By -Dr. Margaret Martinez
Psychological factors and relationships that influence persistence, motivation and attrition. Dominate influence of emotion s and intentions on learning.
What was the one time in your life you felt truly passionate about learning?
Smiles took over the room, positive emotion grew. That is what we want to get each time we teach.
Brain Fitness market revenues continue to grow. $100million in 2005, $225 million in 2007
What is happening though is that you once used a linear process to finger walk through a card catalogue to find book. Now looking through a search engine is using different parts of the brain to do this searching. Brain morphology is looking at the way that the brain is changing to adapt to a more technology based society.
Technology has changed the size of the brain, especially in the cognitive functioning.
Senses are triggering synopsis in the brain. Development is occurring. The “circuits” once triggered something is being learned in the brain.
Video Clip: YouTube – “The Brain – Emotions, Neurons, Neurotransmitters” showed to explain how the brain works and functions.
Learning Changes the brain: Video – Dan Rather Reports – Mind Science Part 1 of 6.
People forget to exercise their brains. Brain placidity – everyone of us can change our brain.
Book recommended – Art of Changing the Brain – James Zull
How do you make this practical for the learning environment?
Understand your audience and analyse who they are.
This how the learner is influenced by relationships, environment, and instructional delivery.
Learning Orientation Questionnaire
discover your learning type, preference
Top Passion Strategies
-don’t focus on mistakes or misunderstandings
-use metaphors and stories to get across your message to you audience
-use reflection to search for connections and consider meaning to build new knowledge
-thoughtful questions will help them to learn to ask their own thoughtful questions
-Use intrigue, mystery to gain buy in – learning games
-brain likes to predict, use strategies to help set and meet expectations
-use conversations
-provide stress free environments
-give the learning in pieces
-use more graphics to help focus
-personalize more (if, then, ……)
-focus on how the learning happens, ask the SME the best way to learn their particular item
Search learning strategies for more information.
Practice, feedback, Reflect, Again…brain’s natural cycle.
Follow:
Amygdala
Neuromodulation
Neuronal Development
Synapses
Mirror Neurons
www.trainingplace.com – here studies, sites, resources, papers.
Hello Dr. Martinez.
I like that you explore the connection between brain plasticity and passionate learning experiences. The two are very much interrelated. Passion breeds attention, and attention is essential to producing new brain cells and brain changes.
Readers might be interested in Susanne Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl’s study on Improving Fluid Intelligence by Training Working Memory (PNAS April 2008) which recorded increases in mental agility (fluid intelligence) of more than 40% after 19 days of focused brain training. Working memory training has since been shown to create new brain cells.
I was so impressed that I contacted the research team and developed a software program using the same method so that anyone can achieve these improvements at home.
Mind Sparke Brain Fitness Pro
Martin
http://www.mindsparke.com
Effective, Affordable Brain Training Software