Penguins, Pranks and Pedagogy: Flipping the Script on Critical Thinking in Japan
By: Glenn Magee
In a country where traditional teaching often determines classroom norms, novelty can bring much more than laughter; it can cause a revolution in critical thinking. My journey began with a simple question: Can penguins fly?
It was a late autumn morning when I entered the fifth-grade elementary school classroom to lead an activity that would allow students to practice using the verb “can.” The Japanese teacher of English was accustomed to the straightforward lessons in the textbook that practiced phrases such as “I can play tennis,” “I can play soccer,” and so on. I gave the class something new that day, something surprising and unbelievable!
The class began with a presentation on surprising facts about animals, and students voted on whether they thought the point was true or not. It was great to see students’ hands pop up here and there, while others hesitated, unsure of the answer. It was a great lesson and culminated in a high-quality BBC video, “Flying Penguins,” where I posed the question before watching the video, “Do you think penguins can fly?” to which half the class raised a hand for yes, while the other half were unsure. After watching the video, I asked the question again, and this time, all hands shot up in agreement! Yes, penguins can fly! What a surprise! My power as a teacher knew no limits.
By the end of the class period, the Japanese teacher, who had watched the lesson unfold with growing concern that an entire class now believed penguins could fly, urged me to tell the students what was up with the video. What followed was a mixture of amusement and shock as I confessed that the video was a high-quality computer graphics (CG) fake and that penguins couldn’t fly at all.
From that day forward, my classroom time was different. Students were ready to spot my mischievous meddling and began questioning, questioning, and, more importantly, thinking.
I intentionally created this surprise to see if my understanding of a fundamental concept in neuroscience about the Default Mode Network (DMN) would benefit my classroom teaching. This network is active when we are in a state of relaxed attention and involves mind wandering and being vaguely aware of what is going on around us. While that might not sound so great, it is for our brains, as during this relaxed attention, vocabulary and grammar will potentially be remembered through consolidating memories and integrating new information. While this differs from the mechanisms of memory consolidation during sleep, both states play crucial roles in processing and retaining information.
When something unexpected happens, like watching a fantastic video of flying penguins, the DMN can be disrupted, shifting our attention from a relaxed to a focused state. Importantly, we also need this for active learning and being receptive to new language input. By stimulating learners to think critically through what started as a playful prank, I engaged the students in a way that traditional teaching methods often fail to do.
Prompting students to question and analyze what is going on is a way of hacking their brains to switch from a relaxed state of absorption to an active state of engagement. Reflecting on this surprisingly effective change in my classes, it became clear that the intersection of neuroscience and education offers powerful insights into practical pedagogy.
Our brains feed on novelty, and when we, as educators, bring these unexpected and disruptive elements into our lessons, we connect to this natural brain proclivity. As you can see, I learned that creating memorable experiences engages the Default Mode Network by encouraging students to question, analyze, and ultimately embrace a way of thinking that prioritizes curiosity. It’s also a reminder that we, as educators, have powerful tools for creativity and are willing to challenge established teaching traditions beyond grammar and vocabulary.
We are educators and mentors guiding students to become critical thinkers and to take flight in their language-learning journeys, even if they are not penguins.
Glenn Magee: Stand-up Lecturer, SENSEI, Neuronerd, and Tongue Fu Master