Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

Recently a progressive higher education community asked key questions  during a MITA symposium on brain based learning, teaching and assessing for college level learners. 

All questions could not be addressed due to time constraints. Still,  they were too good to miss. Check out what I mean in the list below.  Our brief responses here hopefully will trigger more discussion, more research and on-going insights about rejuvenated teaching, learning and assessing for adults.  

College faculty  asked:

1. How do I get out of my own comfort zone in a way to engage & celebrate students’ diverse intelligences? When faculty draw from a lifetime of rich experiences, students tend to benefit more. Why not value all you bring to class even more and then survey students to see what they too can add to your starting points for each lesson. You can find an MI Growth Survey listed here, for instance, in an easy to file format.

2. How do I make content more exciting so that students will use and apply content in future? Great question related to the brain’s plasticity. The best approach to exciting applications later is to facilitate meaningful applications now. Revolutionary discoveries in dendrite research is changing the way faculty facilitate progress and productivity. That relates to applying class content, since the brain uses the outside world to shape itself. Brainstorm with students to help them relate what you teach to what they do, and their interest rises. Engage students’ interests of each topic, with a question to build curiosity for your lesson topic- and you’ll motivate them to act on what they want to happen.  That process helps to create neuron pathways so that their brain can bring it about. Interestingly, the brain’s ability to change rapidly and biologically shapes itself more on meaningful connections than on isolated or memorized facts. You and your students can read more about dendrites involved in this process.

3. Does personality and genetics determine how we learn? Yes, we all come with an amazing and unique gene pool for learning in different ways.  Thanks to recent information about the human brain, that shows how IQ is not fixed, we look to personality and genetic differences to help people succeed. Those born with certain proclivities – such as a tendency to high or low levels of serotonin may prefer to learn with teams, for instance. Those with higher  cortisol chemicals, on the other hand, may prefer individual learning approaches. Similarly those who possess higher intelligences in one area will learn differently from those with higher intelligences mixes in another area.

4. What’s the difference in how men and women are motivated? While I have not thought much about differences in motivation per se, I have researched a great deal about differences in male and female human brains. Newly discovered differences both in biology and cognition will likely surprise you as it did me. An awareness of these differences allows faculty to motivate and draw more from both genders. I plan to do more work around the area of male and female motivational differences – based on this thoughtful question. Check back for more on this topic at this site.

5. How can I reflect more on ways my personal experiences tie in with class content? Start with a question that draws students’ experiences into a lesson. For instance ask what they know … what they want to know … and what they sense that will be required to know about your topic – before you begin to teach the details. Hook what you teach to one detail they already know. Have students discuss their own experiences in pairs to give more opportunities for each to draw from experiences. Then ask a few volunteers to share what they came up with on the topic. Make that experience your opening connection to what you teach – and student interest will automatically rise, as will their achievement.

6. How can your techniques be improved to make meetings more effective? MITA meetings differ from traditional faculty meetings in several key areas. These include… who talks most? … how is the agenda set? … what conditions allow all participants to speak and feel heard? Get heard at your next meeting. Exchange the structure and agenda of a committee you lead for a more vibrant roundtable. Here are 25 quick brain facts that will help you rate your workplace strengths as a help to cultivate improvements forward.

7. How do you apply a two-footed question to the hard sciences? Two footed questions apply in hard sciences much the same way they work in other fields. For instance … ask, "What lives in the river nearest you and why should you care?" One foot relates to lesson content and the other foot relates to student interest about water quality in current rivers. Whereas hard and soft skills fit the factory system of the 70s,  two-footed questions integrate both hard and soft skills to create “smart skills.” This mixture of several intelligences can be developed and fueled to cultivate a high performance mind.  Think of each class as an opportunity to foster math and science entrepreneurs. Smart skills enable students to learn hard science facts at the same time as they develop and cultivate soft skills such as tone required to share and apply newly acquired concepts beyond the classroom.

8. How does MI tie in with the learning style map to appeal to the way students’ brains work? MI … or multiple intelligences … relates to a mix of intelligences each person possesses. These come in different mixes for each person, and can be developed and improved far beyond a person’s senior years. Learning styles differ in that they relate to people’s preferred learning approaches. The key is to replace lectures that work against the human brain – with active learning approaches that draw from several intelligences. Imagine that facts about the human brain could add more benefits to your learning circle – and you are onto a new possibility where you work too.

11. How can we make library demonstrations more engaging so students can see how they use these skills for assignments and for life beyond school? Library demos engage students’ more when they … ask 2-footed questions such as … What would you find useful to learn in this library that could benefit your grades? What resources – other than Google –provide useful information for your research? What surprises do you predict in this library that could help you achieve your college goals? Start with these kinds of questions and the students will guide you to cover the materials in your library – with far longer retention and higher motivation to come back.  Rather than lecture format from you – think of it as multiple intelligence engagement from learners.

12. What new strategies or activities can I add to my repertoire that will help motivate special students to understand and follow through in learning content? Why not show students a few operations of their brains that interest them – so that they are motivated to use more of their strengths. Check out MI Strategies in the Classroom and Beyond for more tactics and strategies also and see Student Assessment that Works, to create intelligence-fair assessments.

13. What do you do when faculty protect their ground and refuse to change? That’s really a matter of old socks that stick with old, and there are answers related to Hebbian habits in the human brain. From a brain based perspective,  this problem relates to basal ganglia that tends to lock in comfortable practices and working memory that tends to prevent some people from risking new approaches.

Only a visionary college campus tends to invite students together with faculty to exchange innovative  ideas about how to get more from human brainpower as a community. Check out an equally  interesting series of questions raised by college students at the same symposium, and read responses that draw on recent research about the human brain’s amazing capabilities.  

What key differences do you detect between faculty and students' concerns at college?