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Work and Learning

Violence affects learning

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:07

As a trainer have you experienced Learners who: “act defiantly and pick fights, daydream and miss classes, or look bored and listless”?

“Research on how the brain works reveals why violence affects learning (Levine & Kline, 2007). Messages of danger bypass the neocortex, where thinking, planning and reasoning take place, and go directly to mechanisms which trigger the instincts of flight, fight or freeze.”

The brain then acts to close down any parts of the brain not necessary for survival, including the area responsible for language.

The Centre for Lifelong Learning at UWC recently hosted a packed seminar on: Women, Work and Learning - co-sponsored by SAQA and the Inseta.

Professor Shirley Walters in introducing the speaker described how we are inundated with media reports about the skills crisis - why she asked, have we been less than successful in our skills development initiatives?

What impact could our history and current experience of violence have on our skills development initiatives? This has been the area of research of Dr Jenny Horsman of Spiral Community Resource Group in Canada.

Violence for the purposes of the research is defined as any violation of an individual’s integrity or dignity, and any emotional loss or crisis. Dr Horsman stressed that South Africa is not unique in experiencing levels of violence; although where there are high levels of violence, it is more difficult to give credence to subtle responses to address the effects of violence.

The responses by victims of violence such as acting violently, or losing concentration, clearly may be experienced as much in the workplace as in the training centre. The employee is then labelled as a poor worker. In addition, because the brain has reduced activity to the minimum, any additional stimulation – or change – increases the paralysis, the inability to learn. “Repeated trauma can lead the brain to see all novelty, excitement or anxiety as a threat.”

Unfortunately, the individual may then start to feel worthless, feel stupid, feel unable to cope, feel as if they are a poor worker – compounding the problem.

As Dr Hosman says, in teaching and running programmes, we may just ignore this research, but we know that “for learning to occur, we have to be aware of both its presence (violence) and its impacts”.

Equally, then should we not ask: to what extent does our current level of Misconduct dismissals reflect our failure to understand, acknowledge and address the impact of violence on employees in the workplace?

More importantly – to what extent do our disciplinary processes, hearings and warnings, compound the problem – even add to the trauma?

Notes: All quotations are from the website: www.learningandviolence.net
Dr Jenny Horsman has taught at the University of New Brunswick and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Canada, and designed curriculum for a wide variety of organisations, including industry training councils.

See also Training Events for the training opportunity to be run by the Division of Lifelong Learning: “The Art and Heart of the Trainer”, facilitated by Heather Ferris and Shirley Walters to be run in March.