The Learning Success Blog

Can teachers use students' facial features to understand them and their learning styles better?

International profiling and communication specialist, Alan Stevens, says yes they can.  Alan has developed a process he calls rapid trait profiling which enables people to make a fast personality and character assessment of others. He says large companies and organisations such as Disney Films have seen the benefits of clearer communication and understanding between people. 

Alan spoke to The Learning Capacity Podcast about how rapid trait profiling is being used in many areas of life including education and parenting. He also discusses learnings from Australian Aboriginal lore, and taking up free fall Skydiving at the age of 50.

Learning support teacher, Moya Gibb-Smith has used most of the well-known remedial reading programs to help her  students who were struggling to learn to read.

While she said they all had merit, there was one program that stood out for her.  "It was like doing it on steroids. It was just so much quicker, so much more effective".

Moya described her journey from a young "reluctant teacher" to a passionate remedial reading teacher in an episode on The Learning Capacity Podcast. Listen to the podcast, or read the transcript of her story, which includes how her husband  was "going a bit blue-mouldy" on the way.

Should we concentrate our teaching on trying to improve where students are performing badly, or focus more attention on helping them build on their existing strengths?

It shouldn't be an either /or choice. But according to positive psychology expert, Penny Nesbitt, working on a student's natural strengths will be more rewarding for both the student and their teacher.

Penny spoke to The Learning Capacity Podcast about the movement to positive education and how the strengths approach is being used in classrooms around the world.  She also spoke about the power to two little words:  "NOT YET".

Psychologist and Educator, Dr Marianela Diaz searched the world for best practices in early learning before establishing the first Cleverest Education learning centre in Panama.  

She discovered Singapore leads in many aspects of early education and spoke about her experiences in a conversation on the Learning Capacity Podcast.

Dr Diaz says, "Since I am a psychologist and I'm into education, I know that the most important years are the very early on, the first five years is where you make your neuron connections. So, that's why we decided to go into early education". 

"I also wanted to do something that would actually coexist with cognitive learning and emotional learning".

How do we create great environments for learning at school?

In my final interview of the 8 part Cultures of Thinking series with education consultant Simon Brooks on The Learning Capacity Podcast, we explore answers to this question. 

Cultures of Thinking is an educational framework that emerged from the work of Ron Ritchhart and the Project Zero team at Harvard University.

In the series of interviews with Educator, Simon Brooks, I have been delving into each of the 8 cultural forces that, according to Ron Ritchhart, we must master in order to truly transform our schools.

This is Part 8 of the 8 part series with Simon Brooks about implementing cultures of thinking in our schools.

Listen to the podcast.

Cultures of Thinking is an educational framework that emerged from the work of Ron Ritchhart and the Project Zero team at Harvard University.

In a series of interviews with Educator, Simon Brooks, on The Learning Capacity Podcast I have been delving into each of the 8 cultural forces that, according to Ron Ritchhart, we must master in order to truly transform our schools.

Simon Brooks, who spent years implementing cultures of thinking into his classrooms, now helps teachers introduce the framework in their schools. 

This is Part 7 of the 8 part series with Simon Brooks about implementing cultures of thinking in our schools.

Listen to the podcast:

Educators have been a bit late in applying the immense value of neuroscience, but it’s here in education right now, according to Dr Steve Miller, keynote speaker at the Educating with Neuroscience 2016 conference (ENS 2016) in Melbourne on Friday 26 August.

“It's here now, and if you haven't looked you may not have noticed it,” he says. “Here's the examples I give people:

• Pro athletes are doing neuroscience training to be better at being competitive athletes. 
• The military in a dozen countries uses brain training to make their elite teams more consistently elite. 
• Every hospital has a neuroscience team that uses neuroscience technologies in neurology to help assess things. 
• Companies around the world, if you look at the Fortune top 100 companies, half of them have done a neuroscience study to see what they should be doing to make something more effective, or improve decision making, or to make decision making work among their consumers. 

The place where it's last, to be honest, is in the learning space, in education.”

Expert and experienced speakers at ENS 2016 Conference

I have been having an ongoing 8 episode discussion with educational consultant, Simon Brooks about Cultures of Thinking. This is an educational framework that emerged from the work of Ron Ritchhart and the Project Zero team at Harvard University.

In each of the discussions we delve into the 8 cultural forces that, according to Ron Ritchhart, we must master in order to truly transform our schools.

In this episode, part 6, I discuss the cultural force of 'routines' with Simon, who spent years implementing cultures of thinking into his classrooms. I asked Simon if routines are more than just another classroom activity. 

This is Part 6 of the 8 part series with Simon Brooks about implementing cultures of thinking in our schools.

Listen to the podcast.

Cultures of Thinking is an educational framework that emerged from the work of Ron Ritchhart and the Project Zero team at Harvard University.

On the Learning Capacity Podcast, I have been speaking with educational consultant, Simon Brooks about each of the 8 cultural forces in the framework. In this discussion we look at what it means to create ‘opportunities’ for learning in our classrooms.

This is Part 5 of the 8 part series with Simon Brooks about implementing cultures of thinking in our schools.

Listen to the podcast.

Watching your child grow up is exciting and wondrous. You marvel at what they pick up and how they develop.

For Kim Rackemann and her husband, the journey with their son Finn wasn’t quite so straightforward. Finn wasn’t really hitting the usual milestones. He was found to be on the Autism Spectrum, and the main indicator was his language delay.

Despite some scepticism, Finn started the Fast ForWord program, and in what seemed to be a short space of time, the improvements started. I spoke to Kim on The Learning Capacity Podcast where she shared Finn’s story.

Listen to the podcast.