|
What should be the outcome of higher education and
how should it be measured? In today’s quickly
changing world, the average person changes careers up to six times in
their lifetime. Thus, the information they learn today may be obsolete
in 7 years. The most enduring benefit any university can provide a
student is an integrated brain physiology—the basis of the ability to
think clearly, maintain broad comprehension, and make the right
decisions.
Physiology is the basis of thought and action. If
the purpose of higher education is to enable a man to think and act
successfully, then knowledge can have significant reality only when the
education enlivens the physiological basis of thought and behavior. The
level of integrated brain functioning then would be a reliable gauge of
level of integration in thinking and acting.
Maharishi University of Management has developed a
Brain Integration Report Card to begin to assess the effect of education
on brain integration. The Brain Integration Report Card supplements
traditional measures of student progress such as grades or performance
on standardized cognitive and performance tests.
The Brain Integration Report Card includes level
of integration of brain functioning along with scores on psychological
measurements and evaluation of subjective reports of inner development.
The five components of the Brain Integration Report Card include:
1. Brain Integration
Scale
This scale is a composite of three EEG patterns during tasks. Higher
values indicate (1) greater integration of frontal executive
processes (as seen in brain wave coherence), (2) processing information
in terms of deeper principles rather than surface, immediate demands (as
seen in higher alpha/gamma power ratios), and (3) more appropriate brain
responses to challenges in the environment (as seen “Contingent Negative
Variation” during reaction time tasks).
2. Emotional Stability Scale from the
International Personality Item Pool
This standardized scale includes 20 questions from the International
Personality Item Pool. This scale reflects the student’s level of
emotional stability during tasks with varying levels of challenge. It
correlates positively with the above Brain Integration Scale.
3. Gibb’s Moral Reasoning
This standardized scale includes 11 questions that reveal a student’s
level of moral reasoning—from egocentric to globally oriented. It
correlates positively with the above Brain Integration Scale.
4. Constructive Thinking Inventory
This 72 item standardized scale has four sub-scales: 1) practical
intelligence, 2) behavioral strategies, 3) emotional response
strategies, and 4) categorical thinking. Higher values on the
first three subscales are associated with success in working with
others. Lower values on the fourth subscale indicate that a student
think through situations and doesn’t just respond in terms of
stereotypes.
5. Development
of Consciousness
This self-report scale measure the
frequency of experiences of profound inner wakefulness:
1.
during practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique,
2. in
activity, and
3.
during sleep.
It also evaluates level of ease and
success in daily life.
The Brain Integration Report Card allows students
to follow their individual growth from their freshman year through
graduation.
|
