Education is a Verb not a Noun
 
There has been much reporting about the structure of the Irish Education System and how it must develop and change with the worldwide global revolution that is taking place. Inside the corridors, classrooms and lecture rooms of Irish educational establishments there are some horrifying inconsistencies, which are never mentioned but must urgently be addressed.

Throughout every subject in every college there is a large variety in the styles of the lecturers. Throughout every school in every class, there is also a variety in the styles of the teachers. This, in itself, is a good thing. Unfortunately, different styles means different standards and there is a HUGE gap between some lecturers and teachers and others in terms of how good they are at teaching or educating.

We are surrounded with EXCUSES such as “Learning Disability” and “Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder” which place the blame of slow learning at the feet of the children or students themselves. If there is something wrong with them then we don’t have to face it as a problem with the way we do things. Why is it however that most of the children I’ve ever met with ADHD or Learning Disability can have their attention locked onto a Playstation for over 4 hours without moving and are able to learn rapidly every name of every player on their favorite football teams?

In this society, education is certainly improving in many areas. Most of the teachers I’ve met have a really healthy attitude to teaching children. A nine year old son of my friend brought back from school a book which taught communication skills, something I never remembered learning in school and yet one of the most valuable skills in life. There is one area however that requires urgent attention.

TEACHING SKILLS. When doctors are brought through their specialist area they are not just told the content of what they are to do, they are trained how to do it. They watch the best doing it and they model them. They practice what they see the best do and they master it. If they didn’t would we ever let them near us. YET it education, teachers are never taught exactly HOW to do what they are told to do.

In colleges and universities, lecturers are taught NOTHING about HOW to lecture, which absolutely amazes me. The joke about Lecturing being the process whereby notes of the lecturer are passed to notes of the student without entering the brains of either is so accurate a description of many lecture halls today. Teaching although not quite as bad has also similar concerns.

They are taught the subjects they need to cover and classroom management is glossed over, but they never really learn how to put information in multiple ways to ensure every student learns in their own style. They are never taught how to make learning fun and enjoyable so that the children grow up with a healthy attitude about it. They are never taught to inspire children’s beliefs in themselves, which has been shown to have a huge impact upon their educational success later in life.

To me, it’s a miracle that there are so many brilliant teachers and lecturers out there that do a lot of this instinctively. BUT this must become STANDARD in our educational system. The way we learn is as important as what we learn. If we disregard that we will fail to provide children and students with a solid grounding to continue to improve. This also fails our teachers. Their job satisfaction, stress levels, self-appreciation are ALL affected by how well their students are doing and how much their students enjoy being in class.

SO What is the SOLUTION? Well as the old saying goes we won’t know till we find out. I have a few ideas however. I teach Psychology and I train adults in Psychological skills known as NLP. NLP briefly stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. It basically studies how the most effective people in any area think, feel and behave as they perform at their best.

NLP originated from studying the best change agents and therapists of the 1970’s to find out what they did that helped their patients change their lives. It evolved into business, health and education and studied those who were considered to be masterful teachers. What makes the best so good? What was found is that there are certain beliefs that they have, certain ways in which they think and certain ways of using language and communication that makes them so effective.

NLP teaches people how to communicate better. It teaches people how words affect the brain at a very basic level and how to use language with real precision to ensure people retain what they heard. It teaches people how to generate resourceful and powerful emotional states in themselves and others which promotes optimal learning. It teaches people about the different learning strategies and styles which there are and how to develop a number of different styles and strategies in yourself and others.

For example, there have been many studies that originated from NLP that demonstrates that good spellers all spell by making a picture of the word inside their mind and getting a feeling about the word being correct or not. Those who don’t spell as well often hear the word repeated over and over to themselves first and hence they don’t get the same results. It’s not a talent to be able to spell, it’s simply a different strategy you use. When you learn what strategy a person has you can teach them another one which better suits the kind of information you are teaching. The implications for this have been massive.

What’s so magical about NLP is its’ simplicity. It is often described as having a users manual for the brain. When a teacher or lecturer imparts information, they are affecting their students brains. There is so much more to be learnt about how to do this in the most effective and powerful ways. Learning is a process. Teaching is a Process. Before concerning ourselves with the politics and structures of education in Ireland, perhaps it is time we began to LEARN HOW TO MASTER THESE VITAL PROCESSES.