Archive for the 'thinking' Category

The Laws Of Learning

Published
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admin
on 29/11/2010
in learning and thinking
. 3 Comments

P1000090I love Hyde Park Speakers Corner in London. You’ll hear the best and the worst speakers in this location; and they wax delirious on an endless range of topics. Here’s one important thing, though. You need to be good if you’re going to speak there. People vote with their feet, and very quickly.

When I walked around there a couple of months ago, I got to thinking about what constitutes really good learning for adults. And so, partly as a result of that few minutes, I’m now sorting out what I’m going to call The Laws Of Learning. Am also thinking about writing a simple little booklet (or App, or some other form of information-supporting device) that clarifies these Laws.

Just in case you didn’t know, the scientific term for adult learning is ‘andragogy’. If you’re a teacher / trainer / lecturer / facilitator for adults, you need to know your andragogy. I might call this my Andragogy App (What a winner of a title. I can hear the deafening applause from here).

For quality learning to take place, these 12 Laws must be reinforced by the facilitator, and practised by the learners. The questions are directed towards the learner in this early outline down below. I’m open to any feedback here. What have I missed with some Laws? How could these be adjusted?

There are quite a few overlaps eg between the Law Of Modalities; and the Law Of Interaction. However, for now, I’ll stick with these 12.

I’m also thinking of writing some form of parable to create the context for this; and possibly placing this into a form of learning journey that travels through a digital (or even ancient) landscape. Maybe I’ll then go back to London and apply them to a presentation in Hyde Park. That would be the ultimate test.

So here we go. The 12 Laws Of Learning:

1. The Law Of Purpose. Clarify the purpose for the learning. Why are we doing this? Where are we going with this learning? What’s our reason for being here?

2. The Law Of Ownership. To learn effectively, the learner must own (at least part of) the process.  How have we been involved in the initial construction of this learning process? How will we monitor our own performance during and after the learning experience?

3. The Law Of Association. Effective learning occurs when the learner makes connections with what he / she already knows. What connections can we make between our prior knowledge, and with what we’re learning here?

4. The Law Of Relevance. The learning must have meaning within the learner’s own life. Can we make use of this? Will it be relevant to what we do each day? How will we put it into practice?

5. The Law Of Memory. To remember what we learn is patently an obvious factor. Watch for what is called primacy (the 1st thing you hear), and recency (the last thing you hear). How do we commit what we’ve learnt to our memory? How do we best access it later when we need it?

6. The Law Of Modalities. Each learner has his / her preferred modes of learning. Some learners are more auditory than other, some are kinaesthetic, some prefer text, others would rather talk about it. What’s our most effective mode? How could we effectively use that in our very next learning experience?

7. The Law Of Motivation. Internal motivators are more powerful than external motivators for most adult learners. What inspires us to succeed? What do we most want to learn in our life? Or at least, what do we most want to learn here in this session today?

8. The Law Of Interaction. Learners must be immersed in the task; they have to engage with the experience. This can include direct practice; team dynamics; competitive roleplays; movement; visual reinforcement; ongoing professional dialogue. How do we each like to best interact?

9. The Law of Thinking. Critical and creative thinking are equally important, as are the questions and connections we develop as a result of our thinking. Synthesizing what we learn leads to depth of understanding. How really do we think? What do we think about during the learning? How does that help our learning?

10. The Law Of Repetition. Remember the 10,000 hr rule (it takes that many hours to become an expert in most things!). For learning to become embedded, it must be practised over and over, in a variety of contexts. How prepared are we each to practise? What strategies help us to persevere with the repetitions?

11. The Law Of Narrative. When the presenter tells a story, it creates a context for the learning. And an entertaining (and even emotional) one at that, if we’re lucky. Stories create stronger brain maps. How much more effective is our own learning if we get to hear contextual stories? What are our favourite stories, and why?

12. The Law Of Challenge. Think Goldilocks. Not too cold, not too hot. If the learning is too easy, then it’s boring. If it’s too complex for the learner, then she / he won’t relate to it. Do we learn more effectively with low or high challenge? How open are we to extreme intellectual provocation? Where are the very limits with our own Challenge Zone?

The Ridiculous Key and mental exercise

Published
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admin
on 12/06/2008
in learning and thinking
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Daily Mental Exercise

For the past few decades, health authorities around the world have exhorted us to find 30 mins (or more) a day to exercise our bodies. For very good reason. All other things being equal, we’ll each live a longer and more physically satisfying life if we engage in that exercise.

So, what about mental exercise? I would like to see an equally focused effort placed on intellectual exercise from the mental health authorities. In this case, it would involve a mass encouragement for us to stretch our intellect for 30 mins every day. The implications of not doing so are, in many ways, even more profound than the lack of physical exertion.

Now, some would say that their brain already works endlessly throughout the day, and thus it does not need to do anything further. Yet surely that also could be said about the body. Most of us need to walk around for much of the day, yet this hardly constitutes quality exercise.

So, what would worthwhile intellectual exercise really involve??

You could start with the plethora of technology that is presently being marketed around this theme. Lots of online and offline brain exercise devices abound, and some of them thankfully go much further than just moving coloured dots from one place to another. It’s worth having a look at some of them.

If you’re that serious about training your brain, what would be some of the cheaper (and in most cases) more effective ways of intellectually exercising your Self??

Well…let’s see. Reading books that challenge your longheld beliefs. Listening to people who have markedly different viewpoints to you. Studying a topic that is just a little bit beyond your present intellectual grasp. Learning a new language. Developing a different skill. The list is exhaustive.

The Ridiculous Key

However, here’s one of my consummate favourites. Just challenge the status quo, on almost everything. No, make that everything. And here’s a simple process for doing this. I call it the Ridiculous Key.

This is one of my twenty Thinkers Keys. And during my own lessons, it’s often proved to be the one that stretches students’ thinking the most. It works like this.

Make a totally ridiculous statement about some issue. And then set out to demonstrate how it could be done. You need to make the statement as over-the-top and as outlandish as possible. Here are some examples:

All mobile devices (eg cellphones, online mobile laptops) need to be banned during daylight hours. Without exception.

Some justifications:

  • People would get more creative about sending messages to others eg they’d start using carrier pigeons, they’d actually write love letters on paper, they’d ask someone else to pass the message on, they’d rediscover morse code
  • An underground movement called Let Us Decide (the LUDs) would build up around the world, protesting about this latest intrusion on privacy, and creating a sense of collaboration never before seen in society
  • There would be fewer traffic accidents, especially with drivers who previously were not focusing on their driving while talking on their mobile
  • Not as many people would be injured when walking into lamp-posts while texting someone
  • Fewer teenagers would go into debt with their mobile phone contract
  • More people might actually talk with each other in real life
  • It would allow authorities to fine people who persist in using their mobile devices in the day, and thus boost the funds in the public purse (hopefully to be used for educational expenditure)

Now it’s your turn. What type of justifications could you find for the following Ridiculous statements?

1. All schooling is to be provided online by 2010, without exception.
2. Advertisements on TV must feature in a single full hour from 7pm to 8pm each night. No other ads will be allowed at any time.
3. No one, anywhere in the world, can ever again complain about anything. Instead, every conversation about an issue must focus exclusively on solutions.

Enjoy your intellectual exercise.

Creative thinking

Published
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admin
on 07/03/2008
in learning and thinking
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“Creativity is as important as literacy.” Love this quote from UK presenter Ken Robinson, who proposes that education systems need to nurture the creative spirit in all children.

Here’s an intriguing talk from this guy. Any educators will find themselves nodding in agreement with at least some of this. As you watch it (it goes for 20 mins; really worth it, and quite entertaining), just ponder what YOU intend to do about this.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/iG9CE55wbtY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Thinkers Keys: Matrix Key

Published
by
admin
on 07/02/2008
in thinking
. 0 Comments
Here’s one for all of those who are obsessed with teaching children to think at the highest intellectual levels.

As part of my blog contributions, I’ll occasionally include some of my Thinkers Keys. Feel free to download and use them to your heart’s content. So here’s the first offering: the Matrix Key. It has always been one of my favourites. In the earlier version of the Thinkers Keys (a free download is available here), I called it the Combination Key. However, here’s the update on it. Called the Matrix Key (you’ll need to download this, in order to make sense of the rest of this). Comes from the new Thinkers Keys CD-Rom.

For a variety of reasons, I find that kids all over the world love to use this process. Clear elegant process, with a direct visual framework. It can trigger the most innovative ideas. I’ve often used it in my own lessons. In its simplest version, it challenges you (or them) to combine two different items / concepts / products into a single new form. Here’re some of the ideas I’ve been offered from children:

A combination of surfboards and iceblocks (paddlepops). People who hire surfboards often bring them back too late, and ignore the calls coming from the beach. So, we need to make the surfboards out of a large piece of ice, and it would then just melt at the end of the period of time.

Some 8 year olds were asked how they could get some chocolates down from the top of a high refrigerator, using a wristwatch. Their response: They would throw the watch up in the air, and this would make time fly. They then would grow up really quickly, and they could reach up and grab the chocolates by themselves.

Teaching Moods

Published
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admin
on 10/12/2007
in inspiration and thinking
. 2 Comments

Our daily moods are part of the human condition. Let’s face it. Some mornings, life just doesn’t feel like smiling upon us (or us on it, for that matter). Other days (if we choose; or even, if we’re a little lucky), we exhilarate in the joy of being. I’m more and more convinced that this is predominantly a matter of choice. I would like to believe that I pay deep respect to those who suffer from depressions or other forms of psychological illness, and to the misfortunes that can lie in wait for each of us in our lives.

In spite of (and perhaps even because of) those misfortunes, I’ll still maintain that the majority of us can decide how to feel each day. Admittedly, I have many people who consistently challenge me on this. “It’s beyond our control,” they claim. Or: “Look at what happened to me today. Anyone would be bitter about that.” Nope. I don’t agree. Regardless of your circumstances, you can choose your own responses. In fact, what hope is there for the world if we all collapsed in a mental heap as soon as the going gets tough??

Many people who are reading this are involved in the most important profession in the world: Teaching. And I can tell you now. If teachers start to collapse under the strain of their work, and their mood states are consistently very poor, then we’re all in trouble. The ripples will spread far beyond schools, and into family life, workplaces and the wider community.

So. How do we consistently alter our mood state? Lots of practice, actually. Your brain sets up neural pathways that are created by your regular thinking patterns. You must make the effort to focus on what is affirming and inspiring, and especially on those thoughts that boost up your mood. For now, here’s one very simple way to do a ‘boost’. Sounds almost too simple… and yet, one of the easiest ways to enhance your mood is simply to smile. Go on. Try it now. Keep smiling for at least 30 seconds, even if you’re only pretending. And note the way that your brain can be tricked into believing that you’re feeling OK. Given that, check out the image. Nature knows.

smiling-birds.jpg