Episodios

  • Overcoming Fear: Snakes on a Face

    Overcoming Fear: Snakes on a Face
    Feb 19 2022
    “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!”He said it! There was no way in hell he was going to lay his 2.5 metre tall body into a Perspex coffin on what the hosts were calling “The Wheel of Death”. I was participating as a stand-in (basically someone who does the “dummy run”) for celebrities on the popular UK version of the reality show “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here”. For those who may be unaware, this is a show where a group of celebrities live together in extreme conditions. They get very little food and creature comforts. That was how it was for us stand-ins. We slept in the bush, in the open air on hammocks (being kamikazed by bugs all night was probably my least favourite part,) with meagre rations. Water had to be gathered from the creek and boiled before drinking and a tiny portion of uncooked rice and uncooked kidney beans was what needed to last us through breakfast lunch and dinner. Fun times.On this camp we had a large in stature, big talking, American. He was a great guy with a lot of love for those around him but there were certain challenges that he would refuse to do. On one of our final challenges, we were told nothing about it but what they had decided to call it. “For this next challenge, you will be placed inside the “Wheel of Death””. That was all we had to go on to decide whether we would go through with it or dip out by saying the words “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here.”I hate confined spaces. I can’t even sleep with my feet under a blanket. It’s weird because I used to love spelunking in my scout days. Now I decidedly hate being in a tightly enclosed space. Something in my brain told me that that was exactly what I would be experiencing if I went through with participating in this challenge. I switched off the part of my brain saying “Aw hell no! Say no!” and told myself, “My own risk assessment involves understanding that I’m on a highly scrutinised and well managed TV show with consultants, security, OHS officers etc. that have all gone over and over this challenge. I’m in safe hands. My heartbeat was a drum roll and inside my gut churned a cyclone but with a drought-stricken mouth I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.”They laid me inside a tight Perspex “coffin.” Not so bad. I was right about being constricted and as I could barely move my arms, pretty much constrained, but at least it was a transparent casket. The next thing that they did was slide in 2 panels, to segregate my legs from my torso and my torso from my head. Then they laid the lid on top of my sarcophagus.On this lid were 3 small sliding doors – 1 for each section of my compartmentalised body. As I lay there in bare feet, shorts, a singlet and goggles, the first sliding door was opened near my feet. Mud crabs were placed on top of my toes that had decided to stop wriggling in anxiousness and stand frozen. I wasn’t about to give these large crabs the idea that my toes were the enemy. They had some mighty strong pincers. Note: After the game we discovered that the crabs had their claws tied so that they couldn’t actually chop our toes off. All we felt was their little legs running back and forth across our legs and exposed feet. To that point I had never wanted to be wearing a groin cup more. Then the second door opened and dirt, molasses and meal worms were poured all over my torso. Mealworms are the larval form of the mealworm beetle. They look like short garden worms but with harder bodies and tiny little legs that feel “pinchy” when they crawl all over your exposed skin. Lovely. With my head trapped in a position where I couldn’t move from side to side, my blurred peripheral was all I had to give me warning about what was coming next. I saw a pair of tanned, Blundstone, steel-cap boots stand next to my enclosed face. Then I saw a bulky hessian sack that was somehow moving in a weird, dance-like manner. Something was inside. The sliding door to my face was opened and 2 pythons were gently placed on top of my nose and mouth. The challenge was to stay in that position with these creatures making themselves at home on our flesh, for 5 minutes. Then we had to use the limited room that we had to find a locking nut that was near our hand and awkwardly screw it on to a bolt. This action would lead to our release.I did it, I got through it. I faced my fears and not only that, but I won the challenge. The fastest 5 got to enjoy a banquet of biblical proportions rather than the meagre allocation of rice and beans. I like to think that even if I hadn’t been the quickest to escape after the 5 minutes was up, I could still consider the fact that I completed the challenge, to be a win.Fear is normal. There is no bravery if fear is absent. Bravery is not, not being scared. It’s about feeling fear and going for it anyway. Fear can also save your life. Fear is often a good instinct that can stop us from doing something so dangerous that our ...
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    15 m
  • Motivation Series: The Incredible Importance of Introspection

    Motivation Series: The Incredible Importance of Introspection
    Jan 23 2022

    The Incredible Importance of Introspection

    Sometimes motivation starts with insight.

    Every year millions of self-help books are sold. Add to that courses, apps, programs and more and it’s a multibillion dollar industry. Here’s the thing, the answers you are looking for, can almost always be found within.

    Often when we go seeking external help from a “self-help” source, which is kind of a paradox, it’s because we are either feeling stuck in a “Groundhog Day” routine or we feel our life is out of control.

    If you feel like that, you’ve taken a first step, which is recognition.

    Self-awareness starts with recognition of an issue that you could have control over but you’ve perhaps let go of. You have started to look inward, or introspect.

    Wilhelm Wundt, the father of experimental psychology, taught that introspection could be used to reveal one's consciousness.

    He promoted the theory that we have the ability to think about, and then have a chance to actively alter, our motives, feelings, and situations.


    Looking inward is an essential step towards self-awareness. Self-awareness will improve your:

    Communication

    Listening Skills

    Empathy

    Critical Thinking

    Decision Making

    Leadership

    Self-Control

    Creativity

    And much more.

    Introspection is the process where you look inward and examine your thoughts, previous and potential actions, and emotions.


    This is something that becomes easier with age but in youth, if learned and practised, can be a powerful tool to help you achieve your goals.

    The warning is that you can overdo it and start ruminating to the point where you get stuck in a mental quagmire.

    To quote author Frank Herbert of Dune fame, “Truth suffers from too much analysis.”

    or fellow author Phillip K Dick, “The problem with introspection is that it has no end.”

    but if we give ourselves parameters including time and we remind ourselves of the subjective elements of introspection, then we can harness a great power.

    Try starting with 5-10 minutes in the morning and/or evening.

    First you need to sit within the privacy of your own head. To do that you need to get rid of distractions. Put your phone away. Turn off noise distractions or make sure it’s light, meditative music, or the sound of nature.

    Get comfortable and start reflecting on the day or days prior. Bring to the fore any successes you had whether big or small. Enjoy reflecting on those “wins”. Think about any goals missed and and thoughts, behaviours and actions that held you back from nailing those goals. The idea is not to ruminate in a sad tar pit of despair but to positively critique yourself in order to improve. Introspection should feel hopeful. It’s a way to help you feel more intentional about life.

    You can get introspective at any time of course but before the day and at the conclusion are 2 ideal times. In starting the day with some quiet introspection, you should ask yourself questions that will step out of the door with confidence. Some questions could include:

    · What habits are holding me back?

    · What is my motivation for stepping up today?

    · Was I the kind of person yesterday that I’m happy to be today?

    · What mistakes did I make yesterday?

    · What lessons can I draw from those mistakes?

    · What are 5 things that I am grateful for?

    I’ll finish with a quote by the notable psychoanalyst Carl Jung,

    “Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
    ― C.G. Jung

     Thank you for being with me today. My name is Nate Hamon and we are proudly sponsored by Qualify Now RTO

    Have you been thinking about a change of career or even just a refreshing of your current career? Take your skills, education and experience and put them towards a job that will help others who could use your wisdom and guidance. Contact us now to learn about how you can become a Vocational Trainer with a TAE40116, Certificate 4 in Training and Assessment.

    Music provided by Dragon Chromatic and Anthem Fox
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    6 m
  • Motivation Series, Part 1: To Thine Own Self Be Determined

    Motivation Series, Part 1: To Thine Own Self Be Determined
    Jan 7 2022
    MOTIVATION PART 1The Self-determination Theory For my first episode on this series I thought I’d start with the theory which, I can say I have had deep experience with for better or worse. It is the self-determination theory. 28th US President Woodrow Wilson said 'Self determination' is not a mere phrase; it is an imperative principle of action." The self-determination theory says that humans feel motivated to change and progress when 3 innate needs are being met. Those needs are:CompetenceConnection (You’ll sometimes hear relatedness)and Autonomy. Starting with CompetenceI’ll assume that if you are listening to this, you likely have a drivers licence and feel confident driving. Think back to when you first got behind a wheel to learn.Unless you were some freak Schumaker-esque prodigy you likely felt unsure of yourself. Perhaps a bit frightened. I remember my first drive. I ran into a ditch! I learned in a manual and remember clearly the “bunny hopping” the stalling, the gear grinding, the over-revving, the under-revving, the 10 moves it took to do a 3 point turn, the thousand moves it took to do a parallel park and still end up with a tire on the curb, indicating 20 minutes before the turn…Little by little I became more competent and with that competence growth came confidence growth.I’ve been watching Season 4 of Cobra Kai. I’m loving this show on Netflix. I remember my Granddad taking me on an outing to see Karate Kid when we were living in the US in a place called Logan, Utah. 35 years later and Daniel LeRusso is about to start training his own son in the art of Miyagi-do Karate. Before he begins the physical labour he imparts these words of wisdom to his kid, who is a bit of a gamer. “Learning karate isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work. But listen, think of it like a video game. It might not be as exciting at level one when you’re learning all the controls but the more you play, the more skills you get, and before you know it, level 12. You’re hooked.” When we first start learning we are very conscious of our incompetence. That can be demotivating. That is an essential time for a Trainer and Coach to be at their most encouraging. With time and effort we become consciously competent. We are doing things right for the most part but are thinking and talking our way through it. Eventually we become unconsciously competent. Things become automatic. We can now claim mastery of a task, and we can feel confident using and developing our acquired skills. The second innate need is Connection Where do you feel most confident driving? Familiar streets or unfamiliar territory? I know every time I have driven in a foreign country (foreign to Australia that is,) – back before Covid uppercut the nose of international travel, it would take me a little while to feel as confident driving on as I do back home. Whether that’s on the crazily hectic and congested streets of Manila in the Philippines, or the quiet suburban streets in Lethbridge, Canada, where, as an added challenge I had to remember to drive on the right rather than the left side. Think about when you’ve started a new school, new job or joined a new team and how you’ve felt at the start.Have you ever walked into an unfamiliar environment, especially if you’re amongst people who don’t know and felt awkward, unsure, apprehensive? You could be a Mensa level rocket scientist who is taking a samba class for the first time. Your high-level intelligence won’t translate to confidence in that situation. Relatedness which comes with making connections and threading your life into your new environment will help you to feel more comfortable with your surroundings and those who surround you and consequently, you will become more confident. The 3rd need is AutonomyA man was leading as centre manager a high performing, award winning not for profit club. This club has a head office with many locations across the country. Year after year this particular club, (and I’m not going to give specifics because this gets a little personal,) won awards and consistently out-performed other clubs financially and in meeting other KPIs. The reason for this as I see it, was that the head office at the time, took care of the club with light administration and a little oversight to ensure some uniformity in quality was maintained, support in other ways but also allowed the club to run autonomously when it came to things like payroll, fundraising, staff hire, promotions, equipment purchase etc. They knew that this manager and the staff were entrenched in the local community and knew how best to serve that community. Then a new GM came on board. Someone who believed that the best way forward was to strip the local clubs of their in-house admin and to centralise everything but basic day to day operations. They then went about homogenising the clubs without a consideration for the different demographics that each location...
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    10 m
  • Choose Freedom: 6 Tips for Making Choices

    Choose Freedom: 6 Tips for Making Choices
    Dec 30 2021
    What we are talking about today is an essential element of freedom – which is the ability to make choices. Unfortunately many of us self-inhibit and wrap ourselves up in chains by not using that ability well. So what I’ve got today is 6 tips to help you, and myself for that matter, get stronger at making choices. I was cleaning up and culling my dusty collection of books this week and I came across an old favourite that sparked some thoughts that I thought I’d share. In relation to teaching and learning – I started thinking about how much I’ve changed over the years as a Trainer and Assessor and how new information would only lead to knowledge improvement if I responded in the right way. And then that new knowledge, which is a stimulus itself, has to be responded to in order for it to truly take effect and improve my life, and the life of my students. In other words, I could only grow as a Trainer, and consequently help my students to learn and grow, if I developed abilities to respond well to such things as new information, systemic changes, personnel changes and more journey disruptions. There’s a famous quote that kind of hard to confidently assign to someone but by some records it was Steven Covey and by others Viktor Frankl but no matter who said it it’s a really sharp slice of wisdom. Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. — Viktor E. Frankl/Covey The book that I’m talking about rediscovering is Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This book is Twain’s magnum opus. Most of us know the gist. It is his story of a runaway boy (Huckleberry) and an escaped slave’s (Jim) travels on the Mississippi. The book plumbs the depths searching for the essential meaning of freedom. The book has caused controversy and conflict in libraries and schools across the US. Author Jay Squires said “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a dangerous book. As all life manuals are. Celebrated writer Toni Morrison (may she rest in peace,) described and even celebrated the book by saying “The hell it puts the reader through” as being exactly the point of it.Ernest Hemingway went so far as to praise Huckleberry by writing that “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” What both Huck and Jim seek is freedom, but they have different ideas about what that freedom looks like.Jim wants freedom from literal slavery and to an existence that will allow him to be with his wife and children. Huck wanted freedom from his father’s violent abuse as well as the societal collar that he felt people were placing on him.On the journey to freedom Huck and Jim were faced with choices. Choice is an indispensable element of freedom and is the crux of this blog entry.The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. – Amelia Earheart In the book Huck muses on this question and is faced with an opportunity to answer it as he struggles with a dilemma that would see him doing the strictly speaking honest thing or lying to authorities. In a moment where Huck is queried about his raft, where Jim is hiding, and asked by slave hunters whether there is anybody else on board under the raft’s shelter, he is thrown into a whirlwind of conflict. Spoiler alert: He chooses to lie and say that it is his sick and highly contagious father, mum and sister. That false info was enough to keep the slave hunters at bay. In the theories of psychology there is agreement that the opportunity to choose is a valued good. A valued good being something which has a high quality, quantity, or worth but is offered at a low or bargain price. But how do we make the RIGHT CHOICES? We can’t always make the right choices. But we can get better at actually making choices without drawing out the process to the point of debilitation. Here are 3 tips to help improve your ability to make choices. I’ll follow up my next blog post with 3 more tips. 1. FEAR NOT THE WRONG CHOICE Often what was the right or wrong choice ends up being arguable anyway. As humans we are not great at forecasting results. There are too many variables. So we can’t be afraid of making the wrong choices. Studies have shown that choices we make based on what we expect to be more pleasurable often come with consequences that are less grand than we had imagined. psychologist Daniel Gilbert from Harvard University said, “The hedonic consequences of most events are less intense and briefer than most people imagine.” Wrong decisions – events that might cause pain are usually less intense than initially imagined as well. As humans we are built to be resilient. If we are sharp to it and willing to learn, the “wrong choices” can often help us to become better people. 2. CONSIDER HOW YOU ARE FEELINGAND – what ...
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    15 m
  • Games Students Play, Part 1: The Benefits

    Games Students Play, Part 1: The Benefits
    Dec 6 2021
    The Games Students PlayPart 1: The BenefitsGame: from Old English gamenian "to play, jest, joke."We often assign the idea of incorporating play into an educational setting as something reserved for little kids but line up 100 adult students and ask the question “who would like to bring game play into our classroom settings?” and I guarantee that few if any would keep their hands down.As poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman has said, “play is our brain’s favourite way of learning.”For most of us this is true. But does incorporating games as a part of a teaching strategy hold any benefits beyond a bit of fun? Play and learning are not diametrically opposed to each other. They are in fact one sexy couple! Here are 7 reasons for a Trainer to incorporate games into lessons. 1. Utilise and Control CompetitivenessIt’s not like we don’t already live in a competitive world. Competition is everywhere whether that’s finding work, bidding on a house, looking for that rare, limited bargain… Sheltering ourselves from competition can do more harm than good as eventually, we’ll be handed a loss whether we were actively competing or not. Dealing with competition in a healthy way can help us become more resilient after a loss and more gracious after a win. When a person is scared of losing to a point of feeling locked up in body and brain, that person will usually avoid taking any risks, embracing challenges, and seeking new experiences. Michael Jordan said it well when he said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life-and that is why I succeed.” No trainer should encourage full-blown ‘Lord of the Flies’, Squid Games, purge mentality competition of course but healthy competition that usually involves team support is ideal. What students in team comps are aiming for is less about working against other teams, (where sabotage, dirty tricks, verbal attacks etc. might rise,) but more about working in a collaborative way with their teammates. Team support during games can transfer to support in other learning activities. A good spirit of competition can help a student to outperform themselves.2. Enhance the Enjoyability of LearningLearning can be tough, at times boring, and sometimes frustrating, but if those negatives can be outbalanced with enjoyable activities, education can be fun. Games promote positivity and a positive attitude towards learning enhances a student’s ability to retain subject matter.3. Minimise StressLearning new concepts can be stressful. Stress is a killer. Literally a killer. It is the source of so many of our ailments. Why wouldn’t a Teacher/Trainer want to create a less-stressed environment. Games can help to do that. Games with challenging aspects prompt a positive type of stress called eustress to come into play. Eustress is the stress that excites us about taking on a challenge. I believe that we will rarely if ever witness a student’s true potential if they are chronically stressed. Minimise their stress and watch them level up!4. Improve Strategic ThinkingAs most games require strategic thinking, including problem-solving and planning, applying a range of challenges within a game can help students to use their working memory and improve their thinking power. 5. Improve MemoryThere are a lot of games that help to improve memory and considering the vital role that memory plays in a student’s learning I’d say using content specific games in a learning environment can be a huge brain booster. Games made by the students can be particularly effective at improving memory. Students can improve their learning potential as they receive instruction, research and create necessary components of the game construction, teach the game and then share the game. As author Mitchel Resnick said, “As I see it, whoever's doing the inventing is also doing most of the learning - and probably having most of the fun.”6. Improve AttentivenessHow easy is it for the mind to stray during a classroom lesson? Super easy is the answer. By playing a game a student can find it easier to pay attention. The attentiveness that is developed during gameplay can transfer to other tasks.7. Expand KnowledgeGames can help a student to more easily engage with new knowledge which naturally helps expand their minds on the whole. Games can also help lock in and consolidate new knowledge when played after a lesson as a recall activity.One last quote. I doubt you’ll disagree with it.“When you have fun then you're more interested in learning.”Magnus Carlsen Thinking about becoming a Trainer? The job market is hot right now for Trainer and Assessors (an all-in-one job title). Check out any good job search tool and you’ll find thousands of advertised jobs in Australia. The TAE40116 (also known as Certificate IV in Training and Assessment,) is the essential qualification for that role. Qualify Now are the specialists in TAE. Talk to ...
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    8 m
  • Free Your Mind and the Learning Will Follow

    Free Your Mind and the Learning Will Follow
    Nov 12 2021
    FREE YOUR MIND AND THE REST WILL FOLLOWLet’s talk today about open-mindedness and its sexy relationship with education. Notable researchers Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman explained open-mindedness as “the willingness to search actively for evidence against one's favoured beliefs, plans, or goals, and to weigh such evidence fairly”.Malcolm Forbes said, “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”Poet Anthem Fox said it a little differently, “There are no empty minds, just closed ones. Therefore, education is not for the filling of empty minds but for the creation of and expansion of open ones.” However you want to illustrate it in your mind, it is pretty obvious that true education, that which aims to increase a person’s growth and see them understand the world and those who occupy it, promotes open-mindedness. Before I go on to extol the virtues of an open-mind I should quickly throw in a quick caveat. That is that good open-mindedness is not about having your brain exposed to the elements and having your mind blown about here there and everywhere with every change in the wind. It comes with the responsibility to judge wisely and act quickly when occasion calls. While generally speaking open-mindedness is avoiding black and white, cut and dry answers, and searching for understanding of different perspectives I believe that there are things in this world that we can honestly see through historical lenses and common human values to be wrong and not worthy of our time. Professor Walter Kotschnig said, “By all means let’s be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.” In other words, an open mind is like a door that you can open and shut. You can invite what you want and need to invite in and keep out nefarious or ridiculous party-crashers. A closed mind is one that closes the door to any ideas that challenge a preferred narrative.We all like to consider ourselves to be open-minded, ask 10 people if they are open-minded and I’m sure most if not all will say “yeah bro!” But how close to the truth is that really? It is often the opposite of how we approach anything that disrupts our preferred narrative. “I’m a pretty open-minded person but…” How often have you heard that? The truth is that we humans prefer searching out and finding info that helps to support our beliefs. Even if we are doing it subconsciously. We do that consistently enough and those beliefs become what we consider to be facts. We keep accruing these so-called facts to bolster our preferred position. This is called myside bias and the counter is open-mindedness and an ability to think critically. Myside bias isn’t a reflection of education level, and it affects anyone and everyone from all grades of intelligence so how can education be used to promote open-mindedness? Is there reciprocation? Can open-mindedness make us smarter? Let’s start with answering that second question. Can open-mindedness make us smarter? The short answer is yes. And arguably more importantly, wiser.I’ll share more benefits soon but to get us excited, studies show that open-minded people are: - more objective in the judging of other people - less prideful as they seek not to be right, but to understand better - better performers on ability tests. - better at resisting manipulation than close-minded or myside bias affected people. - better able to identify misleading information - more able to avoid assumptions - better able to understand context and nuances and so avoid “binary” or “black and white” thinking. - better able to find empathy for people not of their inner demographic and so better understand the world and the varying economic situations, cultural differences and commonalities, geographical challenges, religious dispositions, ethnicities etc. The importance of open-mindedness can’t be overstated. So how do educators introduce, teach, and enhance open-mindedness in students? 1. Start with ourselves Here are 3 suggestions to improve our own open-mindedness.a. Do the exact opposite of what we are inclined to do. Instead of only searching for information that supports our beliefs, look for the counterarguments, the contradictions to our beliefs. b. When we form an opinion, and this is best done when that bud is still coming in but can be done even when the opinion is in full bloom, we could write down any arguments that challenge our opinion. c. From the Mary T Lathrap 1895 poem “Judge Softly” we find the now famous idiom, Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. We can use that idea to enhance our ability to be open-minded. We can try walking someone else’s path, someone who has different beliefs than ourselves, and seeing things from their perspective. Here are 4 ways that we can help promote ...
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    14 m
  • Beast Mode Study Part IV: Weapons of Mass Distraction

    Beast Mode Study Part IV: Weapons of Mass Distraction
    Nov 2 2021
    Beast Mode Study 4: Weapons of Mass Distraction Long, sleepless nights with mounting cans of empty Monster Energy, toothpicks strategically placed to keep the eyelids open, a blanket embracing your torso as the young morning brings a chill to the air. The cliché imagery from every university comedy montage is cliché because it’s common. Many imagine that it is long hours of study that will bring the best results. Research however tells a different story. Research shows that highly successful students actually spend less time studying than their contemporaries but study more intensely and efficiently in their shorter space of time. It starts with shredding, burning then flushing the idea that you can easily multi-task while studying. Multi-tasking has become more prominent in the digital age where weapons of mass distraction are hidden in plain sight. They have become so much a part of us that they may as well be surgically attached. According to a 2016 study funded by the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia, more than 50% of young adult to middle-aged people carry their phones in their hands or pockets and more than 50% sleep with their phones no more than 50 cm from their heads. When a person has moments of shifting attention, even if briefly or passively, those are moments where the brain has to jump from context to context, meaning it has to waste energy refocusing on whatever it is that is meant to be receiving primary attention. This is not to be confused with the interleaving method which we talked about in the last episode, where attention is carried through to different topics and connections are made. This is having a TV show on in the background, notifications pinging, dinging and ringing while your flatmate is singing this is not bridge building, this is taking long jumps from planet to planet to the point where your energy is so zapped that you struggle to get back to where you should have stayed. If that example goes over the head you may want to jump back to our episode on interleaving. There is a formula touted by Cal Newport in his book “How to Become a Straight-A Student” which reads - “work accomplished = intensity of focus X time spent.” Actually a lot of my thoughts today (and in a lot of what I put out in fact,) are inspired by this author and so I recommend checking him out if you haven’t already. The work that you accomplish, the value that is retrieved from a study period, is a direct result of multiplying intense focus with a solid block of time. The beauty is, that that time doesn’t have to be long compared to the vision of that college studying montage we mentioned earlier. Less time but greater intensity. That needs to become a mantra for every student wanted to kill it at school. Or even if studying as an autodidact, at home or in the library. Let’s say you are studying for your final exam on Animal Behaviour and Psychology. During your allotted time you check messages and texts, you drop in on social media, you go a little wayward with a couple of videos… You could “study” for 3 hours. If even just half an hour of that is off-topic, that’s not 2 and a half hours of study value because of the in and out, here there and everywhere before coming back to it nature of the activity. Your brain is also now having to contend with multiple bits of information. It’s having to figure out where to store things, what goes with what. In studies done on why elite athletes can sometimes “choke” one of the reasons found is that distraction, not just in the moment, but prior to performance, due to the mind having to think about too many things rather than having one hyper-focus, can disable a person. Here’s a problem with simply knowing this stuff – we don’t! That is to say that, the younger generation especially, but all generations in pockets, don’t necessarily agree. You may not agree. Why? Because we are so used to these weapons of mass distraction that we feel we have a good grasp on it all. We feel immune. How many here, and/or how many here know of people who swear that are excellent multi-taskers. From the summary of a research article by the University of Illinois, published in Science Daily,Summary:“Although experts say using electronic media while doing schoolwork negatively impacts learning, many students believe they're immune to any ill effects because they're good multitaskers, according to recent research.” Continuing with a direct reading from this article, “Researchers in psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience found that media multitasking during schoolwork interferes with students' attention and working memory. Students' learning is shallower and spottier; they understand less and have difficulty recalling what they have learned and applying it in new contexts. Their reading comprehension, note-taking ability, test performance and grade point ...
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    10 m
  • Beast Mode Study III: The Roar Power of Interleaving

    Beast Mode Study III: The Roar Power of Interleaving
    Oct 26 2021
    INTERLEAVINGInterleaving is the art of moving from one topic to another in a set block of study time. The word broken down describes inserting additional pages (or leaves,) into a book. While it may seem counterintuitive to move away from one subject while you’re in the thick of it, it’s less about moving away from a subject and more about connecting it with other subjects. It’s about finding the commonalities as well as the differences and using those revelations as bridge builders. Actually, continuing with the “bridge” analogy, it’s a way of connecting worlds. For those who are into Norse mythology or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s like the Bifrost or Rainbow Bridge that allows Asgardians like Thor to travel to different realms. Using the interleaving method essentially opens up your world and by making connections, expands your understanding. Research into this method is particularly favourable towards this being effective for the subjects that ask for problem-solving. Cognitive psychologists that have studied the effects of interleaving feel that the method improves the brain’s ability to differentiate between concepts. They believe that interleaving helps to strengthen memory associations. It is harder at first that blocked practise and study but, as we’ve spoken about in past episodes, the short-term pain leads to longer term gains. If you haven’t listened to our episode on ‘Desirable Difficulties’ please go back and check that out. It’s the podcast episode with the bear in the image. As part of the interleaving process, it is important to remain conscious to those links and not forget to find the connections. The recommendation is to vary the order that the subjects are studied. This helps the mind to avoid going into cruise control. It keeps the mind actively learning.I’ve used physical workouts as an analogy for study or “mental workouts” before because that’s the world I come from being an educator for health and fitness certifications, and it works in this example as well. So, when we work out our muscles, we are using main muscles in any given, isotonic exercise such as, let’s say, biceps curls, that’s an easy one to imagine. So we perform the action by contracting our biceps or “curling” our biceps. Imagine a main topic that you are studying or focused on building as your biceps in this example. The thing is, without stabliser muscles and antagonist or opposing muscles, as well as healthy tendons and ligaments that assist with levers, that biceps curl would fail. And so we also train those supporter muscles and give them their own time and space. Then it all comes together. To get the most out of learning a particular topic or subject, ensure that you are “training” on other subjects and then connecting those other subjects and topics. A bonus is that you can go longer and stronger by not wearing yourself out on the one “exercise” or study lesson. If you’ve set aside a big chunk of studying time, perhaps as you draw close to exams and assessments, this becomes even more important. Share the load.Of course the warning is that if you jump around too much, and don’t give enough time to each topic, then that can of course become detrimental. What you could do is clearly define beforehand, how much time you will spend on each subject before moving to the next one. Make sure that you stand up, stretch, walk, have some water, a bit of chocolate, pet your cat whatever in spaces. Thinking back to the physical training relation, you have to take breaks between sets or blocks of sets (super-sets). There’s a technique that actually ties in perfectly with this. It’s called the Pomodoro From the shape-shifting encyclopedia of the world wide web, Wikipedia, “The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It uses a timer to break work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for 'tomato', after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a university student.The technique has been widely popularized by dozens of apps and websites providing timers and instructions.” The idea behind the Pomodoro technique or any other technique that you want to self-design and prescribe, is to reduce the negative impact of interruptions that can come from within or without, on your ability to focus and allow you to get into a groove. So to recap: Interleaving is essentially mixing multiple subjects while you study and making connections. The difference between "slow learners" and "quick studiers" often comes down to the way they study. Memorising is one thing but it doesn’t always improve understanding. Making connections is contextual learning. The beauty is that as human beings with our own experiences we can connect with subjects and topics ...
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