Neurodidactics for trainers: Designing effective learning seminars.
The book "Neurodidactics for Trainers" offers a versatile introduction to the world of neurodidactics and a well-founded transfer from research to training practice. It also presents the megatrends for training with brains.
Why can a well-conducted outdoor training course or a leadership simulation convey lasting learning effects more quickly than the usual sequence of input, role play and discussion? Do we really only use ten percent of our brain? Is there really a division of labor between a creative right brain and a rational left brain?
In the book "Neurodidactics for Trainers", the author duo Franz Hütter and Sandra Mareike Lang question the often-heard neuro-myths and place current and future learning in seminars on a sound basis of vividly described know-how.
Part I: Neuroscientific findings
The first part of the book deals with the basics for the implementation of neuroscientific findings in training practice. For example, what is neurally activated in role-playing games and what happens in group dynamic processes. Readers will not find the much-cited "reptilian brain" in the book, because it does not exist.Instead, they become acquainted with the small structure known as the "thalamus". Like a "gateway to consciousness" in the diencephalon, it watches over what is important and often filters out what seems familiar. For this reason, experience-oriented training formats with pattern interruptions improve the chances of learning when their impulses pass through this "gateway".
Part II: Neuroscientific explanations
In the second part, the authors describe, among other things, neuropsychological explanations for the most common training formats. Using classic learning models such as the "iceberg model", the "four sides of a message" or the "Johari window" as examples, the readers look at the connections between subjective experience and communication in a new light.
They optimize their role-playing games and group work with concretely applicable theoretical building blocks to bring about change. With the latest knowledge, trainers are able to convincingly justify their approach to participants and when acquiring new seminar assignments.
Part III: Neuroscientific trends
In the third part, the authors take a look into the future and highlight the major trends in science-based learning. These include mindfulness-based training and business simulation games, as well as gamification and digitally networked learning.
Reading sample "Neurodidactics for trainers": Johari Window
The Johari Window was developed in the 1950s by the two social psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. Since then, it has been used primarily in training sessions with group dynamic components. One of Luft and Ingham's aims was to make participants aware of the differences between how they perceive themselves and how others perceive them.In a classic version of the exercise, participants select five to six words from a list of 56 characteristics (patient, introverted, proud, trustworthy, etc.) that they believe describe their own personality particularly well. This is followed by an external assessment, in which several other participants also choose five to six trait words from the list for the person who has just assessed themselves.
The results are placed in the four quadrants of the Johari window. The Johari window can also be used as a pure explanatory model to illustrate two basic messages to participants:
- Secrecy costs strength, disarming honesty relieves pressure and also has a human and sympathetic effect.
- We need others to recognize our blind spots: Ask for and give honest feedback.
Neuropsychological explanatory model
1st quadrant "My secret"
It can be very relieving to reveal more about yourself than you have done so far. It also reduces the fear of exposure and the energy required to maintain facades. From a neuropsychological perspective, three findings support this message:
a. We know that secrets can be kept at the factual level. However, much more information reaches the subconscious of the other person than we previously assumed. For example, social pheromones are unconsciously registered via the tonsil nuclei, which signal fear or stress, among other things, to the other person.
Similarly, mimic micro-expressions such as the lightning-fast wrinkling of the nose or the dilation of the pupils, which we cannot consciously control, are processed via the tonsil nuclei. In this way, feigned aplomb or put-on friendliness lead to contradictory perceptions of others and worsen the relationship.
b. The constant simultaneous activation of incompatible neural networks (for example, the actual feelings on the one hand and the façade on the other) leads to permanent inconsistency tensions. They consume a lot of metabolic energy and therefore promote burnout at the level of cellular energy supply.
In the long term, such internal tensions can lead to disruptions in performance and health. Authenticity and disarming openness therefore not only have a more favorable effect on our conversation partners - they also preserve the energy reserves we need to live. They therefore have a considerable health-promoting effect.
c. Neuroeconomic studies have shown that people who are given trust react with significantly higher levels of the bonding hormone oxytocin. This increases bonding, the willingness to cooperate and also stimulates the production of dopamine. Trust therefore also has a motivational effect.
2nd quadrant "blind spot"
The fact that we are by no means aware of everything that concerns us becomes apparent when we receive honest feedback from a good friend. It's not just the odd quirk that escapes our conscious attention. But also the one or other behavior with which we harm ourselves or with which we hurt others.
For this reason, it is important to share our perceptions and open ourselves up to feedback from others. This is the only way to reduce our blind spots and thus gain more influence over our own behavior. Such blind spots are unavoidable due to the way our brain works.
This only depicts "reality" to the extent that our previous experiences have helped us to interact with the world in a meaningful way. Thus, due to experience-based neuroplasticity, we tend to perceive only those things for which we have established strong synaptic connections.
An imaging study shows in an amusing way how, for example, different professional specializations can lead to a neuronal deformation of professionals. For example, experts tend to process the objects they deal with on a daily basis more strongly with the face recognition area in the fusiform gyrus of the lower temporal lobe - even if they are not faces at all.
In the study, car experts and bird experts were shown pictures of cars and birds, among other things. The car experts processed the cars and the bird experts processed the birds with their face recognition area. As the face recognition area has strong connections to the limbic system, this also indicates a particular emotional connection to the respective object from their own area of expertise.
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