"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit
the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a
world that no longer exists."
Eric Hoffer
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The Hero's Journey
and "Brain-based" Teaching
by Reg Harris
"Why are we reading this?"
I have been teaching the hero's journey pattern as a foundation to
study literature and film for nearly a dozen years. I have seen it work
wonders, especially with students who tend to see little relevance between
a purely academic approach to literature and "real life." The journey
pattern has a remarkable power to help make literature relevant by giving
a students a point of comparison between literature and their own experience.
It is a powerful answer to the question, "Why are we reading this?"
The Brain and the Journey
Three years ago I learned of another reason that the hero's journey
is such a powerful teaching tool. Our high school had an in-service presentation
by Pat Wolfe, a specialist in brain-research and its implications for
teaching and learning. Wolfe explained that brain researchers have made
important discoveries in how memory works and how the brain processes
information. The implications of this research suggest teaching techniques
which are more compatible with how we learn.
During that meeting, I realized that several of the teaching techniques
suggested by brain research meshed extremely well with the strength of
the Hero's Journey approach to literature.
Implications of Brain-based research
Research tells us that the information we learn passes through our
brain's limbic system, the center of our emotion and the controller of
survival functions (i.e., the "fight-or-flight" response). As a result,
our learning process is geared toward survival and is driven by emotion.
Information which is not important emotionally to us never makes it through
to the long-term memory.
According to Robert Sylwester, author of A Celebration of Neurons:
An Educator's Guide to the Human Brain, "We have deeply embedded, innate
systems that cull out of the environment those things that are either
dangerous or helpful to us....Emotion drives attention, and attention
drives learning...our attentional system determines what is important,
and you never remember anything if it's not important."
This brings us to the first implication brain-based research has for
our teaching: students must see the importance of what we are trying to
teach them, and the importance of information is determined by the emotion
it carries. Material cannot be remembered unless it has emotional content.
A second discovery is that we learn best when we can hook new information
to something which we already know. Our existing informational frameworks
are called "schema." According to Wolfe, "A schema provides a structure
or guide for understanding. In order to comprehend, we select a schema
that seems appropriate and fill in the missing information. Without the
appropriate schema, trying to understand a story, textbook, or classroom
lesson is like trying to find your way through a new town without a map."
A third discovery is that our brains have difficulty processing random,
unrelated bits of information. We learn best in "clumps" of related information
(possibly because clumps of information create their own innate schema--RH).
This suggests that a "theme-based"approach to teaching is more effective
than an approach which teaches isolated bits of knowledge.
Closely related to "clumping" is a fourth concept: the brain learns
best when it can "chunk" information. According to Wolfe, "A chunk is
any coherent group of items of information that we can remember as if
it were a single item. A word is a chunk of letters, remembered as easily
as a single letter (but carrying much more information)." The implication
here is that we must group information into meaningful chunks for students
to learn it effectively.
So how does the Hero's Journey pattern fit into all of this? Let's
look at each of these four points individually.
Relevance and emotion
Students must see the importance of what we are trying to teach them
and they must feel an emotional involvement in the material.
Perhaps nothing is more emotional (thus important) to students than
what is happening in their own lives. They become deeply involved in material
which has direct applicability to what they are experiencing. The Hero's
Journey has this impact. When students study it, they realize that the
pattern applies to their own lives as much as to literature. As one of
my ninth graders wrote last year,
The Hero's Journey is way of guidance and helps us in our
lives. For me, the Hero's Journey has opened my eyes . . . showed me
how we face our fears . . .made me look at things in a whole new perspective.
. . It will help me in the future by pointing me in the right direction
in life.
Creating and using schema
We learn best when we can hook new information to something which we
already know (schema).
A "schema" is a framework of knowledge or information which the student
already knows and understands. It's worth repeating Pat Wolfe's words
here because she could easily have been describing the Hero's Journey
pattern.
A schema provides a structure or guide for understanding...Without
the appropriate schema, trying to understand a story, textbook, or classroom
lesson is like trying to find your way through a new town without a map.
As schema, the hero's journey pattern works in two ways. First, students
come to us with many years of life experience. They have been called to
adventures, faced challenges, and grown from what they have experienced.
Although they have never defined it, they already know the hero's journey
pattern because they are living it. So, the schema for understanding the
journey is already in their brains. All we do is help them understand
a pattern they already know. Once learned, journey pattern, itself, becomes
a schema which students can use to understand and apply what they will
be read in the future.
"Theme-based" teaching
A "theme-based"approach to teaching is more effective than an approach
which teaches isolated bits of knowledge.
Teaching the hero's journey is, essentially, teaching the theme of
human change and growth. This is a theme that students know well, so they
can relate to it quickly on a profound level.
Once the students understand the themes innate in the journey pattern,
they see these themes in literature and film. As a result, they remember
the details of the stories better. They understand how plot and conflict
are important to the character's transformation because these elements
are part of a unified theme. Students also see the "shadow" images of
these themes. When characters reject the call to grow and change, they
experience bitterness, stagnation and spiritual "death."
In addition, students who understand the themes presented in the Hero's
Journey interpret literature, film and television with more understanding
and discernment. One student wrote,
It was cool to watch a movie that I've seen a hundred times
and then watch after I learned about the hero's journey in a totally
different light. It's cool to look at characters and just automatically
tell if they have gone through the hero's journey. I think it has helped
me understand everything, including life, a whole lot better.
Chunking information for learning
We must group information into meaningful chunks for students to learn
it effectively.
Chunking refers to combining smaller bits of information into a coherent
group so that we can remember the material as if it were a single item
I've found that students who understand the hero's journey pattern
"chunk" information automatically. They unite the specifics of plot, character,
setting and conflict into the pattern of the journey process, which allows
them to remember material more easily and thoroughly.
In summary
Teaching the hero's journey pattern as a basis for studying literature
and film meets the goals of brain-based learning. It is relevant and emotional,
it builds on existing schema and then becomes a schema itself for future
study, and it helps students "clump" and "chunk" the details of even the
most complex piece of literature.
For me, however, perhaps the most important way the hero's journey
fulfills the goals of brain-based learning is that it makes literature
authentic by making it relevant to "real life." Students discover that
literature is important. They begin to understand how a character faces
a journey, and they can relate that understanding to the experiences in
their own lives. As one of my ninth graders expressed the idea,
- From the first day we learned it, every time I picked up a book I
would start seeing it. Every time I saw a movie, I could find it (yes,
even in the Simpsons). . . . It even relates to our own lives. I can
find many hero's journeys in our lives.
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