[MUSIC] "Revisiting Learning: brainwaves". Now, often teachers think that when there's low motivation or poor performance, there's a misinterpretation that there is a lack of knowledge, but perhaps this has to be the way content is taught, or teachers could think more about how learners learn, and how best and under what conditions they learn. Students who know the best ways in which they learn are better learners and also, better achievers. Let's look at the slide about left brain-right brain thinking. What do you think about this? Now, there's much research being done, on the differentiated functions of the left and the right brain. Now, I'm not sure whether you want to make that distinction - of people being left brained, and right brained - but perhaps you would like to think about how you would utilise the functions of both hemispheres. And how you can draw on that and encourage your learners to think about the functions of both hemispheres. The different ways of learning: in our past sessions we've also spoken about tactile, the visual and the audio. The tactile, very much about how we learn through touch and feel; the visual, in terms of what we see; and the audio, in terms of what we hear. Let's start with tactile. Touch is the primary method for taking in information, and here, people will want to write down things. Role playing, movement and using materials which can be touched and handled. Think about when you have used things like plasticine or when you've worked with materials to construct things. Did that excite your learning? Does it excite the learners in your class when they are learning in that way? When they're working with experiments? When they can feel? Of course, there's also visual learning, when learners can see. So, if you had to teach about countries using a map, rather than telling students where China is but perhaps showing them them where China is. What about auditory learning? With its preference for the spoken. And I remember, when I was learning, when I learned for tests et cetera, I used to find myself reading aloud to myself, because that's the best way I took in information. Sometimes I would also have music in the background. Now, that I think about it, I was very much an auditory learner. I want to draw your attention to the work of Honey and Mumford, and they've come up with a cycle. And if you look at the cycle, they talk about having a concrete experience; the reflection, or the observation for that experience; drawing their own conclusions; and how they theorise that and move on. So, let me give an example, and a quick one. Assuming you were teaching about the Second World War, and you used an audio tape of Winston Churchill announcing to the British that the war has ended. Now, that would be a concrete experience for your class: you're presenting material. Now, the class could go in two ways: one, the learners could be saddened and after that, they could ask numerous questions and learning, in many ways, could happen. Or learners could be bored and they switch off. No questions, no interest. Now, how do you theorise, and what have you learnt from that experience? One, that some learners would have responded to an audio method of teaching. Or, learners don't respond to that. Perhaps, what you would theorise and try to do differently would be the next time, if learners haven't responded to the audio tape, you might want to try a visual tape. Maybe a picture of the bombing of Japan. So, from this experience, from the Honey and Mumford cycle, and from a concrete experience you could have theorised and tried out new things. But also through this, establishing how learners learn best. Now, Honey and Mumford have also identified four learning styles. What do you think about this: the reflectors, theorists, pragmatists and activists? I already used an example of how you can learn through that cycle, how could you apply this to how your learners learn? Now, Rigg draws on using multiple methods of learning and Rigg has identified difference percentages from how best we remember. Let's look at your own learning. I bet your learning would not necessarily be exactly as Rigg has listed. Perhaps, you may learn or remember best when you read, and perhaps you may have 50% for that. And maybe for what you see and hear, it might just be 10%. So, why don't you look at this list and try and think how your learners respond and the best methods of learning for them. And how you could apply and use those. Now, of course a lot of our teaching and how we learn, is through paying a lot of attention to the conscious mind. So, that's the verbal, the conscious, the rational, the voluntary, the deliberate. But think about the subconscious, the non verbal, the intuitive, the automatic, the contemplative. Have you thought about tapping into the subconscious mind? Especially around the issues I've spoken about earlier, about the tactile, about hearing and about the visual, for instance, about affirmation and imagination, about breathing, about touch and about relaxation in teaching. The elements of my learning. Now, here I would like you to watch the YouTube video. What do you think of this video? Now, think about it - it's not only about the learning styles of visual, tactile and hearing, but it's also about the timing and the environment. For example, think about this: maths is usually timetabled very early in the morning. Think about it - sometimes your learners are still asleep in the morning. Perhaps using drama and roleplay might be something you'd want to time much later in the day, when the energy levels are low and getting movement and action in the room might be really useful. So, some things to do next: how about discussing with your colleagues how their learning is different to yours. How do they learn? Through touch, by hearing or by seeing? In terms of the environment you like best, what environments do they learn best in? What are the times of the day that is most effective for learning? Talk with your students and establish from them, what time of the day they best like to learn your subject or the subject you teach. Is the range of differences in your students very different from how your colleagues or peers learn? Is it very different to how you learn? Now, those a useful questions. [MUSIC]
