Use pre-instruction questions - These can get students to think about why they should be learning this new skill, as well as to appreciate the benefits of learning.
Use conceptual models - These are often a useful way for helping students to store and retrieve information. Mental models (which can be in the form of diagrams and charts) are often helpful for learning the details of a lesson.
Vary the learning material - This will help you deal with the different ways in which people learn. You can vary your material for different learning styles as follows:
Visual Learners - Charts, graphs, or images are useful for representing the information being conveyed, as well as information in books or reports.
Auditory Learners - Lectures, presentations, and group discussions help auditory learners 'talk through' what's being presented.
Kinesthetic Learners - These learners like hands-on practice that's either real or simulated.
We all have our own preferred learning styles. If you provide as many different learning experiences as sensibly possible, you'll be more likely to connect with each learner.
Group students together - Encourage learning and understanding by having students work together while learning the same skills. By helping one another, they can all reinforce what they're learning. Everyone in the group will then benefit from the strengths of the individual members.
Provide opportunities for reflection and thinking - Learning journals are a popular and effective way for people to write down their thoughts about how the learning process itself has been helpful to their overall development.
Actively review the lesson at the end - What progress did the students make, and what difficulties did they encounter? By revisiting the lesson, you have an opportunity to learn from the experience yourself - and hopefully figure out how to improve the content or approach next time. Reviews also give students opportunities to analyze their performance, and increase their commitment to continuous learning.
Use all of your emotional intelligence and communication skills - This means establishing a connection with students, listening actively, using empathy where appropriate, being patient, and showing genuine interest in the students and in your teaching. Your attitude toward learning has a huge impact on the learners' attitudes, so make sure you're a good role model for continuous, active learning.
Attention - Capture learners' attention at the start of the session, and maintain it throughout.
Ask learners questions to make them think about why they should learn the skill.
Use role-playing or other activities to show the importance of learning the skill.
Use specific examples, and ask learners to offer their own solutions, to stimulate their interest further.
Relevance - Explain to learners how important the lesson is, and how it could benefit them.
Describe the benefits.
Relate the lesson to their current jobs and experiences. The learning materials, assignments, and projects should be applicable to their work, and to specific situations they face in their daily jobs.
Develop a connection between learning the skill and developing their careers. Discuss issues like increased satisfaction, better job, and increased patient satisfaction.
Confidence - Tell learners what is expected of them.
Set clear objectives for the session, and check in regularly with learners to make sure they're not falling behind.
Design projects and lessons so that learners experience small successes along the way, before they completely master the skill.
Give learners enough time to practice skills, so that they'll be successful when they apply these skills to the job.
Make sure you're teaching at the right level. Learners can lack motivation if something is too difficult - or too easy.
Allow learners to have input into their learning by helping them create their own learning goals.
Satisfaction - Reinforce successes and motivation.
Give lots of feedback. Make sure it's specific, timely, and relates to how learners can put the skill into practice on the job.
Recognize learners' successes. Appreciate often, and find ways to reward achievements.
Look at ways to increase motivation. Find out what learners are interested in and passionate about. And find ways to get learners to motivate one another as well.
The findings can be traced to one D.G. Treichler, an employee of Mobil Oil Company, who put forth these figures in 1967.
However, the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science has laid claim to the figures, saying they are based on research in the early sixties and bizarrely adding that ‘we no longer have - nor can we find - the original research that supports the numbers’.
Though, there are many arguments against these figures, one that is most obvious is that all the percentages are perfectly round. What research into human behaviour ever resulted in four different round numbers?
Myth 2: In communication, only 7% of the meaning is conveyed through the speaker’s words, 55% through his facial expressions and the rest 38% through tone of voice.
The findings are attributed to research done by Mehrabian but, in reality, they are just a distorted version of what Mehrabian himself has to say on his website. He expresses the results of his research in the form of an equation:
Total liking = 7% verbal liking + 38% vocal liking + 55% facial liking
He explains that “this and other equations regarding relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages were derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attitudes (i.e. like-dislike). Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable.”
Myth 3: We use 10% of our brain
Scientists have tried for years to change this misconception. They have clearly stated that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that we use only 10% of our brains. In fact it is very hard to say what using just 10% of your brain means.
It strains credulity to think that God would have permitted squandering of resources on a scale necessary to build and maintain such a massively underutilized organ.
Secondly, losing far less than 90 percent of the brain to accident or disease has catastrophic consequences. Various medical tests reveal that there does not seem to be any area of the brain that can be destroyed without leaving the patient with some kind of functional deficit.
Likewise, electrical stimulation of points in the brain during neurosurgery has failed so far to uncover any dormant areas where no percept, emotion or movement is elicited by applying these tiny currents.
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