Teaching Excellence
Page 21
‘And now, as you look at some of the things you have learned today, you might get a sense of how your mind can continue these processes, which we have begun here in a meaningful way.’
When we say ‘extremely useful in a positive way’ we are not specifying how it’s useful or what positive ways you will find to use this learning. We are being artfully vague, which means that in order to make sense of the sentence the student has to go inside their mind and find their own extremely useful ways to use the learning and the positive ways in which it can be used. The suggestion is personalised and meaningful to them, and because you are not imposing on their map of the world with your specific ideas, they don’t need to resist what you are saying. In this way, the learning becomes generative and grows inside their minds over time, connecting with other learning, past and future.
By using time predicates like days and weeks , we are not saying exactly when the understandings will emerge, but we presuppose that they will. We are also artfully vague about how and what understandings will emerge. There is no actual causal link between gathering the things learned and sensing how your mind can continue these processes, but by linking the two things together one will naturally follow on from the other.
Temporal predicates , which are those that relate to time and the passage of time, such as when, as, then, last, first, after, again , all have what is called semantic density. They amplify or diminish feelings with great power and precision. So rather than saying ‘number one, do this, number two do this’ , and simply listing your instructions, using temporal predicates allows you to increase the intensity of the feelings (or diminish them if this is your outcome) associated with the task. By enriching your language with a range of predicates you can intensify the feelings of curiosity, excitement and satisfaction for your students.
Here is an example from a Spanish teacher. How many patterns can you identify?
‘Now that you have been learning to speak Spanish, before you become absolutely brilliant at it you will notice that you are beginning to use your brain in new ways, which may mean noticing how your brain becomes sharper in other ways too. The more you use your new language skills the easier they will become and the more you realise how smart you are although you may not have realised yet how easily you learned today. When you begin to pay attention to these things to practise, the more amazing consequences are in your future. Because, as you gain in confidence with this new knowledge, I don’t know how soon you will notice that people find you more interesting to talk to!’
You may have heard the advice for speakers to tell them what you are going to say, say it and tell them what you have said. Well, we can do more; presuppose what they are going to learn, remind them of how easily they are learning, and tell them how brilliant their lives will be now they have easily learned it!
Storytelling and nesting learning
No self-respecting TV soap opera closes every storyline to the point where you are left feeling satisfied. Instead, they tease and invite you to return, often leaving a cliffhanger so you are slightly frustrated and want more. We can learn from this, because in essence teaching is more than education, it’s the ‘entertrainment’, ‘edutainment’ business and you can preview the forthcoming attractions for eager minds!
A little chiding and teasing about what is coming up creates curiosity and a sense of pleasure. Rather than giving a message that we are teaching you this and now it’s finished , connect the learning you have just completed to lots of other things that are to come. Even something as simple as saying, ‘I am going to give you a problem to solve tomorrow and I don’t know how fast most of you will be able to solve it’ , means the students ask, ‘well, what’s the problem; could you tell us what it is?’ You can say, ‘I could, but then we won’t have so much fun tomorrow…’
The connections to what comes next should elicit curiosity and excitement. For example, your cliffhanger could be ‘there’s this guy I know who took this one equation and made one million pounds from it; now we will get back to that tomorrow ’. They do it on TV, so let’s do it in class.
Suspense and curiosity are at the heart of storytelling. Children are automatically caught up by suspense stories, so we can make our lessons into mysteries and intrigues. Think about the classic story opening for children - ‘once upon a time’… followed by words that fill the mind with sensory-rich experiences, holding open attention, crafting a story that elicits a myriad of emotional responses, each one connecting to each other. Good storytellers hold their listeners spellbound – that is to say, the listeners’ minds stay open to the next idea and engaged in each listener’s internal representation of the story. Each of us can learn to tell a good story and ‘nest’ the learning within the story.
When we do this, each piece of information or instruction is embedded inside a loop together with the emotional state created by the story. When the loop is closed, the information is nested within the story along with the emotional state. Much of this process is unconscious, and often the learner isn’t aware of how the learning has taken place.
Nested loops
Richard pioneered the process of unconscious communication, and nested loops are at the heart of his work. Fortunately, we can now utilise these processes to make quantum leaps in the speed and effectiveness of learning. Nested loops work because the conscious mind is compelled to make sense of the information it is receiving, but it is the unconscious mind that has the ability to track many layers of input, and like any good story we wait for the conclusion before seeking closure.
Opening and closing loops is at the heart of storytelling, and there are many advantages to this process. Learning that is nested in loops captures the listener’s attention and prevents premature closure.
When someone says, ‘uh huh’ , this is the sound of a mind slamming shut! The person has closed down to learning and no further information will be taken in. The loops also connect or chain different states in the learner, so that one state automatically leads to the next and the next state. Rather than the learning being a step-by-step linear process, the learning becomes part of a whole process, where the learning is nested within and connected to a set of emotional responses.
A simple loop begins with a story, and the story continues until the teacher has elicited the emotional state associated with the story and anchored it. Then the learning, key points or steps to the process are embedded and the story is completed. The learner now has the totality of the learning captured along with the kinaesthetics of the story.
When we nest further loops, more than one loop is opened in sequence and each loop elicits a particular state. Once each loop is open, the key learning takes place and the loops are closed in reverse order so the learning nestles in the centre.
Hence the term ‘nested loops’!
Nested loops can be very simple or develop complexity as you become more familiar with the process. Using nested loops is a powerful model of communication and requires some careful planning. It’s important to line up all your ducks in a row first so you know where you are going with your teaching. However, like any other skill, regular practice makes it easier and easier. Once you have mastered the skills of nesting loops, imagine the possibilities! What if you opened a loop for each new topic? How about a whole syllabus? What if you opened a loop at the beginning of the year and didn’t close it until the end of the year, or you kept the loop open for the whole time a child is with you? The possibilities are endless.
Here is a simple example:
Story 1: I just saw on the news that a British guy Tim Peake has joined the space station and the news said he was the first Brit in space.
Story 2: That reminded me of being little and watching the first Moon landing. It was so thrilling.
Story 3: The closest I ever came to something like that was doing a bungee jump. I really didn’t want to jump!
Nested learning: It can be very scary doing something for the first time. It can be really thrilling thou
gh when you take on the challenge and have a go. The challenge is just for you and it doesn’t matter who else notices.
Now go back through the loops in reverse order:
Story 3: I never thought I would jump, but I did and the rush was fantastic
Story 2: I can still hear those immortal words ‘a small step for man, a giant leap for mankind’ .
Story 1: Helen Sharman was actually the first Brit in space. She was a chemist from Sheffield and spent 8 days on the Mir space station. Do you remember her? I am sure she never forgot her amazing experience.
Of course, each nested loop is more than just one line and the story continues until the learners are in the state you want for them - curiosity, excitement, pride etc.
Nesting loops in NLP is regarded as an advanced skill and, like all new areas of learning, it’s important to walk before you run, so if you are new to NLP we advise you to practise eliciting states and creating, stacking and chaining anchors first, and when you are confident and competent in these skills then move on to open a loop or two and build up from there.
summary
During this chapter you have explored ways to create deep and generative learning that continues beyond the topic and beyond the lesson. Sensory-rich language and Meta Model questioning skills enable you to move learning from the surface to a deeper level. You have discovered the Milton Model skill of being artfully vague for generative learning and have identified the use of cliff hangers and stories to excite and engage. And now you can begin to teach on multiple levels using the innovative and unique art and science of nested loops. We wonder which of the following exercises you will use to make tomorrow’s lessons the easiest and most enjoyable ever!
references
1. Lily Tomlin, actress and comedian, as Edith Ann (script by Jane Wagner)
2. Donald Hebb, 1949, The Organization of Behavior, New York: Wiley & Sons.
3. Steven Hastings TES 4 July, 2003
4. Dr Sugata Mitra http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/Findings.html
5. Bloom, B. S et al, 1956, Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay Company.
activities
Activity 1
Go back to the set-up for your lesson you created in Chapter 12. Imagine how quickly and efficiently your students have worked and plan
5 closing sentences:
Tell them how brilliantly they have learned today
Connect this to the positive consequences for the next lesson
Give one distinct positive outcome from their point of view
Create one artfully vague consequence for the rest of their lives
Build a presupposition based on this lesson of how great the next lesson will be
Devise a ‘cliffhanger’ to tantalise them with for the next lesson
Use it tomorrow.
Activity 2
Devise sample questions for each level of Blooms Taxonomy and Meta Model challenge questions based on the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have given you at least one example to get you started, so it’s easy for you to think of more now, isn’t it?
the story : goldilocks and the three bears
Goldilocks wanders into the house of the Three Bears. She tastes their porridge, finding one bowl “too hot,” one bowl “too cold,” and one bowl “just right.” Goldilocks also tries out their chairs, finding one chair “too big,” one “too small,” and one “just right.” Then she tries out the bears’ beds, finding one bed “too hard,” one “too soft,” and one “just right.” She falls asleep in Baby Bear’s “just right” bed. When the bears return, they find that someone has been eating their porridge, sitting in their chairs, and sleeping in their beds. They discover Goldilocks in the “just right” bed and she runs away.
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Extension activity
As you become comfortable with these skills and processes as you improve your experience in the classroom, the moment will soon arrive when you find yourself drawn to nested loops. Here is a process to begin the journey:
First select your topic
Begin by identifying 3 pieces of information you want to teach
Next create 3 anecdotes that create 3 states you want your learners to have as you teach your information. The stories may be things that have happened today, or may be drawn from your repertoire of anecdotes
Use the diagram in this chapter to map your nested loops
Have a go tomorrow
Some people find it a challenge to leave one story halfway through, so just use the absent-minded professor strategy. Your students probably won’t notice and will just be pleased because they will think you have gone off the plot!
This eBook is licensed to Dominic Luzi, dluzi@managementalchemy.com on 10/18/2018
part 4
Troubleshooting
And Challenge
This eBook is licensed to Dominic Luzi, dluzi@managementalchemy.com on 10/18/2018
chapter 15
Changing unhelpful beliefs
and attitudes
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‘No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.’ (1)
Albert Einstein
In this chapter
Learn how to shrink a BIG problem down to size
Discover what is really being said
Use effective questions for change
Changing beliefs and attitudes about learning
A student disclosed that he had a money problem, so the school counsellor asked him how he felt about this, if there are other things that worried him, how things were at home and did he have a part time job to help with finances? The student replied, ‘why are you asking me all this stuff? I just need 30p for my bus fare, I left my wallet at home!’ Sometimes it helps to be specific!
Good teachers consistently devote their time and energy to supporting individual learners on a one-to-one basis, both to aid learning and to offer personal support. A listening ear and solid guidance go some way to helping learners, however we can do more. This chapter introduces you to the elegant and effective NLP Meta Model to help you to get to the core of a problem and create strategies to resolve difficulties. Using the Meta Model ensures that the concerns you address are the right ones and that your interventions produce lasting and beneficial outcomes. Elegant use of the NLP Meta Model as a guide to asking the right questions means that we avoid the sort of assumptions made by the school counsellor, and we can save a great deal of time and energy as we become more effective at helping our students.
The Meta Model provides a structure for asking questions to discover how a person is experiencing a problem. This model is systematic and meticulous, focusing on how the learner is experiencing a problem, rather than the content of the problem. Once again, the focus is on process, not content. Listening to the content of a problem, (that is, the detail of what the person is concerned about) draws us into their ‘story’ and why they have the problem. This gives us little or no insight into how to help to solve it.
Let’s take exam anxiety as an example. Knowing everything about when the learner first experienced anxiety and all the subsequent times they felt that way doesn’t provide the solution. However, we can help if we know that in order to feel anxious, the person goes through a sequence of steps (their strategy for getting anxious). We may discover that first they make a picture of themselves seeing the exam questions and not knowing any of the answers, then they associate into the picture and feel dread in their stomach and say to themselves, ‘oh no, I am going to fail’ . Then they see a multi-coloured surround-sound movie of themselves getting their results and failing and they take the feeling of dread and mix it with abject disappointment. The chances are that if any of us were to follow this sequence we would have exam anxiety too!
Once we understand the process a person uses to feel anxious (or any other feeling they don’t want t
o have) we can help them to change the feeling into something more useful, such as determination or relaxation.
The Meta Model is the inverse of the Milton Model (introduced in Chapter 12). The two models are two sides of the same coin. Where we use the Milton patterns to create great beliefs, states and strategies, we use the Meta Model to ‘challenge’ unhelpful beliefs, strategies and bad feelings. As we discuss the model you may find that you are already familiar with many of the patterns and can learn to use them in another helpful way.
When we use the word ‘challenge’ it is not to say that we go at the person aggressively. Quite the opposite, we use our questions elegantly, with finesse and with humour. When we use humour it gently chides a person into allowing the problem to diminish – it puts it into perspective – and it’s hard to keep feeling bad when you’re laughing. A useful metaphor is to view the problem as a huge rock, and we use the Meta Model to chip away at the stone to reduce its size and sort out what works from what doesn’t, always working towards the outcome the person wants.
The Meta Model has three main functions:
To specify information
To clarify information
To open up a person’s model or map of the world
To create their model or map of the world, humans delete, distort or generalise information. Each time we communicate with other people, we are presenting our map to them and to ourselves, and we are deleting, distorting and generalising information. This is useful, because it means conversations don’t go on forever or become tedious. However, it can also be unhelpful. The function of the Meta Model is to find out what has been deleted, distorted, or generalised by the learner unhelpfully. If they delete, distort or generalise information in ways that are helpful, then leave them alone or, better still, reinforce the helpful belief!