Competition or Collaboration, what are we teaching?

There was a lot of flower picking and arranging that day. Conversations unfolded as they worked, about colours, the role of different plants while arranging, the names of things and when they knew a flower lasted well if cut.

At the end of the day, there were six bunches all lined up together. Everyone looked at the day's work, at the row of bunches.

At this point, what the Facilitator asks of the Learners will either grow Convergent Thinkers and active Survival Brains or Divergent Thinkers and Integrated Brains.

"Which one do you like best?" or "What do you like about each one?"

"Which one do you like best?"
Here, we teach Convergent Thinking by getting these young brains to sort 'best from worst', 'good from bad'. The impact from this yard-stick approach often leads to people feeling 'great about their work' or 'never going to try that again' based on public opinion. Questions like these, phrased in such a way, grow skills of criticism, judgment, comparisons, and competition, all of which erode inclusivity and the mindset required to support unity in diversity.

"What do you like about each one?
Here, we are getting these young brains to see the positives in everything, to observe, to speak with opinion-language in place of judgmental-language. This question develops Divergent Thinking, where the perspective develops to see inclusively and embrace the diversity of their world.

The way we speak to each other matters. We all know that relationships impact development, and this is a great example of how. The language pattern we use to relate in the relationship develops the person (group, or culture) thinking, language and has a say in which behavioural part of the brain they will be operating from ('Survival' or 'Executive Function').

Authentic Learning Environments put the relationship first. What kind of relationship? A language pattern-aware relationship.