But does the theory support the practice?
This post is based on an article that John Sunderland Wright and I wrote for the Autumn 2024 edition of the Institute of Water magazine
Bob Windmill, Academic Director, British Water Engineering College
Entertain, Engage, Educate
My teaching approach is to Entertain then Engage then Educate the learners. This works from new apprentices through to experienced L5 learners. The trick is to move between the 3Es as required.
With new learners, at whatever level, I initially use Entertain then Engage then Educate.
The difference is the speed at which you lead them to Educate, and the amount of Entertain and Engage they require.
Take them on a journey
When educating, my guiding principle is to help them move from what they know to what they need to know, because linking to existing ideas is easier than creating new ones.
I do this by introducing ideas and concepts before the detail. For example, I would introduce the idea that “chlorine needs time to work”, because most people get this easily, before getting into CT values and the Chick-Watson Equation.
This also work for ideas like Maslow’s Hierarchy – “where is someone coming from” and Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory – “what floats and sink their boat”.
It’s good to talk
It’s critical to get learners talking, both with you and between themselves. Group exercises are great for this, but so are the less formal discussions and tangential conversations.
I’m a fan of tangential conversations, spending time shooting the breeze, before coming back to the learning. These give learners time to relax and absorb the learning.
There is no such thing as a daft question
Similarly, it’s important to help them get over their fear of “asking a daft question”. Praising learners for asking a question or having a go at answering a question is vital.
Say that again….
Repetition is important in learning, but simply repeating the same information doesn’t work. I like deliberative questions, asking about previous learning, then using prompts to aid learner recall.
From there I’d move to deliberative group discussions and refresher exercises.
Does it work?
I’ve only failed two learners in 15 years, learner feedback is typically 90%+, and clients keep asking me to come back. I’ll take that as a yes….
And the theory?
I wanted to know why my way worked, so I asked an expert, John Sunderland -Wright
John Sunderland-Wright, Director JS Achieve
The neuroscience of learning
To learn, we need to create and then strengthen neural pathways in the brain. The brain relies on three different learning systems: cognitive, behavioural and emotional. Each system operates in a different part of your brain. See image.
These systems are wired to learn a different set of skills -Cognitive-the “what”, behavioural -the “how” and emotional – the “feel”.
The cognitive system learns facts-based knowledge and information, but it needs repetition to transform short-term into long term memory. However, it is limited to a person’s attention span.
The behavioural system takes what you know and applies it to situations. It learns through interaction and also repetition. It is more likely to embed these behaviours if there is a reward at the end.
The emotional system develops situational awareness, processes situations and adapts behaviours. It requires real-life scenarios and stories to increase the learning. It is severely inhibited when feeling threatened.
Creating the environment.
Neuroscience research confirms the important role that environment/experience plays in building the structure of the mind by modifying the structures of the brain across the 3 learning systems. One of the key players in supporting learning is the “hippocampus” -memory for facts and events. The environment in which we learn contributes to the durability or fragility of this memory, simply put if we feel threatened or stressed in a learning environment, we won’t learn, as our hippocampus switches off.
Bob’s 3 E’s
So, the environment is critical in supporting the process of learning. So, let’s take each of Bob’s 3 E’s and apply the simple neuroscience to why they work.
Entertain – hits all three of the learning systems in the brain. Cognitive learning needs attention span. Having fun and banter provides this and also increases levels of working memory. It creates a relaxed atmosphere which sends positive messages to the emotional centres, keeping the hippocampus open. It also stimulates the “striatum”-our motivational centre-encouraging a more interactive behaviour system and increases dopamine.
Engage– By getting learners to talk and interact supports both emotional and behavioural systems. They can exchange experiences which helps the emotional system adapt the learning and this supports the cognitive system to contextualise the learning. Taking the fear of asking questions, also helps the emotional system stay calm. The art of giving praise re-enforces the behavioural system to repeat the action.
Educate– One of the simplest rules is that practice(repetition) increases learning; in the brain, “practice makes permanent”. How we educate is all about proving the opportunity to practice and repeat, build muscle memory.
Bob’s system works, his stats say so. The neuroscience of learning provides the theory to support why it does.
