Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

If you were a college student of any age, and a conference leader asked about how to get more from your brain in class – how would you respond? 

At a MITA Brain Based conference Dr. Robyn McMaster and I asked college students last week  ... 

What question would you ask us that could help you gain more tangible benefits from your brain’s amazing capabilities in class?

Their questions are compelling, and some deserve another entire symposium. They also reminded me of the value that comes when more participants speak and feel heard at meetings.

At the same conference … college faculty  asked and I responded here:

1. How do I get out of my own comfort zone in a way to engage & celebrate students’ diverse intelligences?
2. How do I make content more exciting so that students will use and apply content in future?
3. Does personality and genetics determine how we learn?
4. What’s the difference in how men and women are motivated?
5. How can I reflect more on ways my personal experiences tie in with class content? 6. How can your techniques be improved to make meetings more effective?
7. How do you apply a two-footed question to the hard sciences?
8. How does MI tie in with the learning style map to appeal to the way students’ brains work?
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?
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?13. What do you do when faculty protect their ground and refuse to change?

This visionary college campus invited students alongside their faculty - to exchange innovative  ideas about how to energize the human brain for higher results. . 

Do any of these college students’ questions below surprise you at all? They all surprised me, with recurring themes and I wondered how we can listen to and support college level learners more. I also found myself grateful for progressive higher education campuses that welcome students and faculty’s input in this way.

The college students asked:

1. How do we find effective ways of learning and retaining information?
Response -On one hand lectures work against the human brain – and on the other you can capitalize at college by using much more of your own brainpower in any class than most learners realize.

2. How do I do well in a class I don’t like and why should I take these classes?
Response -Ideally, we’ll like the topics we learn, and we’ll see their relevance,  yet in reality college does not always happen that way. Luckily, there are ways to motivate your brain, even when a topic or class fails to interest you. Look for one thing you already know that hooks to each lesson topic, and emphasize one application from each lesson that links a key point learned to a key experience you’ve had recently. The hooking and the linking help you do well, and add relevance for ways to use lesson ideas beyond class. For instance – you come to class with three parts of your brain that need regular workouts – which happen far more to students aware of brain parts to challenge using these tips.

3. How would you give teachers alternative ways to teach without being rude?
Response - Encouragement can change most any college setting, because of brain chemicals such as serotonin. Likely you cannot tell teachers how to teach, and that may not be the best approach anyway. Far better to consider wonderfully successful ways you can learn. Let me share a few I use. Since I know how lectures work against the brain I tend to make those I hear more interesting by writing fun questions while the speaker talks. Or, I sketch and  illustrate content that connects to a personal interest… For example, I’ve planned a PowerPoint sketch that could interest people I work with after the  lecture – based on one key I learned and applied while listening. Since, change begins with each of us, and because change has a way of inspiring others – it pays to model it in ways that inspire others to do the same.

4. How do you keep your attention in a boring class?
Response -It’s rarely easy … but I’ll suggest a few tactics. Use the time to expand your brain in some area of your interest that relates to the topic. Here are a few brain based myths that hold back more success at college than most students realize, for instance. If any of these misunderstandings describe you, lack of attention and growth will likely follow. Research on the human brain suggests tools to  cultivate new skills that will qualify you to excel in your field, in spite of classes that fall short of your expectations.

5. How do you keep yourself focused in class?
Response - Plan to teach one key idea to somebody after class, and come up with a strategy that will interest them about the topic. If you cannot find a willing ear – teach your dog! Why so? Your brain retains about 90% of what you learn – when you teach it to somebody else. Yes, that includes teaching to a canine, simply because it is the art of teaching that teaches – far more than the act of listening – that bores.

6. How do I challenge the boredom I feel and begin to be interested in learning?
Response - You’d be surprised at new research about boredom as it plays out in your brain. Tips against boredom allow you to do far more than alter the direction of your day. For instance, laugh more and you add well being to help you learn better in any situation.  Practice good tone, and others around you will help you link what is taught to what you envision for your life.

7. If I’m in a class with a teacher who primarily lectures and I have a short attention span, how do I keep my focus?
Response -First, take note how the stress hormone cortisol is released in dangerous doses in people who sustain stress in their lives. This can be caused by poor diet, lack of priorities, too little sleep, habits such as meta messages which generate poor relationships, and lack of reflection that helps you grow and progress in daily doses.

8. How do you reprogram your brain to get the most out of lectures?
Response - Listen to uplifting music or whistle while you walk to class as two of the best touted ways to move your brain waves from one state to another, as I described in my 2005 book, MI Strategies in the Classroom and Beyond. When you think about it, our brainwaves are rather impressive. Your brain’s plasticity will enable you to reprogram it daily, and even to become more of who you’d like to be in spite of lectures that fail to interest you.

9. How can we use our strong intelligences as we learn?
Response - Ask more two-footed questions so that new facts can connect to your experiences.

10. What are strategies to become stronger in areas I’m weak in?
Response -  Survey brainpower in your workplace, and begin to use what you know in practical ways to provide what they need. The benefits? The human brain grows new dendrite brain cells with each task we do daily.

11. How can I use this information on multiple intelligences to be a better learner?
Response - Avoid panic, run from feeling overwhelmed, and look for more peak mental performances that will move you closer to one goal you value. Look beyond the problems that come in some college classes to see the possibilities that come from your brain, and grow new neuron pathways for increased intelligence.

Over time, I’ll address the faculty and students’ questions here, with more detailed examples of what can be done to reboot the human brain in ways that bring higher motivation and achievement in any college classroom.

In the meantime ... what differences did you notice in questions faculty asked compared to those students asked?