Countless research studies point to the importance of emotions in the learning process. Emotions, at times, even overrule reason. Use emotions when pointing to significant learning inputs. Here are some strategies on how to engage the emotions of your students: high fives, low fives, high tens. Celebrate. Acknowledgements through certificates, verbal statements, compliments.
Theatre, role-play, drama. Controversy: debate, dialogue, argument. Music: Movie Themes. One of the most difficult tasks a speaker faces is sustaining the attention level of his audience. It is easy to begin a presentation but the most challenging part is how to sustain the attention of the audience throughout the presentation.
Spice up your presentation by using the following unconventional strategies proven to catch their attention. Use rhythmic clap. Blow a train whistle. Rap a gong. Initiate a round of applause. Introduce topics by way of music. Have someone else do the introduction. Stand in an unusual location of the room. “Give your partner a powerful smile.”
The sound of laughter inside the lecture room does not point to a clownish speaker, but to one who knows how to harness the benefits of humor effectively. When a speaker assumes the role of a comedian, he helps break the ice and facilitates a more comfortable and enjoyable environment. He also enhances his credibility because it shows he is confident and in control.
Humor is more than telling a joke; it is the ability to be delighted with life. Do not allow a poor response to your attempt at humor keep you from trying again. Here are some ways to inject humor in your presentation. Draw stories from real life rather than canned jokes.
Good stories and jokes sweep the country by e-mail and can lose their punch once everyone has heard them. A personal anecdote, on the other hand, is uniquely yours and will be fresh to the audience. If you have to use a joke you found in a book, adapt it to you speech and style so it will be fresh.
Don’t “advance” your laughter. Don’t laugh at your own joke or story, especially before delivering the punch line. And don’t dilute its impact either, by explaining its meaning. Let the audience decide what’s funny (or not).
KISS - keep it (the joke) short and sweet. Remember that humans have short attention spans when it comes to passively sitting and listening to a speaker. If it takes you forever to get to the punch line, your audience might have tuned out and you won’t get the laugh. Humor itself is not the point. It’s a means to an end, not the end itself.
Animate your voice, gestures, facial expressions and body movements. Don’t telegraph your story. Practice vocal inflections, feigned looks of surprise, disappointment, fear, etc. to match the story. Not everyone, except perhaps Bob Hope, can get away with deadpan jokes.
Take pains to avoid offensive humor. Take care that your use of humor is never at the expense of your student’s emotional or psychological well-being. “Having fun with” is vastly different from “making fun of” someone. Follow the rule: when in doubt -- leave it out. Also avoid sarcasm. People almost always feel uncomfortable with a speaker who demeans others.
The human brain is an ever-fascinating masterpiece of creation. It is both a powerful instrument and a fragile organ: capable of penetrating insights, breath-taking visions and staggering versatility, but at the same time highly susceptible to injury, distraction and disorder.
Even now, after centuries of study, and despite scientific and technological advancements, the finest brain experts and researchers in the world admit that we still have a long way to go towards truly understanding its complex structures, processes and capabilities. The good news, however, is that brain research has established some facts which can help us understand as well as enhance learning.
For example, the brain is a simultaneous processor: at any one time, it controls several physiological functions and receives and processes several megabytes of information. Knowing this, we should not be surprised that some learners - specifically, those with a global learning style - prefer to be doing other things at the same time that they are processing (that is, .acquiring, elaborating, incubating and integrating) new information.
Brain research also reveals that maximum attention span ranges from 20 to 25 minutes. This means that new stimuli - whether physical, emotional or intellectual - are required in order to recapture attention. Energizers, wholesome humor, music or even a simple change in the speaker’s tone of voice are examples of such stimuli.
Emotions are now better understood as critical to the learning process at every stage, from priming all the way to integration. Different emotions trigger different chemical and neurological reactions within the body, and these, in turn, either enhance or inhibit learning.
Threats give rise to negative emotions, and there are different kinds of threats: physical, emotional (embarrassment, humiliation, shyness), intellectual (rejection or criticism of one’s ideas) and socio-cultural (discrimination, alienation, isolation).
Teachers should take special note of this: their body language, their tone of voice, and the way they dress can - alone or in combination - trigger positive or negative emotions in their students, thus helping or hindering their learning.
Teachers must also be on the lookout for other emotional triggers: the home situation, the social situation inside the classroom or in the school at large, or perhaps the very personality of the student. The point is that teachers would do well not to resort to “drastic” measures when a student is being inattentive or, on the whole, failing in a subject. A little non-threatening dialogue with the student can go a long way.
Retention is another major challenge for teachers: how to help students remember their lessons. Brain research shows that there are different retention rates for different activities. Thus: reading -10 percent; hearing - 20 percent; seeing - 30 percent; saying/doing - 70 percent. In other words, we retain or remember only 10 percent of what we read, 20 percent of what we hear, 30 percent of what we see, and 70 percent of what we say and/or do. This is why audiovisual presentations are more effective: because the new information is acquired through at least two modes - reading and hearing (30 percent total retention rate), or hearing and seeing (50 percent total retention rate).
Most classroom instruction is conducted in lecture mode, that is, verbal or spoken, thus requiring students to learn through hearing. This is the least effective teaching mode, because children are seldom auditory in their perceptual preference. In short, they rarely remember more than 25 percent of what they hear. Writing on the blackboard will, of course, help retention - so long as the handwriting is clear and legible. Graphics, such as drawings and pictures, especially if colored, will be a bigger help. We humans are visual animals: for many of us, to see is to remember.
Research studies ascertain that three-fifths or 60 percent of a person’s learning style is genetic: it is a matter of nature. The rest is a matter of nurture: developed through the learner’s response to various elements such as sound, light, temperature, design or seating arrangement, intake or nutrition, mobility, and time of day.
Henry S. Tenedero
Learning styles and brain behavior
The research on learning styles explains why, in the same family, certain children perform well in school whereas their siblings do not. It demonstrates the differences in style among members of the same class, culture, community, profession, or socioeconomic group, but it also reveals the differences and similarities between groups. It shows how boys’ styles differ from girls’ and the differences between youngsters who learn to read easily and poorly.
However, more important than the documentation of how conventional schooling responds to certain youngsters and inhibits the achievement of others, the research on learning styles provides clear directions for either how to teach individuals through their styles or how to teach them to teach themselves by capitalizing on their personal strengths.
Everybody has strengths, although parents’ strengths tend to differ from each other’s, from their children, and from their own parents’. Thus, mothers and fathers often learn differently from each other and from their children. However, a common parental practice is to insist that children study and do their homework as those adults did when they were young. That is not likely to be effective for at least some of the siblings because, in the same family, members usually learn in diametrically opposite ways.
The terms analytic/global, left/right, sequential / simultaneous, and inductive deductive have been used interchangeably and tend to parallel each other. Analytics learn more easily when information is presented step-by-step in a cumulative sequential pattern that builds toward a conceptual understanding.
Globals learn more easily when they either understand the concept first and they can concentrate on the details, or when they are introduced to the information with, preferably, a humorous story replete with examples and graphics. However, what is crucial to understanding brain functioning, is that both types reason, but by different strategies.
Thus, whether youngsters are analytic or global, left or right, sequential or simultaneous, or inductive or deductive processors they are capable of mastering identical in formation or skills if they are taught through instructional methods or resources that complement their styles.
Processing style appears to change; the majority of elementary school children are global. However, the older children get, and the longer they remain in school, the more analytic some become.
What is fascinating is that analytic and global youngsters appear to have different environmental and physiological needs. Many analytics tend to prefer learning in a quiet, well-illuminated, formal setting; they often have a strong emotional need to complete the tasks they are working on, and they rarely eat, drink, smoke, chew, or bite on objects while learning.
Conversely, globals appear to work with what teachers describe as distractors; they concentrate better with sound (music or background talking), soft lighting, an informal seating arrangement, and some form of intake. In addition, globals take frequent breaks while studying and often prefer to work on several tasks simultaneously. They begin something, stay with it for a short amount of time, stop, do something else, and eventually return to the original assignment.
Neither set of procedures is either better or worse than the other; they merely are different. Globals often prefer learning with their peers rather than either alone or with their teacher, and also often prefer to structure tasks in their own way; they tend to dislike imposed directives.
What is interesting is that, with an IQ of 145 or higher, most gifted children are global. On the other hand, most underachievers also are global. The difference between the high IQ and underachieving global students tends to be motivation and perceptual preferences.
It is understandable why the motivation levels of underachievers are lower than those of achievers, but what may separate the two groups is the biological development of their auditory, visual, tactual, and kinesthetic senses. Although we currently do not know how to intervene in their biological development, learning styles have been successful in teaching them through their existing perceptual preferences.
No doubt, teachers need to learn how to teach both analytically and globally. There are several easy-to-follow sources for learning how to do that. However, global students often require a different environment from the conventional classroom. They also appear to need more encouragement and short, varied tasks because of their lesser motivation and persistence levels.
Most children learn more easily when lessons are interesting to them, but globals require that new and difficult information be interesting, related to their lives, and permit active involvement. These are requirements for all youngsters; without doubt, they are necessary if globals are to master school requirements.
When you are working on your monthly budget and struggling with your obligations to pay bills, do you: Consult the papers and files you have been accumulating since last year or search for missing items to meet the end-of-month deadline? Work at the kitchen table with all the lights on—or sit comfortably in an easy chair next to a lamp with soft illumination
Wait until the rest of the family has gone to bed or has gone elsewhere so that you could have quiet, or do you turn on your favorite music or sports event because you need background sound to help you think? Work alone because you trust your own judgment—or consult with your accountant because you feel comfortable when you rely on an authority. Wake up early to get a fresh start or postpone the task until late evening when you really “think” best?
These dichotomies point to some of the different elements of learning styles that affect most things that we do. What is learning style? It is the way people begin to concentrate on, process, internalize, and remember new and difficult academic information. It is comprised of both biological and developmental traits that make the same environments and resources effective for some people and ineffective for others.
Like fingerprints, no two individuals are exactly the same or possess the same learning style. People prefer to use different sensory modalities when they process information and demonstrate a distinct ability for remembering complex information better or less well by hearing, seeing, or experiencing or mastering it through hands-on learning.
Over the past three decades, Dr. Rita Dunn, Professor of Education and Director of the Center for the Study of Learning and Teaching Styles at St. John’s University in Jamaica, New York and her colleagues, have produced a massive body of academic research on the relevance of learning styles to education. Now we are examining the relevance of learning style to (a) children in international settings, (b) adults, and (c) workers to help them learn and function better.
Interestingly, the learning styles of spouses tend to be diametrically opposite from each other. First-born children tend to reflect the style of one of their parents. The second sibling displays a learning style that is different from their brother or sister and reflects, instead, the style of the other parent. The third child in the family invariably possesses a learning style that is different from either one of his/her older siblings.
Researchers have developed reliable assessment tools to identify and characterize “learning style.” Moreover, the educational literature is burgeoning with a growing body of research documenting the extraordinary effectiveness of this approach in helping engineers, teachers, medical and law students, and nurses improve their success with complex cognitive tasks, thus providing evidence that understanding one’s own learning-style is critical to personal growth and achievement.
There are six ways on how to capitalize on your own learning style.
1) Recognize that each person is uniquely different, has different strengths, and learns different. Research suggests that you are most effective when you use your strengths. However, without taking stock of our own learning style, many of us try to produce through our weaknesses. This leads to less productivity at work and wasted time at home.
2) Identify your own learning style. While some differences among people are readily apparent, others are not. Therefore, it is important to use a reliable and valid standardized instrument.
3) Once you know your style, use it to teach yourself anything that seems difficult or challenging. This may be any complex task that requires concentration like outwitting the government or writing notes to your child’s teacher. When there is greater harmony between how you learn and how you work, things will seem easier and move more rapidly.
4) Determine whether you are a step-by-step analytic processor or global learner who needs to see the big picture before you can concentrate on details. Each of these learners is equally intelligent, but functions differently. Global learners often hum, speak, or sing to themselves to provide the sound they crave while thinking. They tend to become hyperactive or tense in brightly-lit rooms. They can’t sit at desks or tables for more than 15 or 20 minutes without sprawling, squirming or moving. They snack, whisper, crouch, and lose interest in whatever they are exposed to when taught analytically. Conversely, analytics think best in a formal, quiet, brightly lit area with minimum food or snacks.
5) Arrange or re-arrange your environment to take advantage of your own learning style strengths. For example, if you like to hum while working, find a quiet place where you won’t be bothering anyone else. If you need space, don’t work at the desk where you keep your computer. If you need to take breaks, structure your time to allow them but make sure you return to the task after a set interval.
6.) Forget about the age-old wisdom, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” What you don’t know about your own learning-style strengths can hurt you. Although people can be productive in the wrong style (for them), they are significantly more so when they work with their learning style.
(The author: Henry S. Tenedero is the president of the Center for Learning and Teaching Styles and MINDful IDEAS, an affiliate of the International Learning Styles Network, based at St. John’s University in New York. He is a graduate of the AIM Masters in Development management and of the Harvard Graduate School for Professional Educators. He is the author of the following books: “Cooking Up A Creative Genius”, “ SUPER TEACHER”, “MINDful Ideas”, “Using Passion and Laughter in Your Presentations” and “AHA! I GOTCHA”. He can be reached at htenedero@yahoo.com.)
The sound of laughter inside the lecture room does not point to a clownish speaker, but to one who knows how to harness the benefits of humor effectively. When a speaker assumes the role of a comedian, he helps break the ice and facilitates a more comfortable and enjoyable environment. He also enhances his credibility because it shows he is confident and in control.
Humor is more than telling a joke; it is the ability to be delighted with life. Do not allow a poor response to your attempt at humor keep you from trying again. Here are some ways to inject humor in your presentation: Draw stories from real life rather than canned jokes.
Good stories and jokes sweep the country by e-mail and can lose their punch once everyone has heard them. A personal anecdote, on the other hand, is uniquely yours and will be fresh to the audience. If you have to use a joke you found in a book, adapt it to you speech and style so it will be fresh.
Don’t “advance” your laughter. Don’t laugh at your own joke or story, especially before delivering the punch line. And don’t dilute its impact either, by explaining its meaning. Let the audience decide what’s funny (or not).
KISS - keep it (the joke) short and sweet. Remember that humans have short attention spans when it comes to passively sitting and listening to a speaker. If it takes you forever to get to the punch line, your audience might have tuned out and you won’t get the laugh. Humor itself is not the point. It’s a means to an end, not the end itself.
Animate your voice, gestures, facial expressions and body movements. Don’t telegraph your story. Practice vocal inflections, feigned looks of surprise, disappointment, fear, etc. to match the story. Not everyone, except perhaps Bob Hope, can get away with deadpan jokes.
Take pains to avoid offensive humor. Take care that your use of humor is never at the expense of your student’s emotional or psychological well-being. “Having fun with” is vastly different from “making fun of” someone. Follow the rule: when in doubt -- leave it out. Also avoid sarcasm. People almost always feel uncomfortable with a speaker who demeans others. ***
There are ways to engage emotions. Countless research studies point to the importance of emotions in the learning process. Emotions, at times, even overrule reason. Use emotions when pointing to significant learning inputs. Here are some strategies on how to engage the emotions of your students: High fives, low fives, high tens. Celebrate. Acknowledgements through certificates, verbal statements, compliments. Theatre, role-play, drama. Controversy: debate, dialogue, argument. Music: movie themes.
***
There are attention-grabbing strategies. One of the most difficult tasks a speaker faces is sustaining the attention level of his audience. It is easy to begin a presentation but the most challenging part is how to sustain the attention of the audience throughout the presentation.
Spice up your presentation by using the following unconventional strategies proven to catch their attention: Use rhythmic clap, blow a train whistle, rap a gong, initiate a round of applause, introduce topics by way of music, have someone else do the introduction, stand in an unusual location of the room and give your partner a powerful smile.
