. She shows a photograph of footballer Michael Owen, who has just failed to score a goal, in front of a crowd of crushed fans — every single one of them with hands on heads, faces contorted in identical pain. ”The picture shows us how instinctive and automatic social responses are. Within a split second, everyone is doing the same thing with their arms and faces.” (Except the three guys in the back in the wrong section.) It’s not just a funny picture; it also illustrates how good we are at reading other people. Yet analyzing both adolescents and adults showed up some interesting patterns. The brain area called the medial pre-frontal cortex is more active in adolescents when they make decisions than it is in adults — which suggests that adolescents really do use a different mental approach to make social decisions. She describe a test that shows that the ability to account for someone else’s perspective is still developing even in relatively late-stage adolescence. So, she says: “If you have an adolescent son or daughter and think they find it difficult to take direction, you’re right. They do!” That, she argues, is why the demonization of adolescents is unfair. Their brains really are different. She recounts the story of a friend who said that the thing he noticed most about his teenage daughters was their level of embarrassment around him. “Before puberty he’d say ‘stop messing around, and I’ll sing you your favorite song.’” The girls would stop what they were doing and start behaving immediately. “After puberty, that became a threat. The very notion of their dad singing in public was enough to make them behave,” she says. The audience laughs knowingly. Now Blakemore is trying to understand phenomena such as risk-taking, which activates the limbic system, hypersensitive in adolescents, while the prefrontal cortex, which moderates risk-taking, is still developing in adolescence. Science! Her work is not only to justify the behavior of young people. Blakemore closes with an exhortation that we should think about the education of adolescents during this crucial period of brain growth. “40% of teenagers don’t have access to secondary-school education,” she says. “This is the period of life when the brain is particularly adaptive and malleable. It’s a fantastic opportunity for learning and creativity.”

The right to be forgotten

A really good programme on the ethics and legalities of gaining control of our digital presence. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pnn4m

Performance-related pay

I have reading about the Medicare/Medicaid demonstration project which has started to reimburse doctors based in part on the “quality” of their care. To incentivize better results, the theory goes, doctors whose patients’ health improved could get reimbursed at a higher rate. Ah, but how to measure quality fairly, I hear you ask…what about all the things that doctors can’t control? Patients who are obese, patients who don’t even bother to fill their prescriptions… Surely a doctor can’t be blamed if these patients fail to thrive? In education, approaches to increasing the precision of performance estimates include using test scores from multiple years of classes (in other words, increasing the sample size for the estimate); combining value-added scores with other, independent measures of teacher performance, such as Headteachers’ evaluations; and calculating scores at a higher level of aggregation (e.g., for all the teachers in a given subject or for all the teachers in a school, which, again, increases sample size). The model would have to be very complex; few teachers would buy into it and, those that did, would probably find a way to game the system. Many resent the intrusion. Some may drop low-performing students. Others may indeed respond to the incentives—for ego or financial reasons—and actually improve their practice to lead to better outcomes. I welcome the ideas but how it will work in practice. So far, there’s not a lot of evidence that using value-added models to evaluate teaching actually improves outcomes for kids in the real world. There’s not a lot of evidence that it doesn’t. Time may tell.

Ed Smith's key learning points

Ed Smith gave us a handful of simple learning points from his own experiences upon which to reflect: 1. Have a go: Ed urged us all to put ourselves out there and be willing to be judged, whether it be drama, music, sport etc. He quoted Larkin, “Supposing no one played tennis because they wouldn't make Wimbledon?” and he urged us not to sit out but remember that there are huge amounts to be gained from ‘having a go.’ 2. Support people that do have a go: He told us not to underestimate just what a difference you can make by encouraging and believing in those that do put themselves out there; such support can make all the difference. 3. Learn to be self-reliant and challenge conventional wisdom: Whilst acknowledging the role that teachers and mentors play, Ed told us that we should be able to find answers for ourselves. We should be curious, he said, and the best teacher will always be yourself. To be really good, we must grapple with the nub of the problem itself and open ourselves up to new possibilities. Drawing on the example of Dick Fosbury, Ed urged us not to imitate what others had done before or follow a textbook; instead, respect conventional wisdom but build on it. 4. Be a renaissance man: Ed argued that instead of giving everything up to be good at just one thing, try to maintain a good balance. He drew on the example of his final year at Cambridge where he not only had one of his best seasons with the bat but also gained a double first in History! If we’re struggling with a problem, we should try something different. Focus in one area breeds focus elsewhere and so he informed us how we can all be renaissance men. 5. If you’re going to do something, do it properly: Ed’s next point was that it’s better to do a short and effective rehearsal, practice, revision session than a much longer and less effective one. He defined “Concentration as the absence of stray thought” and drew on the Berlin Study of the 1980s as an example of the fact that business is not productivity. 6. Time: Ed argued that the masters of their craft have one thing in common: "time on the ball". They are able to take the pressure, give confidence to those around them, create opportunities for their team, and read and control the game. Ed argued that it is anxiety that makes us feel hurried and rushes us. Federer, Fabregas et al are not always in the thick of the action - often unseen, they work hard off the ball, and never forget that their true role is to run the game and create space for others. The mastery of time is about maintaining options; it comes from a clear vision and a confidence in dealing with the challenge ahead. 7. Back love not money: Ed’s final point was that we should focus on expressing ourselves by doing something that we love. The activity is its own reward: “You can’t coach want,” he said. Ed drew on ‘The Candle Problem’ as evidence of the fact that when we do our best, we focus on the task in hand and let the rewards look after themselves. In sum, I think Ed argued the case for a balanced life and, though it might sound boring, finding a delicate balance is a tricky business, but it can lead to success and, what’s more fulfillment.