The Impact of Contrasting Neural Pathways on Perspectives of Intercontinental Students
Originally, roadblocks to the success of education in Morocco and the U.S. was my topic. Even so, I kept hoping to observe more challenging subjects to craft a research question around. As we spoke with teacher college students at École Normale Supérieure and other educators of all levels and disciplines, the roadblocks we all face became apparent. Most problems were the same for educators on both sides of the Atlantic and those topics are well worth studying. Then, near the end of our field experience, following along with a lesson on gas exchange in a Biology class, the idea I wanted to write about struck.
It had been explained to us lessons at university are taught in the French language. Most grade schools, junior highs and high schools teach classes in Moroccan Arabic. This seems like a major hurdle to continuing education right out of the gate and another excellent research topic. A good number of Moroccans speak two to three languages: Moroccan Arabic, French and Spanish. English is growing exponentially in popularity. This Biology teacher had written the lesson guide on the whiteboard in French. She called select students to the board and they wrote the lesson content in Moroccan Arabic. However, many Moroccans struggle just to learn the native language in grades 1-3. When the teacher asked us to follow along in the lab manual, my partner teacher and I were turning pages like we would an English textbook. We couldn’t find the picture on the overhead screen in our lab book. That is because Moroccan Arabic is written and read from right to left. Had we turned the opposite page the opposite direction, we would have been on the correct page.
The TGC cohort had traveled a long way to exchange ideas and cultivate our common ground with our gracious hosts. So, can students and teachers who learn in Moroccan Arabic which is read from right to left ever see the world we share from the same perspective as students and teachers who have spent lives learning in English, reading and writing from left to right? Use of different neural pathways scientifically dictates differing perspectives on a language by language basis. Had students been learning in Mandarin Chinese which is written and read right to left, the same contrasts would be expected. How many areas of everyday life does directional language learning impact? A good study would be to see how directional language learning affects right-handedness versus left-handedness in the populations. What if a student had learned in both Moroccan Arabic and French from the time they could speak?
What are the deeper implications of learning in these ways? Are the neural pathways triggering different parts of the brain respectively? Do these differences impact personal disposition, talents, academic performance or even athletic ability? On a grander scale, are economics, politics, education, health and welfare shaped by the invisible pathways that help us become who we are? What about sport? The Olympics just ended. Do all the athletes approach training for phenomenal physical skills the same way when they read in different directions? These are the ideas which have surfaced since returning from Morocco. Students and teachers alike have found them interesting when we’ve conversed about them.
In conclusion, a great research question inherently generates many more questions. We did that, wondering about how Moroccan students and students in the U.S. approach their studies, their lives and perhaps even their societies differently based on learning from right to left or left to right. As educators from different coasts of the Atlantic, do we have different views on how education is or could be implemented? Yes. That’s not uncommon from room to room in any school site. Working together to understand each other and perspectives on education as it relates to neural pathway development is a no brainer when hosted by such hospitable, friendly, knowledgeable people as the ones we were fortunate to meet. It all begins with asking the questions about how students are impacted by which neurons are being exercised, then clearing avenues for meaningful collaboration and serving students with our results.