Hello, and thank you again for attending the program. I very much enjoyed meeting people from your organization. And I am happy to see that you are here at BrainCLE.info.
Here is a review of what we discussed on January 29, 2012, at ACLEA in New Orleans, plus some supplemental information.
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As I said at the program, unless you review the material presented, you will very likely forget. If you want to recall what we discussed, I hope you have gone over your notes since last Sunday. Click for some information about the Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting which I described to you. Times for reviewing vary slightly according to what books and articles you read; to counteract forgetting, I recommend interacting with the material during the program, after 1 day, after 2 days, after 1 week, and after 1 month.
The key to learning is attention. What you pay attention to will change your brain, so one of the primary tasks of a person wishing to teach others is to pay attention to what they are paying attention to. A teacher, a trainer, an educator is an attention conductor, an attention choreographer.
Because the brain uses approximately 20% of our energy, it tries to conserve energy which presents a challenge for trying to get its attention. The brain can be very lazy.
Methods we discussed for getting INSIDE the brain, qualities that will attract the brain's attention:
- I-ntense
- N-ovel
- S-cary
- I-nteractive
- D-iverting
- E-motional
The more ways you work with the material presented, the more ways you pay attention to the material, the stronger will be your learning.
Remember: Learning = More neuron connections/more synapses
I presented seven methods for interacting with content . . .
7 Synapse Supporters
- Listen
- Write parrot notes
- Write notes, thoughts & reflections
- Discuss
- Use
- Teach
- Draw*
*Click for information about using images to enrich your thinking, remembering, and learning. The best book on the topic is Opening the Mind's Eye: How Images and Language Teach Us How To See.
Prior to preparing a CLE program, it can be very helpful to think about the purpose of the presentation. Demonstration of knowledge? Communication of material? Both? It may be helpful to recall the analogy I gave of the toll booth: Is merely tossing the quarter enough or does it need to fall into the basket? (I credit George Gopen with the toll booth analogy.)
As I mentioned to a number of people, I am very leery of the hype about learning styles and am critical of much of the research on them. As a result, I have blogged about the topic many times. Here is a post with several links about learning styles. If you are interested in learning styles, Dr. Daniel Willingham does an excellent job of debunking them in his book Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom. His book relates to adult education, too.
A question was asked about handwriting versus typing. Here is an article with relevant links included: "Why You Learn More Effectively by Writing Than Typing" (lifehacker.com). Also here, here and here.
Another question was asked related to embodied cognition. I have many posts on this topic and they may be accessed by clicking here.
Some other resources:
- White paper: "Neuroscience of Learning"
- Learn, baby, learn: Resources to help facilitate brain learning and mind changing
- Another book: Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School
- Conferences offered several times a year by Learning & the Brain.
Note (added February 13, 2012): I will add other resources here . . .
- "Twilight of the Lecture: The trend toward 'active learning' may overthrow the style of teaching that has ruled universities for 600 years" (Harvard Magazine)
- Insights for Delivering High-Impact Learning at Low Cost (teleseminar from Neuroleadership Group)
- "The New Way Doctors Learn" (TIME)-Although it does not mention him, this article describes a method similar to Ebbinghaus review
- "Four Principles of Memory Improvement: A Guide to Improving Learning Efficiency" (International Journal of Creativity & Problem Solving)
- "Resource for those interested in the flipped classroom: An ongoing collection of posts from around the blogosphere" (idealawg)
- "A brain-friendly way to present information: Learning Bursts" (idealawg)
- Watch here for more related information
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