Teaching Excellence

by Richard Bandler

Some people learn quickly and some people take a little more time

  I don’t know whether you speak French already or are just beginning to learn a new language

  You, as a boy or a girl…

  Remember, this is about being ‘artfully vague’ – on purpose!

  How to presuppose success

  Once we have everyone feeling that they are being spoken to personally (because our Universal Quantifiers match their experience) we can go on to presuppose that the learning will be fun, easy and they can do it. If we simply tell the students that it will be fun, we risk rejection of what we are saying. The magic here is in presupposing the outcome in a way that the student is swept along with the flow, as we assume the desired outcomes are a fait accompli .

  Presuppositions are probably one of the most useful patterns for teaching and learning, especially in setting up a lesson. There is a big difference between asking, ‘are you going to learn something today?’ which requires a yes or no answer risking the likelihood of a negative response, and asking, ‘what are you going to learn today?’ This latter statement presupposes that you will learn something; it’s just a question of what.

  There are a number of different types of presuppositions. Here are some:

  Numbers – used to list the events that will happen, for example:

  The first thing you will notice is how easy this is… (pre-supposes you will notice many things after this and that it will be easy)

  The second part of the task deepens your understanding further (presupposes that there is a first part to the task and that you will understand in different depths)

  In the examples above we have been explicit, and now it’s your turn to work out what is being specifically presupposed as the Presupposition Patterns are expanded.

  Awareness – presupposes a realisation that the event has happened already: It’s not a matter of whether you have learned something or not, but merely a question of have you noticed yet!

  For example:

  You ma y have started to become aware of how much you have learned already

  I don’t know if you will notice how fully you understand straight away, or as you do the practice exercise

  Timescale - presupposes an event is happening by linking it to a time scale. For example:

  Over the days to come and more examples become available to you

  By taking a few minutes to reflect on your new skills you can understand even more

  Time verbs and adverbs – time processing words presuppose action over a period of time. For example:

  As you start to use these patterns you can enjoy your new skills

  Do you want to ask any questions before completing your project?

  Choice – gives the feeling of a choice whilst presupposing the outcome. For example

  Will you begin to use these language patterns immediately or a little lat er?

  It doesn’t matter whether you complete the written or oral part of the quiz, it’s fun to answer the questions

  Do you want to clean your teeth or put your pyjamas on first, before you go to bed?

  This last one is a favourite with all parents overcoming the bedtime blues!

  Real skill in using these language patterns comes by adding one to the next and the next so the presuppositions are stacked one on top of the other. This works because before someone has had time to consciously negate or cancel one statement, you have moved on to another and another, so that all your students can accept at least one or two of them.

  How to ensure learners c ontinue to be motivated by connecting their reality to their outcome

  If all our students arrived for class ready and up for learning, enthusiastic and knowing that they could easily learn, then life would be easy. Unfortunately, life isn’t like that, so we need to help a little. If we want our students to be enthusiastic and motivated we want to convince them that:

  They can do it

  It’s worth doing and they want to do it

  It’s interesting

  It’s enjoyable

  Of course, just telling them doesn’t work, so we can use our language to influence how they approach the learning. This is how: By making a connection between two parts of a sentence so that the first part is equal or equivalent to the second part, we can take anything that is happening in the room, or true for the student, and attach it to something that is useful for the student and the learning. This allows us to pace the student’s experience and connect it to something we want them to experience by assuming a connection exists – even if it doesn’t. Here are some examples

  I know some of you may have found equations boring in the past, that’s OK because it means you like to be challenged with new learnings and are a fast learner

  Some of you didn’t get enough sleep last night, but that just means you can relax more easily whilst learning new things

  You may have noticed that there are some other presuppositions added here for increased effectiveness!

  Cause and effect

  In a similar way, we can also pace what is happening and connect it to something that we want our students to believe. So:

  The fact some of you have your MP3 with you can cause you to really want to pay attention to the music we are using to learn the new Spanish verbs today

  Sitting comfortably in your chair makes it easy to enjoy listening to Josh’s presentation

  As you use some of these patterns, you can begin to construct introductions which directly impact on your students’ motivation and learning at both a conscious and unconscious level. This means you get to presuppose success , fun, great learning and anything else that you want to build into a great learning experience.

  Take a moment to compare these two lesson introductions:

  introduction 1

  ‘Hello everyone, it’s really nice to see you here on Wednesday morning. I know that you woke up this morning and are looking forward to the lesson and eager to learn. Although some of you look tired I don’t want you to miss out on any of the important things we are going to learn today. So sit up and pay attention. When you were a toddler you learned things really easily, I am sure you can do the same in this lesson. You have all got extraordinary brains and I know you are all looking forward to this lesson, which will be great fun.’

  introduction 2

  ‘Hello everyone it’s really nice seeing you here today on Wednesday morning. When you woke up this morning some of you were sleepy and some of you were wide awake; either way you may not have noticed just yet how easily you can relax and have fun in this class. I don’t want you to enjoy too much paying attention to the important things you can learn today. When you were a toddler you learned lots of things just by playing and without really having to think about it, which means that today learning is easy because you have an extraordinary brain that takes in more than you realise.’

  The first introduction is perfectly nice and encouraging, but does contain elements that a student could object to or disagree with. For example we don’t know for sure that they were looking forward to the lesson or eager to learn. By taking the same content and applying some universal quantifiers, presuppositions and links, the second introduction becomes more impactful and improves the chances of agreement and success for the teacher and the students. For example:

  ‘Some of you were sleepy and some of you were wide awake’ – Universal

  Quantifier.

  ‘You may not have noticed yet how easily you can relax’ – presupposes they

  can relax but may not have noticed yet.

  ‘Which means that’ – a link connecting two things together which may or may not be true but it feels like it is.

  It’s useful to go back now and read some of introduction 2 above, out loud. You may notice that as you read, you naturally emphasise certain words and parts of the sentence that you want the person to take notice of such as ‘easily’, ‘relax’ and ‘enjoy’, so you become systematic about the key messages you can embed
in your language to give the command or suggestion.

  Rather than giving instructions directly, you can embed instructions within a longer sentence. When you do this, you can often deliver instructions much more effectively and gracefully because generally the listener doesn’t consciously realise that such directives have been communicated, for example:

  “As you think about your career to date, you can begin to realise how useful this learning is and look forward to a brighter future.”

  How to remove barriers and inoculate against anything

  that could get in the way of your students’ achievement

  Giving direct commands can create resistance in members of your group. When we embed a command or a suggestion or a question within a longer sentence, the student is more likely to accept the statement. It will also make more impact at the unconscious level when it is marked out in some way at the same time. Marking it out simply means a change in voice tone or tempo, raising or lowering the volume of your voice, or using a gesture. This is called Analogue Marking because it sets the statement apart from the rest of the sentence for special attention. Your students will not usually notice this marking consciously. In fact, they will respond more fully if they don’t consciously perceive it. Experiment with examples like these:

  I notice that in my class people are able to listen carefully and thougtfully to the instructions

  In a similar way, questions, like commands or suggestions, can be embedded within a larger sentence structure that sounds like a statement:

  I was wondering whether you can let yourself relax and enjoy this

  Negatives

  Although negatives exist in language, the brain doesn’t process negation at an unconscious level. In order not to do something you, have to imagine doing it in the first place:

  Whatever you do, don’t think of the colour blue right now!

  So you thought of the colour blue, right? Well, we can use negation to send the brain in the direction we want it to go, as in the following examples:

  We are not sure whether we should share the next section of the Milton patterns with you; we don’t want you to have too much fun learning them!

  Don’t think of creative ways to solve this problem too quickly!

  We are wondering whether now would be a good time for you to go back to the opening paragraphs and see how many patterns you can easily identify straight away, or maybe you prefer to wait until you have finished this chapter?

  Here is an example of a practical lesson with a typical introduction, followed by an alternative utilising some of the patterns discussed, and maybe some we haven’t discussed yet:

  The teacher displays the following:

  Aim: The students will be able to change a lightbulb

  Objectives: The students are familiar with the equipment The students can use equipment safely

  The students can safely remove the spent lightbulb

  The students can safely replace the lightbulb with a new one

  The students can test the light bulb is working effectively

  The students can store away the equipment used and safely dispose of the old lightbulb

  The teacher says:

  ‘Now settle down everyone. Today we are going to learn to change a lightbulb. You will need to learn how to do this because everyone has to do this at some time in their lives. It’s important that you learn to do this safely and don’t damage yourselves or anyone else during the process. These are the objectives for today [reads off the list]’

  The next example is provided by a Teaching Excellence student. Here is his ‘upgrade’:

  ‘As it is Monday 12th June, today’s lesson might fascinate or surprise you because as you settle in you can begin to relax and learn the most effective, simple, easy and enjoyable ways we can change a lightbulb. You may not have realised yet just how much you have already learned about electricity in the last few weeks, though I am wondering just how your imagination will light up any dark recesses of your brain with a clarity and sharpness only you can imagine. In the past some people may have felt that this was difficult, but they have not had your advantages of being taught by me! The bright future dawning before you means that you will never have a spent lightbulb casting darkness and gloom in your home again!’

  When you compare the two introductions, what are the main differences you notice? Which introduction do you think will engage the learning brain fastest? It may be useful to highlight the patterns in the second paragraph.

  Remember, the more you stack the presuppositions the more the students will engage in the process and begin to build generative learning. In order to understand the sentence you must accept most of it. So, as you are reading this book today, learning new things about NLP, which ideas for more effective teaching have already sprung to your mind? And whilst enjoying understanding how to change what you say in the classroom during this time, you can begin to relax and easily take in all the information because learning NLP is easy. The learning becomes one big process which allows you to gain trust and credibility as you build upon success.

  Motivation

  The eternal cries from students -‘what are we doing this for?’ and ’why are we doing this?’ - are legitimate questions and you can be sure that, ‘because it is on the syllabus’ is not a motivating answer!

  People are motivated in many ways, sometimes by the process, which is enjoyable in itself, or by the result or outcome which is rewarding. Sometimes, we can be so motivated by the outcome we are prepared to put up with the pain of doing something that isn’t pleasant.

  Think about the story of two bricklayers. Asked, ‘what are you doing?’ the first answers, ‘I am laying bricks’ . The second answers, ‘I am building a beautiful house’ .

  Which bricklayer is likely to be more motivated to lay bricks carefully and work until the job is done?

  NLP provides us with a motivational tool in the form of Well-Formed Outcomes (WFO). Unlike the ubiquitous goal setting and SMART targets we find in mainstream management theory, having a well-formed outcome actually takes people a long way towards achieving their goal in the first place. It brings it nearer, and it makes it realisable, it has good feelings attached to it, so the person wants to do it, can imagine doing it and therefore is well on the way to getting there.

  the conditions for a well-formed out come:

  1. It is stated in the positive What you do want, rather than what you don’t want! As we said earlier, negatives do not compute operationally – we do what we ‘don’t want’ (eg., ‘don’t think about the colour blue’ ). If we say ‘I don’t want to fail my Spanish exam, it translates in the brain as ‘fail my Spanish exam ’. However this next sentence is stated concisely and has a time reference, ‘I want to pass my Spanish exam in June next year’ .

  2. It is und er the control of the person setting the goal

  You can only achieve what you are responsible for. ‘I want you to give me a good mark’ is not under the student’s control, but ‘I will work conscientiously so that I earn a good mark’ is under their control.

  3. It is based in reality and is represented in at least three of the representational systems

  You can test the goal ahead of time by predicting what you will see/ hear/do/touch/feel (maybe smell and taste) when you achieve it e.g., ‘It is June and I am sitting my Spanish GCSE exam. I feel well prepared, confident, capable and excited to demonstrate my ability. I can see myself smiling after the exam is finished and hearing myself say ‘that went well’ .

  4. It is ecological …

  …In that it doesn’t challenge your existing values and there will be no negative effects on friends or family. Moreover, it should maintain anything that is helpful or wanted in the status quo. So, for example, expecting a teenager to stay in all weekend to catch up on their homework isn’t reasonable because it challenges what is important to them, as they are likely to value friendships and their social life above homework.

  A more reasonab
le example to work towards is, ‘I know how to balance my studies and revision with friendship needs as well as making time for playing football.’

  Whenever a student asks ‘why are we doing this?’ it is an opportunity to help to create a well-formed outcome with him/her. This does not necessarily have to take a great deal of time. Just notice the difference in the sensations between the next two sentences:

  ‘When you complete this module you will be well on the way to passing your exams and will be able to get a good job’

  Or

  ‘Imagine the great feeling you will have after completing this module and being well on the way to the day you pick up that certificate and see how pleased everyone is and how fantastic you feel knowing you can get that perfect job [car- house – travel, etc]’

  summary

  During this chapter you have explored some of the Milton Model language patterns to set up the learning for engaged, motivated learners who can succeed. By using the patterns described, we don’t know if you will notice straight away or after a few lessons, just how easily your students engage with your teaching as you use these skills.

  How will you apply your new knowledge of well-formed outcomes in your next introduction to a lesson?

  references

  1. Dr Seuss, 1990 Oh the places you’ll go, Random House

  2. Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, R. Bandler and J. Grinder

  3. Durham Project) Kate Benson and John Carey 2006 The Durham Project, META Ltd

  activities

  Activity 1

  Review the second lesson introduction earlier in this chapter. Here are some of the patterns you may have already noticed:

  Everybody woke up this morning (otherwise they wouldn’t be here)

  The alternatives cover everyone, you were either wide awake or sleepy

  The presupposition is that you’ll relax and have fun but may not have realised it yet