Learning 2 Teach

I can’t help it: I find these great articles on how the human brain learns – information that hasn’t been easily available until fairly recently – and I just have to post them here so that you can feel as excited as I have about these “brain-based learning” discoveries!

In the last class I facilitated, “Training from the BACK of the Room,” the participants talked about scattering “corn-seeds” throughout their training worlds – taking the content they learned and teaching it to others (think: mustard seed parable).

For the past fifteen years, the intersection between education/training and cognitive neuroscience has become stronger as brain scientists now have ways to monitor and record what effective teachers and trainer have known for a long time: how the human brain learns best.

On this website, you have, at your fingertips, dozens of slide presentations (“Slides About PowerPoint”) that give you hundreds of ways to create awesome slide decks, without boring your audiences to death. Here is my latest discovery – a slide presentation that is so fantastic that I had to create a new blog post just for it.

“Follow-Ups” are optional activities that help you revisit, remember, and use what you’ve learned from a class or workshop. Brain scientists call this “spaced practice.” Follow-Ups help you move content into long-term memory and help you master concepts and use them in practical ways.

I’ve posted Warm-Ups before – those pre-program activities that brain scientists call “priming.”  Warm-Ups are short, quick, optional activities that informally introduce learners to concepts that will be formally covered in traditional instruction in the near future.

Maybe you’ve never heard of the global, 2-day train-the-trainer program titled “Training from the BACK of the Room!” (from the book by the same name). Or perhaps you’ve considered attending the class but you’re not sure if it applies to what you do as a trainer, teacher, or classroom instructor.

You’ve just been told: “The adult learners you’re going to be instructing are a tough group – very serious-minded and not at all willing to participate in activities. They just want the information given to them via a lecture, without any fluff.” What do you do?

Here are seven great suggestions for learning anything faster. The first one will probably surprise you. The sixth is essential. And the seventh explains something you’ve probably experienced many times without realizing it: “The Dip.”

My job – as an author, adult instructor, and small business owner –  requires that I sit for long hours in front of a computer doing the behind-the-scenes stuff that forms the foundation of my books, training programs, and business. I hurt – I mean REALLY hurt – at the end of a computer workday.

Questioning strategies get short-changed in today’s content-driven, answer-focused, adult training world. And while adults often need to learn information critical to their job success, they also need practice in asking questions that lead to breakthroughs in thinking, creativity, and problem-solving.

While school bells are ringing for kids in countries around the world this month, a record number of adults are taking to classrooms (both in real time and online) as well – to learn new skills, improve work performance, or expand their own knowledge.

Her name is Sue Anne Dunlevie, and she is a prolific writer and blogger who gives away tons of practical, useful content FOR FREE! Her blog is not only about how to create a successful blog, but about how to create inspiring content, period!

The questions usually appear at the end of a train-the-trainer program that I’ve facilitated: “How can I do what you do? How do I begin creating my own (speaking, training, consulting) business? How do I become an independent, professional trainer or speaker?” Here are a few suggestions “from the field.”

You’ve just completed a train-the-trainer day with lots of great information to use and new instructional strategies to experiment with. So how do you keep from falling back into traditional, lecture-based methods of instruction?

There is a simple but profoundly important question to ask yourself whenever you teach, train, or present information to others: “Who’s doing the most talking, moving, or writing?” If the answer is YOU, then YOU are doing the most learning!

Once in awhile I come across something so inspirational and life-changing that I just have to share it with everyone. This short, powerful video is one of those things. 

I love brain stuff! Especially the brain stuff that helps me become better at what I do, both personally as well as professionally. So when I found this little presentation gem about the brain, I thought it merited its own blog post.

Maybe creating a better website is not your goal. Maybe you just want to know more about the brain and what it pays attention to, whether looking at a website, a slide presentation, a handout, or any visual display of information.

Sometimes it’s the most obvious thing that you might need a gentle reminder about, especially when the pace of your workday feels frenetic and leaves you exhausted at the day’s end. So when I came across this informative slide presentation, I thought you might find it interesting and helpful. Grab one or two ideas and try them out – and enjoy!

While this short slide presentation speaks to parents with school-age children, I found the 5 tips to be great for adults, as well. When we, as adults, find ways to beat summer “brain drain,” we also energize and refresh our own thinking and learning skills. Happy summer all!

Ever heard of “RSA Shorts?” How about “Espresso for the Mind?” One of the first “fast-draw” companies, RSAnimate, makes these delightful, short, fast-paced presentations that brilliantly capture one question or concept in an entertaining and visually interesting way.

In this fabulous new video by “Smarter Every Day,”  you’ll see a “hands-on” demonstration (literally!) of neuroplasticity, and how your brain hardwires anything it learns to the point that it is very challenging for you to unlearn it. You’ll also see what happens when you unlearn something, then try to relearn it. This great brain experiment uses a tool we’re all familiar with: a bicycle!

One of the stress-inducing issues I have with instructing others in large, face-to-face groups, is remembering names. And, from the conversations I’ve had with many other trainers, teachers, and instructors, it seems I’m not alone – many of us have a hard time remembering names. What to do?

What is is about travel (especially to countries other than our own) that makes the human brain sit up and pay attention? What happens inside the brain to make it change itself, rewiring neurons and making new synaptic connections?

Knowing the Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) is all well and good, but what do you DO with that information when you’re instructing others? Let’s find out.

Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain (a fancy term for six critical thinking skills) has been around for a very long time and is still taught as part of educational pedagogy in most colleges and universities across the USA. Although many educators and trainers are familiar with Bloom’s, the percentage of them that deliberately design courses and programs using Bloom’s is probably quite small. Why?

Once in awhile, you come across a slide presentation that says, in a couple of simple icons, what most folks take hundreds of words  – or years – to say. The ongoing debate about “heart versus head” or “emotion versus logic” in education and training today is captured in this simple slide presentation:

Extroverts LOVE interacting with dozens of people during a class or training. They relish the exchange of information and energy. However, even the most passionate trainer who happens to be an introvert often feels overwhelmed just THINKING about the upcoming interactions. I know because I’m an introvert at heart.

Just about the time I thought I had written enough about the power of images in helping the human brain to learn more and to remember information longer, I came across this fabulous slide presentation that truly proves a picture is worth a thousand words:

Perhaps you remember the series of books for kids titled “Choose Your Own Adventure” (if not, and if you have kids, check out these cool adventure stories on Amazon). Branching stories are the adult versions: structured, self-paced, scenario-based learning experiences.

We all have “gremlins” – bad habits that keep us company, even when we’re determined to transform them into more benign companions. One of mine is procrastination, that time-stealer that can make or break both business deals and personal relationships. Here’s a short-but-great video on how to manage this gremlin.

For the ATD Sacramento Super Session participants of either the “Got a Minute?” March 19th workshop or the “Using Brain Science to Make Training Stick” March 20th class, here are 5 specific “Follow-Ups” you can do to make sure you remember and use what you learned during the Super Session:

You’ve just attended a great train-the-trainer class and the excitement there has been replaced by the busyness of your daily life. Here are 5 ways to hold onto what you learned:

Take a moment right now to roll your neck, stretch your arms above your head, lean back in your chair, and take a few deep breaths. I’ll pause writing and do this quick Body Break with you … There now, you probably feel a bit more alert, and perhaps curious, as well.

My husband and I went to see the movie “Focus” the other evening. A segment of the movie gave a vivid example of “priming” – the word brain scientists give to a concept that is really important for human learning.  

Got too much content to teach in too little time? Can’t stop for lengthy learning games because the important information you have to present takes up all the training time? No problem! Read on … 

Brain scientists call them “priming” – getting the human brain ready to learn.  I call them “Warm-Ups” – short, quick, optional activities that will introduce you to some of the concepts from the March 20th Super Session in Sacramento, California. Here are five “Warm-Ups,” the first being the most important one to do:

You walk into the training room and immediately realize that this exciting train-the-trainer event will be dramatically different from other training programs you have attended. What are the clues that lead you to this conclusion? 

In keeping my promise to the Training 2015 Conference and Expo Certificate Program participants that I would post some of the brain research about how digital technology is affecting the human brain, I have collected an assortment of informative and provocative articles.

Just over two years ago my 4th son (Clay Anderson) came up with a brilliant idea. He called it “Friday Resolutions” and it worked like this:

Just about the time I’m thinking that I really need to begin a regular practice schedule – rather than hit or miss –  if I want to get really good at playing the keyboard for the little local band I’m in (and we’re playing a dance gig in March – ack!), I run across this fabulous slide presentation!

“The person doing the most talking – or moving or writing – in a class or training is doing the most learning.” And,if you observe a traditional face-to-face class, it’s immediately obvious who is doing the most talking, moving, and writing: the instructor or trainer, of course!

“Intermittent Reinforcement.” Also called “Spaced Practice” – a gift to give yourself for 2015. Forget New Year’s resolutions. Forget promising yourself that you’ll NEVER do this or ALWAYS do that. And forget about learning a new habit or behavior by repeating it again and again in one “massed practice” – one large chunk of time.

A difficult adult learner: resistant, passive. Thinks activities are a waste of time. Doesn’t really want to be sitting in a classroom with a group of strangers at all. And nothing you try in the class setting works. What do you do?