Read an Excerpt
Training in Motion
How to Use Movement to Create Engaging and Effective Learning
By Mike Kuczala AMACOM
Copyright © 2015 Mike Kuczala
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8144-3495-6
CHAPTER 1
Connecting Movement to a Learning Brain
Despite the development of sophisticated distance learning technologies that allow learners to access training from any place or at any time using the most convenient device they have on hand (a desktop computer, tablet, laptop, or smartphone), a majority of training still occurs in traditional classroom settings.
Such a statistic is hardly a surprise to trainers who increasingly use these advanced learning tools but still find they spend a considerable amount of time in physical classrooms. One reason that classroom training remains the predominant delivery method is that eLearning is not appropriate for all types of training, as, for example, when role play is essential to the training. A more important reason, a least from my perspective, is that the connection and collaboration between learners in a classroom fulfills our human need for community, and it is this connection that fosters greater learning success.
The learning techniques described in this book are likely familiar to experienced learning professionals. What this book shows is a direct connection between movement and well understood and researched conclusions based on brain research. More importantly, it shows readers how to tap into this valuable learning wellspring and make movement a reliable training effectiveness ally.
MAKING A CONNECTION
I am not neuroscientist or a doctor. I'm not even a researcher. I am just someone who has spent years reading everything I could get my hands on about how the human brain learns, and in particular, how to take advantage of the intrinsic connection between movement and learning. This intense passion has been at the center of my professional work for the last 20 years and it underscores every written or training/learning contribution I've made to the field, including this book.
The roots of this book reach back to 2006, when I collaborated with Traci Lengel, a dynamic and successful Health and Physical Educator in northern Pennsylvania, to create a graduate course called It's All About You: Wellness and School. The course, offered by the Regional Training Center to Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey, included my previous nutrition training work along with significant portions of my work discussed in this book—the brain/body connection, physical fitness, stress management, time management, and social wellness.
As it turned out, the course was very popular with its target audience—educators—who used the positive life-changing information they discovered through the class to change the learning dynamics in their own classes. Based on the success of this class, Traci and I decided to collaborate on a second training design that focused on the connection between movement and learning.
In 2008, we field tested a course called The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning Through Movement. This course was also a success and, in fact, it became one of the most successful courses in the 25-year history of the Regional Training Center. The course included a Six-Part Framework for using movement that Traci created and I helped her fine tune. The framework makes movement user friendly and accessible to all teachers in all content areas and at all grade levels. Dozens of instructors now teach this course to thousands of teachers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, who use the concepts to improve learning outcomes in their classes.
Another positive outcome of my work with Traci was the publication in 2010 of our bestselling book, The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning Through Movement. Training in Motion goes beyond The Kinesthetic Classroom to include information about connecting cognitive function, physical fitness, and movement theories to both effective teaching and improved facilitation abilities.
As a full-fledged brain and movement enthusiast, I want Training in Motion to inform corporate trainers and other learning professionals about taking advantage of this brain/body connection to improve the effectiveness and bottom-line value of their training and learning programs.
BRAIN BASICS
Training in Motion is a book about using movement to enhance the training process so I will reference—directly or indirectly—the conclusions or implications of brain research throughout. However, the reason for this introduction on brain basics is to provide grounding and context for the discussion that follows and a baseline brainrelated vocabulary to guide your learning.
So, to begin with, here are some interesting facts about the brain according to Sousa (2011). The brain:
* Weighs a little more than three pounds.
* Is about the size of a small grapefruit.
* Is shaped like a walnut.
* Represents about 2 percent of our body weight but burns almost 20 percent of our calories.
* Contains approximately a trillion cells made up of neurons (specialized cells that process information) and glial cells that support and protect the neurons. Neural connections and networks are at the core of learning and memory.
Some Parts of the Brain
To understand the brain, it's helpful to divide it into exterior parts (lobes) and interior parts. Each has unique qualities, traits, and specialties.
First, the exterior parts: Have you ever forgotten something important and hit yourself in the forehead with the palm of your hand If you have, you've directly connected with your brain's frontal lobe, which is one of the four major areas (lobes) of the exterior human brain. This area is the executive control center and personality area; its job is planning and thinking (for example, making plans for a 2:00 dental appointment and then forgetting to show up). This is the area of the brain that also curbs emotional excess and helps us solve problems.
Every time you wash your hair and massage the area above your ears you're making a connection with your brain's temporal lobes, which are responsible for processing sound and language.
If you've ever sat back in your desk chair and clasped your hands behind your head to stretch or relax and enjoy a moment of satisfaction or deep thought, your hands are embracing the brain's occipital lobes, which are responsible for visual processing. And, if you happen to be in the habit of clasping your hands near the top of your head, you're showing some love for your brain's parietal lobe, which is responsible for processing sensory information, spatial orientation, and calculations.
Finally, if you comb your hair from the middle of your head (more common among women these days, but it was a men's style in the 1970s), then you are raking your comb across the area of your brain at the very top called the somatosensory cortex (directly in front of the parietal lobe), which is responsible for processing touch signals. Combing your hair this way also connects you with your brain's motor cortex (directly in back of the frontal lobe), which is responsible for coordinating body movement (see Figure 1.1).
Clearly, the brain is a much more complicated organ than this simple tour, but our description serves two purposes. First, it's a very graphic way of explaining the concepts, and second, if you pretend to make the movements suggested—hitting your forehead, washing and combing your hair—then you are validating the underlying premise of this book of connecting movement to learning.
Interior Parts of the Brain
Physically touching the interior parts of your brain as an aid to learning is obviously not possible, so I'll use a two-story house with a basement as a learning analogy. First, think of the brain stem as your brain's basement. Nearly all homes locate basic infrastructure and operational connections in the basement, such as plumbing, electrical, cable, telephone connections, and heating and air conditioning equipment. Our brain's basic survival connections and functionality, including the regulation of our heartbeat, respiration, body temperature, and digestion, are all centered in the brain's basement.
Most of the life of a typical home happens in the kitchen, living or family, and dining rooms. The brain's limbic system, located above the brain stem basement and below the cerebrum (a typical home's second floor) is composed of four principal "living" areas that are called the thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala. Though the limbic system is not limited to these four structures, these areas are the most important for this book because they relate to learning and memory.
The thalamus processes all sensory information, except for smell. The hypothalamus maintains homeostasis and monitors things such as sleep and the intake of food and liquid. Of the four, the hippocampus and amygdala are more relevant to the training and learning process since one of the major roles of the hippocampus is to convert information in working memory (or temporary short-term memory) to long-term storage—very important to a trainer.
When information enters working memory, the hippocampus essentially searches long-term memory files and compares it to the new information. It is this comparison process for both relevancy and meaning that is most important for trainers, because making this connection is key to the long-term storage and recall of information.
The amygdala processes and encodes emotion. Take a moment to think about your most potent memory and the emotion attached to it. You're more likely to remember every detail about the day you fell in love, but have less emotional memories about the day you memorized the names of all the continents of the world. It is this amygdala emotional encoding that makes the difference.
The attic of your brain is the cerebrum. Note that the analogy breaks down a bit here since your brain's attic carries nearly 80 percent of the house by weight and is separated into two nearly identical haves connected by a thick bundle of electrical fibers running down the center. Still, the brain's attic remains a place for deep thought and concentration.
The control center for all movement in the house, called the cerebellum, is at the rear and is just below the attic. The cerebellum coordinates movement and plays a critical role in the performance of motor tasks. It works with the motor cortex to coordinate the learning of motor skills (see Figure 1.2).
Finally, connecting the wireless lifeblood of our physical home these days are our wireless modems that connect all our essential devices—computers, smartphones, Netflix viewing.
In this house analogy, consider the nearly 100 billion neurons that provide both the energy and connection vital for living. The special difference between a physical home's wireless systems and the brain's neurons is that neurons have the ability to grow and make new connections with each other through chemical messengers called neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, etc.) that leads to learning. And, when strong networks are formed, information from these neural communities is more easily retrieved.
KEY CONCEPTS
* Movement can play a powerful role in learning, training, and training design.
* The discussed exterior parts of the brain include the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, occipital lobe, motor cortex, and somatosensory cortex.
* The discussed interior parts of the brain include the cerebrum, cerebellum, amygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and brain stem.
* Neurons create the complex networks that form memories and learning.
* Emotion is a powerful player in learning and memory that impacts learning both negatively and positively.
CHAPTER 2
Training with the Brain in Mind
WHY MOVEMENT CREATES ENGAGEMENT
Trust me, I am no scientist, but the topic of brain research has fascinated me for years, especially brain research related to how humans acquire and process new information. In fact, over the last thirty years, research focusing on the specific neural pathways used for learning has fundamentally altered many of our assumptions about the optimal conditions for learning.
While it would be easy to cite dozens of important, critical findings from this extensive body of research, an important synthesis of brain research as it applies to learning was created by educator Lee Oberparleiter. Through both an examination of an expansive body of literature on brain research, and 35 years of public, private, and higher education instruction, Oberparleiter developed what he calls the 12 brain-compatible principles. Movement can play a direct role in eight of those principles during a training experience. You might think of these eight principles as nonnegotiable brain facts that must be factored into every learning event to ensure a return on your training investment.
Unfortunately, these simple principles are not used more consistently, mostly because neuroscience is a relatively new field and the information is simply not widely shared among teachers, trainers, and other learning professionals. And, even if this information were widely distributed, it's just human nature to lean on what we know, the tried-and-true methods and models that we're comfortable using (mostly lecture and PowerPoint slides) as opposed to other methods that are still fairly new. That's unfortunate, because learners are not getting the full benefit from their training and training professionals are missing the opportunity to demonstrate the value and potential of training to increase productivity and provide return on investment to their organizations.
EIGHT BRAIN PRINCIPLES YOU NEED TO KNOW
The eight brain principles that follow are supported by research conducted over the past three decades. If you're interested in some of the supporting research, see the references at the back of this book. For now, just focus on applying these discoveries about how our brains acquire and store information so you will become a more effective and valuable learning professional.
1. Our brain is preprogramed to notice novelty in the surrounding environment. Our brain is preprogrammed (as training with the brain in mind part of our brain's survival mode wiring) to notice changes and differences in the environment. At some point, learners will zone out as they search for this environmental variety. Participants begin scanning their surroundings for something more interesting to focus on and, as a result, one PowerPoint slide begins to look like the one before it. Once our brains switch to this survival mode tactic, anything not engaging, relevant, or meaningful to the task at hand (survival) is dismissed. That's why learners respond so well to novelty in their environment. Changing up the environment resets this innate scanning switch and allows for focused attention from your learners.
2. Learning and movement are innately connected in the human brain. Learning and movement are closely related. Just as the brain scans its surroundings for changes that indicate potential threats, our brain is preprogrammed to learn directly through the movement of our own body and through observation of other humans in motion. That's why learning new concepts and taking in new information through the use of our bodies is one of the most effective learning technologies available to trainers. It's all about implicit learning (learning by doing, feeling, or seeing, often on a subconscious level)—the brain's preferred way to learn. Demonstration can also be an effective and related learning tool. We observe the movements required to produce a result or accomplish a task and then simply mimic what we see. Despite the fact that most of us are efficient visual or kinesthetic learners, long-established learning conventions usually force us to learn through what we read and hear, that is, through traditional training methods.
3. Learning is enhanced when we connect and communicate with others. Early in the process of evolution humans learned that group safety, comfort, and productivity is ensured by banding together in groups. In other words, humans are naturally drawn toward cooperation and collective learning. By managing this basic need for connection and community in your classroom, you'll increase the likelihood that more of the information you present will be stored in long-term memory and retained for later use.
4. Emotional connection enhances the learning experience. We all know our most memorable experiences are directly linked to our emotional responses to these unique circumstances or life milestones. Anything we experience on a truly emotional level is etched permanently in our memory. Nostalgia can play a powerful role in establishing these emotional connections, as we often experience the same emotions that we had experienced during an event that occurred even decades ago when we reflect back in time. Advertisers and marketers use this powerful craving for emotional connection through period specific music or by displaying images that celebrate nationality, family and home life, and, yes, puppies. Learning programs and events that miss this opportunity for learners to connect emotionally are ignoring a powerful learning retention tool. The amygdala located in the center of the brain checks all incoming sensory data for emotional content and is responsible for processing emotion. If a strong enough emotion is detected, the amygdala will boost neurotransmitters responsible for long-term memory storage. That's not to say that all emotional experiences and any connected learning will always be stored permanently, but it does demonstrate the power of emotion in our lives and why this innate part of our brain's functioning should definitely be in your training effectiveness tool kit.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Training in Motion by Mike Kuczala. Copyright © 2015 Mike Kuczala. Excerpted by permission of AMACOM.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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