Deepening Understandings of Our Stress-Responses: Empowering Students to Become Ready to Learn

For many of us and the students we support as educators, experiences of emotional escalation, explosive outbursts, meltdowns, or shutdowns can feel frightening, shameful, or confusing. A core tenet of trauma-informed education is to empower the children and young people in our care to develop an understanding of, and language for, the processes that guide these intense and deeply human responses. Our capacity to reframe our thinking around complex behaviours creates room for empathy, constructive self-reflection and collaboration towards solutions. When supporting schools to embed trauma-informed, strengths-based strategies and pedagogies, our priority goal at the Berry Street Education Model is for students to gain practical insights for self-reflection about their own responses to stress in the learning environment.

For two decades, trauma-informed education has looked to novel developments in neuroscience, which have demonstrated that behaviours are not always in our conscious control, particularly in moments of escalation (in other words, fight, flight and freeze responses). We also know from our work with schools across Australia and beyond, that sharing this knowledge with children and young people powerfully demystifies how their own brains work. This knowledge can shift stigmatising narratives from educators and students, such as ‘This student is always defiant’, or ‘I give up!’, to narratives like ‘This young person needs strategies for regulation’, or ‘I need help to de-escalate and co-regulate’. When students understand the how and why of their responses in these complex or overwhelming moments, they are empowered to engage in positive behavioural reflection to be the person they want to be.

What’s Changed?
With a focus on everyday, pragmatic applications for students, scientific communication must balance simplification and metaphor on one hand, which aid age-respectful, developmentally appropriate understanding, and accurate representation of complexity and nuance on the other. Respectful engagement with empiricism depends on an open attitude to emerging knowledge. As practitioners, we must be able to re-think what we know when robust research challenges our assumptions and, through ongoing dialogue with our colleagues, to consider the implications of new research for our work.  

Many trauma-informed practitioners draw on triune (or three-part) models of the brain to explain the human stress response in a student-friendly way. Educators appreciate the clear visuals provided by, as an example, Clinical Professor Dan Siegel’s hand model of the brain (2020), which uses the metaphor of ‘flipping one’s lid’ (that is, losing our ability to think clearly when escalated emotions take over our immediate responses; for a full explanation see the following section). Such models empower young people to express their needs and to communicate when they are reaching a point of emotional overwhelm. We have witnessed many students gain valuable insight and reflection when learning this language, then using it in proactive ways with their teachers to indicate they require co-regulatory supports to stay focused on learning.

However, as educators, we have become increasingly concerned that helpful metaphors are being presented in schools literally, in ways that deprive them of their nuance and exclude critical contemporary research and understandings that highlight the complexity of the brain. Rather than a compartmentalised, three-part layer-cake, recent neurological models present the brain as far more interconnected, adaptive and integrated with our bodies, relationships and environments than previously thought. Many contemporary models, even when building on Maclean’s initial framework, paint it as both hierarchical and adaptive (Koziol et al., 2014; Perry, 2009). As Siegel himself writes, ‘the old three-part model of the brain is no longer considered complete or accurate…and the dynamic functioning of this ever-changing organ is far more complex than a simple model made by your hand’ (2020, p.37). There is an increasing call from neuroscientists for ‘better two-way communication between the complex world of cognitive neuroscience and the equally complex world of education’ (Purdy & Morrison, 2009, p.100). As such, we prompt our fellow educators to consider how we explain these models to students in a way that they can practically apply.

What is the Triune Brain Theory?
Introduced in 1964 by neuroscientist and psychologist Paul MacLean, the triune model segmented the brain into three distinctly functioning parts. MacLean posited that, as organisms evolved from reptiles to mammals and finally humans, their brains developed sequentially more complex structures. In other words, ‘newer’ more complex parts were added on top of ‘older’ more simple parts, allowing organisms access to more sophisticated psychological functions (Butler, 2009; Cesario et al., 2020).

In his theorising, there were three key regions of the brain:

1. The reptile or survival brain, otherwise known as the basal ganglia and brain stem. These parts have been often associated with basic movement and automatic, life-sustaining behaviours.
2. The mammalian brain, or limbic system, has often been referred to as the ‘feeling brain’ in modern triune models, due to its association with emotional responses.
3. The thinking brain, or neocortex, has been referred to as the newer or more evolved part of the brain. Considered to be what allowed humans to develop higher order thinking capacities and capabilities, it has been associated with processes like cognition, executive functioning, language processing and abstract reasoning.

This is a useful explanatory model for the drivers behind fight, flight or freeze responses. As described by Siegel (2020), when we become overloaded by adrenaline and cortisol, we might think of our prefrontal cortex (or thinking brain) as no longer able to regulate subcortical regions - the feeling and survival parts of our brain. As this happens, we can fall into an emotion - or even survival-driven state, where we can say and do things that do not align with our values.

This model of the brain is still used across a range of fields, including education, behavioural and social sciences, and it continues to be included in many introductory psychology textbooks (Cesario et al., 2020). A simple and intuitive model, it has a lot of appeal. It helps us to understand and view student behaviours with empathy - an important step for our own emotional regulation - and it helps our young people to reflect on their own behaviours with self-compassion. Further, we have seen people of all ages, including lower-primary students, engage with and benefit from this simple model to describe the ways they respond to stress.

Diving into the Debate: What are the Issues with the Model?
Nonetheless, as Cesario et al. (2020, p.2) argue, critical issues arise when we interpret and present the triune model of the brain literally, without the evolving knowledge that our brains are interconnected and adaptive. These authors argue the model of the triune brain ‘…stands in contrast to the clear and unanimous agreement on these issues among those who study nervous system evolution.’ As well as our desire to present our students with an accurate understanding of themselves and the world, of particular concern within an educational context is that uncritical readings of the model can lead to negative implications around intelligence and the role of emotions for young people. We believe educators should be aware of the three following areas of critique.

1. The Model Misrepresents Evolution
Literal presentations of triune models misrepresent how evolution works in two ways.

a. Brains Don’t Grow Like Rocks
Evolution is presented as additive, meaning that new parts grow on top of old parts, like the stratification of rocks (Semenova & Kotik-Friedgut, 2020). However, evolution does not work this way. Instead of adding structures, every part adapts and changes as we evolve. For example, an elephant’s trunk is not a new structure that evolved on top of a snout, but rather a type of snout with different proportions, and therefore different functions, that are uniquely adapted to the needs of the animal (Steffen et al., 2022).

When we look at different brains across species (see below), we can see that human brains do not have additional regions. Rather, the basic neural regions are shared among all vertebrates, but with different forms and adaptations (Cesario et al., 2020; Semenova & Kotik-Friedgut, 2020; Steffen, 2022).

b. Evolution is not Linear
Triune models also imply that evolution is a linear progression, moving towards a single goal (Cesario et al. 2020). This misconception places simple, so-called primitive organisms at the bottom of the chain, and moves towards allegedly more intelligent, complex organisms (Nee, 2005). Of course, we cannot truly rank existing organisms from most to least evolved because every existing organism is equally the most evolved of its kind. A human is not more evolved than a shark, or a monkey, or a lizard, and we did not evolve from sharks or modern monkeys, but rather diverged from a common ancestor (see top image).

2. Concerning Implications for Intelligence
Triune models have concerning implications for how we understand intelligence. It is not necessarily true that bigger, more complex brains equate to more complex behaviours (Cesario et al. 2020). Humans are not the only animals capable of complex behaviours and intelligence is something that has evolved in many different forms. For example, octopuses, whose brains look rather different to ours, have their own complex nervous systems and have been shown to meet every criterion for intelligence, including flexibility in obtaining, processing, storing and applying information (Mather & Kuba, 2013; Poncet, 2021).

Of most concern when enacting culturally responsive and inclusive pedagogies, is that linear models of intelligence and evolution have long been weaponised to dehumanise and marginalise many groups of people. This includes labelling cultures, knowledge systems and practices as primitive (Diogo et al., 2023), in addition to deficit attitudes towards, and grossly restricting rights for, people with disabilities (Arstein-Kerlake, 2017). We have witnessed well-meaning teachers tell their student(s), ‘Ah, you’re now in your primitive brain and your brainstem took over.’ When we recognise that all living animals are all as equally evolved as one another, we can appreciate the inherent beauty and complexity in all brains and behavioural systems, including those within the diversity of humanity.

3. Brain Functions and Regions do not Operate in Isolation
Our final concern with triune models is when cognition and emotion are presented as distinctly separate functions to students. Western thought has dichotomised feelings and reason since Aristotle. Emotions are often ascribed moralistic language like ‘heated’, ‘animalistic’, and ‘hedonistic’, in contrast to the cool, rational choices often promoted by willpower research (Cesario et al., 2020). This dichotomy has an even more fraught history when we consider gender-essentialist framings of these supposedly separate functions as a way of downgrading women’s cognitive capacities (Frasca et al., 2020) and a shaming of emotional expression and vulnerability in men (Vogel et al., 2014). What we now believe, as Steffen and colleagues write, is that ‘Cognition works with emotion in meeting needs’ (2022, p.6). Far from existing in isolation, emotional drivers play a critical role in reasoning and cognitive functions (Li et al., 2020) and vice versa (Storbeck & Clore, 2007).

In addition to interrelated functions, the specific physical regions of the brain also engage in complex, collaborative activity. As Seigel describes, while it can be helpful to separate distinct parts of the brain to simplify it for our young people, ‘all of these areas have unique and extensive input and output pathways linking widely distributed areas in the brain’ (Siegel, 2020, p.35). Instead of thinking about the cortex and limbic regions operating in isolation to do separate things, we instead may think about interrelated and distributed networks of neural circuits that monitor the world around us for safety and security. For example, we now know that the amygdala is not the part of your brain that does fear, rather the amygdala is connected to all neural circuitry, which assesses and reacts to frightening stimuli (Li & Kiel, 2023; Zhou et al., 2021).

Increasingly, it seems that many areas of the brain work together as opposed to being layered and segmented. Further, integrated brain structures are influenced by sensorimotor capacities (the body), and our bodies are embedded in, and influenced by, our broader biological, psychosocial and cultural environments (Kiverstein & Miller, 2015).

With each new discovery about the brain, there are more indications that thinking, feeling and neurobiological functions are far more integrated than previously thought. We seek to both future proof the language we use with students and honour the complexity of an evolving scientific field. As educators, we frequently adapt heuristic models from a range of fields, and we argue that, as non-neuroscientists, we need to continually attempt to go back to the depths of expert research and emergent knowledge. When working with complexity, we believe it is an imperative part of our role that we attempt to understand and explore surrounding critiques and debates, so that we may speak about the brain and stress with nuance and humility.

Where to From Here?
Our ultimate hope for our young people is that they feel safe and empowered in their bodies, emotions and relationships so they may move towards self-regulation for learning and beyond. Below are some practical strategies and considerations to support this.

How We Might Talk About the Brain
We at BSEM want our community of educators to continue to be able to talk with young people about our brains and stress response systems. How do we do so without misleading or unhelpfully reducing these important concepts?

• When using metaphors or models of the brain, use language that makes it clear that they are just that, and that neuroscience is a complex and developing field, for example, ‘we think this is an idea of how this might work in our brain’.
• Ensure that students know that the brain is interconnected, and that that our bodies’ responses to stress will mobilise many interconnected parts of ourselves.
• Avoid value-driven language like ‘primitive’ when talking about emotion- and survival- driven responses, or language like ‘evolved’ when talking about cognitive processes.

At BSEM, we have shifted away from conversations solely about the limbic system, or thinking brains, and towards ways of thinking and speaking that represent integrated, wholistic models of the self, for example talking about being regulated or being Ready to Learn. Regulation is not about activating a single region of the brain, but instead finding strategies throughout our whole bodies and in our environments and relationships to meet our needs in healthy, flexible ways that align with our values and are contextually appropriate. It is a quite sophisticated skill to unify intention, emotion, thinking and self-intervention to stay with learning when hitting a speedbump.

Explicit Teaching for Young People
When our students are regulated, present, centred and Ready to Learn, we can provide explicit instruction about the following topics.

• Escalation and de-escalation are normal parts of life. We can model for our students that all feelings and emotions exist for good reasons. We want young people to know that anger can be a useful signal to alert us that we need to deeply breathe or go take a break, so that we stay with our values in that moment and engage in behaviours that accomplish our goals. When setting boundaries with young people, we want to set them around behaviours rather than internal states (for example around hitting people rather than feeling anger).
• Interoception. What feelings and sensations go on inside our bodies when we are escalated or de-escalated? What does it feel like when we are present, centred and Ready to Learn? What does calm feel like? What does stress feel like?
• Ready to Learn states. When students learn this phrase (‘Are you Ready to Learn?’) they can be prompted to reflect: ‘Am I Ready to Learn? And if not, what can I do to get ready? Do I need some extra time with my teacher? Do I need to activate a pre-agreed upon self-regulation strategy?’ This language honours that ‘…learning is a process of multilevel communication at the cognitive, emotional, and physiological levels’ (Li et al., 2020), and also allows for a deeply subjective and individual reflection on how these processes align with, and relate to, motivation. For example, I may need to escalate myself to be alert for learning complex mathematics, but I also might need to de-escalate in order to do well in a maths exam. We urge teachers to prompt this question proactively at the beginning of lessons, and within triage, repair and restorative conversations. (For example, ‘Today was a rough day. What strategy can I help you with tomorrow if you’re not yet Ready to Learn?)

The Adult Lens on Behaviour
We continue to show unconditional positive regard though curiosity and empathy. Even though it is far more complex than a reptilian part of their brain taking over, we know that in escalated or shut-down moments, young people are often responding to the world and their own psychological and physiological responses in the best way they can. What looks like manipulation or poor choices are often helpfully reframed as the interconnected brain and body mobilising resources for psychological or physiological survival.

When we see escalated behaviours, we recommend reminding ourselves to:

• Use a trauma-informed lens. Rather than labelling our young people, we aim to view their behaviours with empathy and curiosity. How am I seeing this young person? How can we reframe misbehaviour as stressed behaviour? What needs might they be trying to meet through these behaviours? Is this potentially a flight-fight-freeze response?
• Practice unconditional positive regard. How am I speaking about and to this young person? Can I separate their inherent worth from these behaviours?
• Examine the environment. If a young person is struggling to be Ready to Learn, can we examine their context? We always aim to provide nurturing and supportive environments and relationships that communicate consistency and safety.

Practical Strategies for Escalated Moments
There are many practical, key strategies we have learnt from neuroscience and clinical practice that we can use when we see young people becoming overwhelmed by their emotional and physiological responses:

• Pause and one-liners. Take a moment to check in on our own escalation before we jump to a response. How am I feeling right now? What sensations are going on in my body? Am I escalated or am I bringing calm to the moment? Use a one-liner, such as ‘Okay, I hear you’, to give ourselves time to de-escalate so that we can bring young people into our calm. Engaging in techniques like mindful breathing and regulating movement can help to ground and centre our own nervous system to create space to respond rather than react.
• Limit talking strategies or lecturing. An escalated moment is never a teachable moment.
• Focus on co-regulation and regulating movement. What non-verbal and verbal behaviours can I use to help regulate myself and the young person? Try positioning yourselves side by side with the young person and if possible, engage in regulating movement together.
• Connection before correction. At times, we do need to address problems or difficulties, we want to have tricky conversations with students because we know that they facilitate a reflective process that can lead to positive behaviour change. However, we also know that these conversations are best in connected, safe and supportive relationships
• Stay strength focussed. We offer process praise when young people use strategies to regulate, and we look to reinforce and remind young people of their strengths and capacity.
• Restorative, reparative, triage conversations. Meaningful and constructive restorative conversations require us to make sure that young people are feeling regulated before we engage in restorative processes or discussions about natural consequences.

We know that every time we support a young person to proactively notice their own body and their emotional responses before a meltdown or shutdown moment, they will be more able to gain precious micro-moments of self-reflection and enact a regulatory strategy for the next time. The ability to notice, self-intervene and repair in these moments, by meeting or seeking support for one’s own needs before the moment of crisis eventuates, can be life-altering. At BSEM, we always seek to make space for co-regulation and de-escalation in the first instance, and then to guide our young people towards self-compassionate reflection and restoration.

In our work, we will continue to scan and review the emerging evidence and as always, we remain committed to translating that research into practical strategies for educators faced with challenging behaviours.

Indications from neuroscience have been the foundation of trauma-informed education. As the science evolves, so must our pedagogy. We know that refining knowledge about the brain and the implications of this learning for our work will be a career-long pursuit, and we expect to be thinking, and re-thinking, our thinking about thinking, for quite some time.

Further Reading & Resources
• Your Brain is not an Onion with a Tiny Reptile Inside - article by Joseph Cesario, David J. Johnson and Heather L. Eisthen

The article that inspired our own re-examination of how we talk about the brain.
• The History of Human Emotions - TED talk by historian Tiffany Watt Smith

An example of how social sciences can enhance our understanding of cognitive sciences. Watt Smith discusses how, rather than being isolated biological functions, our emotions are shaped by social context.

•  How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain - book by neuroscientist Lisa Feldmen Barrett

Feldmen Barrett challenges the idea that emotions are hardwired in different parts of the brain and presents a model of emotional processing that is much more integrated and influenced by context.

• A theory abandoned but still compelling - article from Yale Medicine Magazine

A discussion of Paul MacLean’s legacy in the field of neuroscience.

•  Adaptive or Triune Brain? Part one and part two - the Evidence-Based Therapist Podcast (Caleb Boston and Bridger Falkenstein)

A discussion of the article ‘The brain is adaptive not triune: How the brain responds to threat, challenge, and change’ by Steffen et al. (2020, see references) from the perspective of practitioners who argue that triune models should not be completely abandoned. This series highlights the complexities of the discussions around the brain, modern interpretations of triune models, and the challenges of oversimplification.  

References
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Frasca, T. J., Leskinen, E. A., & Warner, L. R. (2022). Words Like Weapons: Labeling Women As Emotional During a Disagreement Negatively Affects the Perceived Legitimacy of Their Arguments. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 46(4), 420-437. https://doi.org/10.1177/03616843221123745

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