PROFESSIONAL WISDOM

Two neuroscientists make a compelling case that higher education must move beyond classroom learning.

Stellar and Eggan, both neuroscientists with backgrounds as “rat scientists,” bring a distinctive perspective to higher education, drawing on their expertise in decision-making behavior to argue for cultivating what they call “professional wisdom.” As they define it, professional wisdom is “a combination of intellectual and intuitive reasoning that grows out of both academic knowledge and practical application.” In other words, practical wisdom is the maturity that allows students to go beyond classroom theories and facts to apply knowledge persuasively and effectively in the world. Developing this skill, the authors argue, requires going beyond the classroom and engaging in hands-on opportunities, such as internships, volunteer work, shadowing, and study abroad programs. Stellar, who served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northeastern University, saw firsthand how experiential learning shaped students’ choices in an institutional model where classwork was integrated with extended, paid internships. The authors ground their argument in neuroscience and insight from such diverse thinkers as Confucius, Pascal, and Harvard social psychologist Dan Gilbert. Most important to their argument is the concept of fast and slow thinking originated by Daniel Kahneman in his bestselling Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011). Kahneman distinguishes between the brain’s fast, intuitive system and its slower, rational system, a model the authors use to show how higher education has long privileged deliberation while overlooking the intuitive and emotional processes that also shape decision-making. Against this imbalance, they argue for the importance of direct experiences, which generate implicit emotional responses that students can later reflect on consciously and explicitly in order to make wiser choices for themselves. To bring this to life, the authors provide a range of useful examples—both real and fictive—illustrating how professional wisdom develops through practice and reflection in real-world contexts. In later chapters, the authors then extend this argument to the challenges of remote learning and AI, urging educators to design assignments and use new tools in ways that keep students engaged and growing in professional wisdom.

Throughout, the authors balance science with real-world examples, the occasional fictional anecdote or thought experiment, and persuasive argumentation. They explain the workings of the brain in an accessible way, pitched to the general reader who may have only a passing knowledge of neuroscience, though some familiarity with brain regions helps. Occasionally, the prose becomes more technical: “We have connectivity from the deeper, emotional implicit brain and the higher, more sophisticated and analytical explicit brain. And these regions communicate. The ultimate decision that is made is a result of combining our inner limbic information with our more sophisticated cortex for evaluation and analysis.” While the book seems aimed at those working in higher education, it remains a fascinating, useful read for high school students considering college, as well as parents, advisers, and anyone interested in how learning truly works.

An accessible and intriguing call to rethink the traditional college student’s experience.