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More Less | | Questions answered: 6, Questions asked: 0 Easy / 0 PRO, PRO-level points: 10 | | Money order | Sample translations submitted: 2English to German: Stakeholder Dialogue Interviews
General field: Marketing
Detailed field: Education / Pedagogy | Source text - English
Stakeholder Dialogue Interviews
© 2007 Otto Scharmer
Purpose
The purpose of a stakeholder dialogue interview is to see your work from the perspective of your stakeholders. It answers the questions: What do my stakeholders want from me? What do they need me for?
Outcomes:
Enhanced clarity about how my work matters from the viewpoint of my stakeholders.
An understanding of how my stakeholders assess the value that I create for them.
Ideas for quickly improving that value.
The identification of barriers and roadblocks that need to be removed.
A better and deeper personal relationship with my key stakeholder.
Stakeholder interviews are not:
Opinion polls (“what do you think about this or that that I am planning?”)
An opportunity to sell specific activities (“don’t you think as well that this would be an important thing to do?”)
A place to ask “closed” questions (those with Yes or No responses)
Figure: Four Levels of Listening
Tip:
Stakeholder interviews work best when you are completely open and suspend all judgments. Only then can something new and unexpected emerge. Try to activate your Listening 2, 3, and 4 (see figure above).
Process
1 - Make an appointment with your stakeholder (try to make it an in-person interview; if that is not possible, a phone interview is also fine); ask for 30-60 minutes.
2 - Create interview questions (see sample questionnaire below).
3 - Prepare and take 20-30 minutes prior to the interview to
focus on the purpose of the interview
imagine the best possible outcome of this conversation (both for you and for your interviewee)
visualize the future that you want to create—and think about how this conversation might be a small first step in that direction
4 - During the interview, listen with your mind and heart wide open, take notes, follow the principles below.
5 - Right after the interview, take 5 minutes to reflect on key insights, capture your key thoughts in writing.
6 - Send a thank you note: close the feedback loop by sending your interviewee a brief email or voice mail to say thank you for the conversation (within 12 to 24 hours). Use this one-paragraph note to say something about the most important insight you gleaned from the conversation.
Principles
Intention: “The most important hour of a generative interview is the hour before” (Jaworski)
Initial contact: Create transparency and trust about the purpose and the process of the interview; establish a personal connection through eye-to-eye (and heart-to-heart) contact early on; make observations in your interviewee’s office or return to themes that came up during the first moments of the conversation in order to establish a more personal connection.
Suspend your voice of judgment (VOJ) to see the situation through the eyes of your interviewee. What matters at this point is not whether you agree with what your interviewee is telling you. What matters now is that you to learn to see the situation through the eyes of your stakeholder.
Access your ignorance (listening 2: access your open mind): As the conversation unfolds, pay attention to and trust the questions that occur to you; don’t be afraid to ask simple questions or questions you think may reveal a lack of some basic knowledge (according to Ed Schein, these often turn out to be the most effective questions).
Access your appreciative listening (listening 3: access your open heart): Connect to your interviewee with your mind and heart wide open; thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the story that you hear unfolding; put yourself in your interviewee’s shoes.
Access your listening from the future field (listening 4: access your open will): Try to focus on the best future possibility for your interviewee and the situation at hand. What would that best possible future look like?
Ask questions spontaneously: Feel free to deviate from your questionnaire if important questions occur to you. The questionnaire is designed to serve you and your work—not the other way around.
Leverage the power of presence and silence: One of the most effective interventions as an interviewer is to be fully present with the interviewee and the current situation—and not to interrupt a brief moment of silence. Moments of silence can serve as important trigger points for deepening the reflective level of a conversation. More often than not, these opportunities go unused because the interviewer feels compelled to jump in and ask the next question. Be courageous. Stay with the moment of silence.
Reflection: “Debrief” and crystallize right away; capture observations and insights in your journal; after the interview, don’t make phone calls or have conversations until you have recorded your thoughts and impressions; use a structured debriefing process if possible.
Instant feedback: Use email or voice mail to send a thank you note to your interviewee (within 12 or 24 hours). Use this to articulate and highlight the most important insight you gained from the conversation (in a paragraph or so).
Example 1: Line Leaders (Directors) in a Global Company
« I had already had some conversations during the first weeks in my new position. You have got to do this within the first 100 days of work. I introduced myself to my boss, spoke to some key customers, and had one-on-one conversations with my team members. Told everyone what I was going to do and got a number of requests, also support. So I was wondering at first when I heard about the stakeholder interviews how these could be any different from that. Then I chose to have a conversation with the head of Production; that was tentatively a difficult relationship because in the past co-operation has not been highly effective. I was concerned that if I asked the question “what do you need me for?” he would answer “we don’t need you at all. You guys from Corporate make our lives difficult.” Then I realized that I used to think the same way when I was in Production. That experience helped me to put myself into the shoes of the head of Production before I started the interview. So I wasn’t approaching the interview with the mindset “how Corporate could sell itself to Production” but rather talking as production guy to production guy. To my big surprise we had a great conversation about things that he had always wanted Corporate to do for him but never got done because it just wasn’t on their screen and no one ever asked him: what do you need us for? From there we began exploring some new and practical ways to move forward. It was great. Later in the conversation I learned that he had had a team meeting with his staff and asked for input on each of the four questions. So all of the answers he came up with were based on input from his whole team. I really felt great about it because through this simple email and conversation I had been able to reach and connect with his whole team—not just with him. I wished I could have used this process with all of my stakeholders right at the beginning of my new job.”
Newly promoted directors in this global company conducted interviews with four different types of stakeholders: 1. bosses, 2. customers, 3. their team, and 4. their wider network. The interviews were based on the following four questions:
1. What is your most important objective, and how can I help you realize it?
(What do you need me for?)
2. What criteria will you use to assess whether my contribution to your work has been successful?
3. If I were able to change two things in my area of responsibility within the next six months, what two things would create the most value and benefit for you?
4. What, if any, historical tensions and/or conflicting demands have made it difficult for people in my role or function to fulfill your requirements and expectations?
Example 2: Internal Consultants in a Global Company (for interviews with key stakeholders in their client system)
1. What is your most important objective, and how can I help you realize it?
(What do you need me for?)
2. What in the past has been my most useful contribution to your work, if any?
3. In your current work, what are your biggest sources of frustration, and what gives you energy?
4. What key forces of change currently reshape the context of your business and leadership work? What do you need to pay more attention to?
5. What challenges and opportunities will result from these changes going forward?
6. Given the challenges you currently face, what old leadership behaviors do you need to let go of (or reduce), and what new leadership behaviors do you need to develop more fully?
7. What would constitute success; what would success look like?
8. How could such a future success be prototyped and tested on a small scale, in order to “learn by doing”?
9. Which key stakeholders would you need to involve to get such a small prototype experiment going?
10. What could I do to help you make this (or other things that you really care about) happen?
11. What would be the practical next steps?
Resources
http://www.presencing.com
http://www.theoryu.com
2007 Otto Scharmer
| Translation - German
Das Stakeholder-Dialog-Interview
© 2007 Otto Scharmer
Zweck
Der Zweck eines Stakeholder-Dialog-Interviews ist es, festzustellen wie Ihre Arbeit aus der Perspektive eines Stakeholders wahrgenommen wird.
Resultate:
• Klarheit darüber wie meine Arbeit aus der Sicht meiner Stakeholder angesehen wird.
• Einsicht darin wie die Stakeholder den Wert meines Beitrags beurteilen.
• Vorschläge wie der Wert meiner Arbeit rasch gesteigert werden kann.
• Das Feststellen von Hindernissen und Blockaden, die weggeräumt werden müssen.
• Eine bessere und vertiefte Beziehung zu meinen Stakeholdern.
Ein Stakeholder-Dialog-Interview ist keine:
• Meinungsumfrage. (“Was halten Sie von diesen Plänen?”)
• Gelegenheit um bestimmte Massnahmen durch zu bekommen. (“Meinen Sie nicht auch, dass es wichtig wäre dies zu machen?”)
• Gesprächsform für “geschlossene” Fragen. (Fragen, die mit Ja/Nein beantwortet werden)
Abbildung: Die vier Ebenen de Zuhörens
Stakeholder-Dialog-Interviews funktionieren am Besten, wenn Sie ganz offen und vorbehaltlos ans Gespräch heran gehen. Nur dann kann Neues und Ungeahntes zum Vorschein kommen. Versuchen Sie die die 2e, 3e und 4e Ebene des Zuhörens zu aktivieren (s. vorherige Abbildung).
Vorgehensvorschlag
1. Machen Sie einen Termin ab mit ihrem Stakeholder. Informieren Sie Ihrem Gesprächspartner darüber, dass das Interview zwischen 30 und 60 Minuten dauern wird, vorzugsweise am Arbeitsort des Stakeholders oder einen neutralen Raum. Achten Sie darauf dass die Stunde ungestört ist.
2. Bereiten Sie sich auf die ausgewählten Interview-Fragen vor.
3. Planen Sie 20 – 30 Minuten vor dem Interview ein, um:
a. sich auf den Zweck des Gesprächs zu fokussieren.
b. sich vorzustellen, was das bestmögliche Resultat dieses Interviews für Sie und Ihren Gesprächspartner wäre.
c. visualisieren Sie die Zukunft, die Sie gestalten möchten – und überlegen Sie wie dieses Gespräch einen ersten kleinen Beitrag dazu leisten könnte.
4. Während des Interviews sollten Sie: mit offenem Geist und Herz (open mind & open heart) zuhören, sich Notizen machen und die nachfolgenden Grundsätze beherzigen.
5. Nehmen Sie sich nach dem Interview sofort 5 Minuten Zeit, um über die Kernerkenntnisse zu reflektieren, und diese Kerngedanken auf Papier zu bringen.
6. Schliessen Sie den Feedback-Kreis; lassen Sie Ihrem Gesprächspartner ein kurzes Dankeschön in Form einer E-Mail oder Combox-Nachricht innert 12 bis 24 Stunden zukommen. Verwenden Sie diese kurze Nachricht, um die Kernerkenntnis, die Sie aus dem Interview gewonnen haben, mitzuteilen.
Grundsätze Stakeholder Interview
1. Absicht: “Die wichtigste Stunde eines Interviews ist die Stunde davor”. (Jaworski) Besinnen Sie sich auf Ihre Absicht die Sie mit dem Interview verbinden. Was wäre das bestmögliche Ergebnis für Sie?
2. Erster Kontakt: Kreieren Sie Vertrauen indem Sie Zweck und Verlauf des Interviews deutlich machen; bauen Sie vom ersten Moment an einen persönlichen Draht durch Blick- (und Herzkontakt) auf. Seien Sie locker und greifen Sie am Schluss nochmals Themen vom Anfang des Gesprächs auf, um einen guten Kontakt herzustellen.
3. Stellen Sie ihre innerlich urteilende Stimme ab um die Sache aus der Sicht Ihres Gesprächspartners zu sehen. Ob Sie gleicher Meinung sind, zählt zu diesem Zeitpunkt nicht. Wichtig ist im Moment, dass Sie lernen die Sache durch die Augen Ihres Stakeholders zu sehen.
4. Zugang zur eigenen Ahnungslosigkeit (Zuhören 2: Zugang zum offenen Geist/open mind): Achten und vertrauen Sie auf Fragen, die während des Interviews bei Ihnen aufkommen; stellen Sie ruhig auch einfache Fragen oder Fragen von denen Sie befürchten, dass diese eine Wissenslücke ihrerseits preisgeben könnten. (Gemäss Ed Schein sind diese oft die wirksamsten Fragen.)
5. Zugang zu wertschätzendem Zuhören (Zuhören 3: Zugang zu Ihrem offenen Herzen): Stellen Sie mit offenem Geist und Herz Kontakt zu Ihrem Gesprächspartner her. Schätzen Sie seine Darstellung der Angelegenheit; seine Geschichte, versuchen Sie sie aus seiner Sicht zu betrachten.
6. Zugang zum generativen Zuhören (Zuhören 4: Zugang zum offenen Willen): Versuchen Sie sich vorzustellen, was für Ihren Gesprächspartner und die heutige Situation die beste Lösung in der Zukunft wäre. Wie würde dieses bestmöglichste Zukunftsszenario aussehen?
7. Spontan sein: Tun Sie sich keinen Zwang an, wenn Ihnen spontan wichtige Fragen einfallen. Der Fragebogen ist dazu da, Sie und Ihre Arbeit zu unterstützen – und nicht umgekehrt.
8. Setzen Sie die Kraft der Gegenwärtigkeit und des Schweigens ein: Eines der wirksamsten Mittel des Befragers ist es, trotz vollständiger Gegenwärtigkeit im Gespräch, eine kleine Pause im Gesprächsfluss zuzulassen, ohne diese gleich überbrücken zu wollen. Kleine Schweigemomente können eine Vertiefung der Reflektionsebene eines Gesprächs auslösen. Viel zu oft vergehen diese Gelegenheiten ungenutzt, weil der Interviewer sich gezwungen fühlt, schleunigst die nächste Frage zu stellen. Seien Sie mutig – und lassen Sie einen Schweigemoment zu.
9. Reflektion: Machen Sie nach der Unterredung sofort eine Auswertung und legen Sie Ihre Beobachtungen und Einsichten schriftlich fest; führen Sie nach dem Interview keine Telefonate oder Gespräche bis Sie Ihre Gedanken und Eindrücke eingetragen haben; verwenden Sie nach Möglichkeit eine strukturierte Auswertung.
10. Sofortiges Feedback: Lassen Sie Ihrem Gesprächspartner ein kurzes Dankeschön in Form eines kurzen Gesprächs/Telefonats, E-Mail oder Combox-Nachricht innert 12 – 24 Stunden zukommen. Benennen und erklären Sie kurz Ihre Erkenntnisse aus dem Gespräch.
| German to English: Lernschwierigkeiten – Wie exekutive Funktionen helfen können
General field: Other
Detailed field: Education / Pedagogy | Source text - German
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| Translation - English
Part I – Translation
1. Target Text
Learning Difficulties – How Executive Functions Can Help
Theory and Practical Guidelines for Education Professionals
Foreword
A great number of people suffer from learning difficulties. Aside from those who have a learning disability or a learning handicap, or those with ADHD, dyslexia or dyscalculia, persons from all age groups and with all kinds of backgrounds are confronted with learning difficulties. It almost seems as if learning has become more difficult in recent years. Various causes are considered to be at the root of this development, and, accordingly, different approaches have been formed to deal with them.
The demands of modern society strongly affect our learning behavior: On the one hand, life-long learning has become essential in Western civilization for those who wish to stay ahead, and, on the other hand, there are countless obstacles that have to be overcome before one can actually start learning. The enormous choice of leisure activities is a huge challenge for anyone who has to study or do homework. There is always something more instantly gratifying to be done than immersing oneself in new and difficult material. Doing homework requires a certain effort and why make that effort when you could be doing something fun instead? Time and time again, parents report that reducing the availability of distractions (time spent watching TV or playing computer games) encourages their children to put more effort into their academic work. Now a way has to be found to achieve the same results in the classrooms.
Day-in, day-out, the media tell us that life should be easy and effortless: a message that directly influences how we raise our children. In addition, psychology teaches us that things we enjoy doing require a minimum of effort to master. The question of how one goes about doing something that does require an effort has only recently become a focal point in research. Nowadays, many parents and teachers find the notion that a student has to make an effort to reach a goal almost unbearable: effort has fallen out of favor. Results from current research done by Carol Dweck, professor at Columbia University, however, show that the willingness to make an effort, and, to forego an immediate reward, is crucial for a good academic record. Both the willingness to make an effort and the ability to postpone a reward can be improved with practice. As Walter Mischal’s famous marshmallow experiment at Stanford University in 1968 demonstrated, young children already possess the ability to voluntarily postpone reward. His long-term studies showed that this ability is decisive for academic success, and pivotal to success in one’s work and private life. It is therefore essential for learners to understand the importance of these skills, since learning requires the willingness to make an effort and the ability to delay gratification.
So how do such learning mechanisms evolve? The willingness to make an effort and the ability to delay reward can only function if impulses such as: “I want to watch TV now!” can be controlled. Control is exercised by what are known in professional terminology as the “executive functions”(EF). Along with working memory, these consist of: planning and organizing, impulse control, time management, cognitive flexibility, self-regulation, strategy monitoring, and metacognition. Nowadays, it is thought that a great number of learning problems are caused by insufficient development of the executive functions. With this book, Monika Brunsting takes a closer look at how these functions work. Having recently published a book on metacognition, she now places her findings in context with the concept of executive functions as described in neuroscience and cognitive psychology today. Howard Gardner, a leading researcher in the field of education and psychology, has strongly influenced her work. With his catchphrase “hill, will and skill”, he has distilled the essence of what executive functions are: Getting up a hill requires effort, but this helps strengthen your will and develop new skills.
This book provides a number of practical examples, aswell as a host of ideas and exercises for parents and teachers to apply in everyday school and home situations to help their child or pupil develop its executive functions. Relevant results in the fields of neurobiology and cognitive psychology are explained in a clear and concise manner, and a comprehensive list of further resources to consult is provided.
Offering a selection of games and experiments, the book encourages learners to go through life with open eyes, and seize the opportunities that present themselves to practice and develop their executive functions on a daily basis.
Prof. Dr. Joseph Steppacher
Part one:
Theory
1. Introduction
What Are Executive Functions? Can Executive Functions Be Trained? Development in Education and Psychology.
Sven is eight years old, and not doing very well at school. Although he’s a bright boy, his schoolwork leaves a lot to be desired. Professionals call him an underachiever, but what does that mean? Basically, it means that Sven doesn’t like having to make an effort. He only wants to do the fun things, and tries to get through the things he doesn’t like doing as fast as possible.
Anna is 14 years old. Sometimes she gets good grades at school. Then she’ll flunk an exam, even though she studied for it. When asked how she goes about preparing for her exams, it becomes obvious that she starts studying at the very last moment. Then, when she realizes she has left off preparing for too long, she starts feeling nervous. Anna is beginning to suffer from exam stress, which could be avoided if she started studying on time.
A large number of people have learning problems at some point in their life. Naturally, both professionals (educators and psychologists) and parents have a keen interest in finding methods to deal with these problems. In this book, several techniques are presented, first, to pinpoint the exact learning problem, and, second, to show how to deal with it.
What are Executive Functions?
Recently, Anna has been having more and more trouble coping with her homework. She doesn’t plan ahead, and isn’t able to direct her learning behavior. She doesn’t review what went well and what could be improved, nor is she able push herself to start studying on time.
Sven hardly does any homework on his own accord. His approach is “spontaneous” – if he’s not in the mood, he doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t plan or monitor his behavior, he doesn’t look back, and therefore doesn’t learn from consequences. As long as his parents or a teacher keep an eye on him, things function quite well. However, as soon as he is supposed to work independently, he lets himself be diverted by inner and outer distractions and doesn’t make any headway.
Today, experts consider insufficiently developed executive functions to be at the root of a number of difficulties connected with learning, problem solving and coping with day-to-day life (Barkley 2007, Denckla 2007).
Executive functions: complex mental processes that guide the planning, monitoring and directing of our actions.
Executive functions are often compared with the skills a conductor employs to coordinate and direct an orchestra. By ensuring that all the musicians can perform well and harmonize, the conductor forges a unity out of the individual voices and instruments.
Executive functions typically deal with:
• organization
• planning
• self-monitoring
• impulse control
• reflecting
• and strategy monitoring.
Working memory (a transient storage unit that retains information for a number of seconds until it is processed, e.g. a telephone number) is also considered an executive function, and researchers have increasingly come to recognize its significance these last years. Studies done recently by W. Perrig’s research group at the University of Bern have demonstrated that working memory plays an eminently important role, and that training this function has a beneficial influence in many areas connected with learning and life skills (Jaeggi, Buschkuehl, Jonides & Perrig, 2008). To improve working memory the University of Bern offers a computer program with useful exercises.
Emotions can strongly affect executive functions. For example, doing something we don’t enjoy can lead to lacklustre performance, and conversely, doing something that we like to do can result in an outstanding execution. Emotions influence executive functions from the subconscious; this is known as bottom-up steering. Some experts refer to this as influencing by the low road (Goleman, 2007) or hot executive functions (Castellanos, 2007). Accordingly, the opposite term is either: top-down steering, high road (Goleman), or cold executive functions (Castellanos), and stands for simple guiding and monitoring processes that are hardly influenced by emotions.
The expression metacognition is often used as a synonym for executive functions. Metacognition means accessing a higher mental level (meta-level) while thinking, studying or working, and in fact observing one’s brain at work.
The idea of analyzing thought processes employing metacognition to treat learning difficulties is not new. Numerous research projects have been instrumental in developing, testing and evaluating learning and problem-solving strategies. Based on the assumption that poor learners applied poor learning strategies, the obvious solution seemed to be to teach them better learning strategies, thus enabling them to improve their learning skills. This approach is known as cognitive intervention and is in fact frequently helpful. All the same, there remain a number of learners who, despite having learned the strategy, do not apply it. Flavell talks of “children failing to solve problems for which they possess the necessary solution procedure. They ought to solve these problems, we think, and yet they do not. Why not?”(1972, 232). Using this question as a starting point, he developed the concept of metacognition that has been adopted by the scientific community. Leading authors from day one are Brown (1984), Brown and Deloache (1978), Borkowski, Johnston and Reid (1987) and Schneider (1989). And though executive functions form a loose concept, they has proven to be very useful for practical purposes. The concept deals with learners’ understanding of their own thought and learning processes, in short about metacognitive awareness and executive functions.
Metacognitive awareness comprises:
• self-knowledge of one’s own learning (I’m good at …)
• understanding the purpose of the assignment (this is for learning vocabulary)
• and knowing which strategies to apply (to solve assignments you have to read or listen to the instructions).
Executive functions are basically about:
• monitoring,
• steering and
• controlling cognitive behaviour.
Can Executive Functions (EF Training) Be Trained?
Training one’s executive functions helps improve learning and problem-solving abilities. Already several years ago, research demonstrated that improved executive functions lead to better results in intelligence tests (Brunsting, 1989). Evaluations of training methods show that they markedly advance learning and problem-solving ability (Brown, Campione & Day, 1981; Brunsting, 1989; Okagaki & Sternberg, 1990; Paris & Oka, 1986; Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Planicsar, 1986). As a rule, the effectiveness of the training methods was undisputed, the trainees’ results improving in the corresponding area. The transfer effect, however, was disappointing; learners would apply their newly acquired strategy to the exact situation for which they had learned it, but did not apply it to new situations. These findings have led to a new approach, and training methods are now geared to real, everyday learning situations as opposed to the previously more specific training strategies. Krechevsky and Gardner (1990) developed an approach they called the infusion approach. This so-called across-the-curriculum approach links general thinking skills with the school curriculum.
In recent years, the usage of meta-cognitive approaches (EF training) is being recognized in an ever broader field of disciplines. They are being applied in a number of educational and special-needs therapies and, of late, even in certain forms of psychotherapy.
Development in Education and Psychology
Researchers have been studying executive functions and developing remedial methods since the 1970s. These studies were initiated in the field of learning disabilities education (Brown & Deloache, 1978), and the methods were successfully applied to persons with impaired learning abilities (Büchel, 1997). In recent years, these methods have been introduced into the fields of psychology and psychotherapy (cognitive therapy) as well. As a result, it is recommended nowadays that learners with ADHD do metacognitive training as this has been found to be beneficial for ADHD-specific complications.
Sven and Anna, the children who were introduced at the beginning of this chapter, can learn to improve their executive functions. They can learn how to plan ahead, monitor themselves, and revise their actions.
2. Cognitive Psychology - Thinking and Learning as Viewed in Cognitive Psychology
Learners Construct Their Learning Process. Relationships and Ties. Emotions. Motivation. Learning and Memory. Learning in Developmental Psychology. Executive Functions. “Hill, Skill and Will” (Gardner, 2007).
In the following the cognitive psychology viewpoint is explained, and the concept of executive functions looked into with more detail.
Learners Construct Their Learning Process
Anna likes languages, especially Spanish; she finds math much more difficult. She enjoys learning Spanish, and the more she learns, the easier she finds it. Anna has gotten her love for languages from her family and her motivation is nearly unbreakable. The past couple of months, she has been corresponding with two Spanish-speaking pen pals, and now she’s progressing even faster. She doesn’t have any trouble at all remembering what she has learned. Anna really knows what it takes to learn a language.
Generally speaking, Sven does not like having to deal with languages. He shirks his reading homework, doing it at the last moment. Languages do not count for much in his family. Technology, however, is a different matter. His father is a computer specialist. Sven has no idea how he could improve his reading and writing skills, but if there’s a technical problem to be solved, the ideas come thick and fast. He likes experimenting and constructing things with whatever he can lay his hands on, and often comes up with interesting solutions. This shows that he’s a bright boy and able to learn – even though his reading and writing skills lag behind.
Nowadays, learners are seen as active constructors of their own learning strategy. Besides learning about the subject at hand, they also generate knowledge and competence from experience. This learning model is called constructivism. Naturally, an important part of this process consists of the impulses received from the environment. Preparing a speech, writing a story or doing sums constitute necessary impulses, but so do other activities. Bike riding, setting the table or building a tree house are also important impulses for the construction of a learning strategy. Anna and Sven have received different impulses from their environment, and they have made use of them in their own individual ways. This is an important distinction, because otherwise, Anna’s brother and Sven’s sister would have the same learning difficulties, which they don’t.
Relationships and Ties
Based on the impulses that Anna and Sven received from their environment, they have developed their own likes and interests. In other families, these interests would probably have been different, and with another disposition, the children would have reacted differently to the impulses they received. The most important impulses came from their parents and other close members of their family. As they grew older, this circle is opened to include other persons.
Learners need people who give them learning impulses. Parents or other primary caregivers, and persons the learner identifies with, such as children of the same age group, are the first people to provide these impulses. Upon starting school, teachers are added to this circle, as well as coaches, music teachers and other people who teach one how to learn things and deal with problems. According to Joachim Bauer (an acclaimed neuroscientist, psychiatrist and psychotherapist), relationships and ties are crucial factors to learning (cf. chapter 3: Neuroscience, Thinking and Learning). These ties can be very close (between parents and children) or loose (teachers and peers). The important point is that the impulses trigger a positive reaction in the learner.
Generally learners are able to master those things they find interesting, and are important to them. These can be the oddest things, and learning the times table is not always included. The main thing is that the learner has an interest in something. These interests can functions as an excellent navigation system, and used to direct learning strategies and brain development. Over and over, it’s worth finding out where the present interests of the learner lie and using these to plan learning sessions.
Emotions
Anna and Sven chose their likes and interests based on emotions. They spent a lot of emotionally valuable time exploring “universes” with family members. Anna spent hours happily looking at picture books, and Sven preferred playing with toys or whatever household object caught his attention.
While doing this, they subconsciously chose certain things, and decided against other things, which is why Sven is fascinated by technical matters, and Anna is not. Anna decided against “technical stuff” when she chose books, and Sven did the exact opposite.
Emotions are essential to learning. Modern brain research (cf. chapter 3: Neuroscience, Thinking and Learning) has shown that every decision to learn something is based on emotion. A person becomes aware of something, and decides within milliseconds that they want to know more about it (interesting topic), or master it (riding a bike). Anything that intrigues or interests us acts as a powerful motivator, and makes us willing to make a significant effort. The opposite is true if we decide that we’re not interested in something; there is no trace of motivation or willingness to make an effort. That is why it is so important to get learners interested in something even if they are not - yet - very receptive to school subjects, life skills or executive functions.
Motivation
Anna is highly motivated to learn Spanish, but she’s not at all interested in technical matters. Nonetheless, she has no problems using technical gadgets for things she considers worthwhile: texting with her cell, using her iPod or the food processor when she wants to bake a cake.
Sven is really into technical matters, but not at all interested in learning how to read and write. Sometimes, though, he can be found with his nose in a book if he wants to find out something new about a subject that interests him.
Both are able to increase their motivation to learn how to do things outside of the areas they really like, if they are interested enough.
Motivation is extremely important for good learning and for personal development. Things people are interested in, and therefore motivated to learn about, are things they do well. Conversely, people are rarely very skilled in areas that they do not find interesting. Nowadays, learners with school problems often have trouble motivating themselves, and they find it impossible to push themselves to complete their assignments. Carol Dweck (2007) and her team of researchers have spent years exploring the correlations between motivations and effort, and have developed interesting concepts about how to deal with these difficulties.
Learning and Memory
Cognitive psychology defines learning as the acquisition of new knowledge or procedures. We learn when the French Revolution took place, or how much three times eight is (factual knowledge). But we also learn other things like how to ride a bicycle, to dance or to swim (procedural knowledge). We learn something new, or practice something we already knew how to do. Depending on what we do, different cognitive processes are involved and different areas of our brain are activated (cf. chapter 3: Neuroscience, Thinking and Learning). According to Stebler, Reusser and Pauli learning is: “… an active, constructive, cumulative and goal-orientated process that takes place in study groups and other circumstances and is directed by metacognition” (1994, 232).
Cognitive psychology considers the way acquired factual and procedural knowledge is stored of prime importance. Information that is forgotten straightaway is not regarded as learned. Neuroscience deals in more detail with the actual process of learning and storage of knowledge (cf. chapter 3: Neuroscience, Thinking and Learning).
Learning in Developmental Psychology
At the age of five, Sven made a game of building towers as high as he could with his building blocks. More often than not, they collapsed, but one day Sven reported, “Guess what! If I pile up the blocks really carefully, the towers almost never collapse anymore.”
When Anna was five she played make-believe with her dolls a lot, “It’s Sunday. We’re going to the zoo!” That was one of her favorite pretend stories, and she and her friends would plan the occasion down to the last detail. “O.K., first they have to get dressed, and then they have to eat something. Now they can go. Are they all dressed properly? Oh! Where are the shoes? Child! Put on your shoes!”
Sven was able to draw conclusions from his actions, and Anna practiced her planning, monitoring and directing actions. This was a way for them to build up their executive skills, and today they continue to strengthen and practice these skills with other (age appropriate) activities.
Executive functions develop step by step as a child grows older. Ideally, everyday life offers enough suitable challenges for these functions to evolve naturally.
Previously, it was thought that executive functions started developing around the age of 12 or 13 at the earliest. Today, it has been shown that babies of only a few months age display nascent executive functions (Moran & Gardner, 2007). Sven and Anna have demonstrated how these can manifest themselves at the age of five.
There exist, however, a number of people (children, adolescents and grown-ups) who do consider their actions beforehand, and do not learn from past experiences. They need help to build up their executive functions.
Executive Functions
Executive functions are complex cognitive processes that enable planned behavior (Denckla, 2007). They are process variables and consist of planning, monitoring and controlling mechanisms.
“Hill, skill, and will,” are the three words that Moran and Gardner use to summarize how to develop executive functions (Moran & Gardner, 2007, 19). “Hill” stands for the goal, “skill” for the requisite accomplishments, and “will” for the determination to reach it. This succinct summary clearly states what is needed to be able to learn, and develop the executive functions:
• to see the goal clearly and head towards it (“hill”),
• to have the necessary accomplishments or acquire them to get there (“skill”),
• and to build up and sustain enough determination to reach the goal (“will”).
Sven’s “hill, skill and will” are: his wish to have a exciting job like his Dad does (“hill”), his ability to understand and analyze logical problems (“skill”), and his determination to reach this goal, no matter what (“will”).
Anna’s “hill, skill and will” are: to use her languages to travel and get to know the world (“hill”), her excellent learning abilities (“skill”), and her unshakable resolve to accomplish this (“will”).
3. Neuroscience - Thinking and Learning as Viewed in Neuroscience
Learners - Architects of The Brain. Basic Neuroscientific Theory. Developmental Psychology Perspective. Executive Functions. Educational Consequences.
Learners – Architects of The Brain
Modern neuroscience has demonstrated that the brain is a very flexible organ. We are born with a basic disposition (intelligence, genes), but without environmental impulses hardly any development occurs. Even some of our genes need the right environment to evolve.
If Anna had been born in Sven’s family, she might be more interested in technology. Sven would be more interested in languages, had they played a bigger role in his family.
We can continue learning throughout our lifetime. Not always with the same ease, and not always the same amount, but in principle always. Time frames exist during which it is especially easy to learn certain skills, i.e. speech and motor development. |
More Less | | BA-Schule für Angewandte Linguistik | | Years of translation experience: 6. Registered at ProZ.com: Jun 2009. Became a member: Jun 2009. | | N/A | German to English (SAL Schule für Angwandte Linguistik, Dipl. Übers)
English to German (SAL Schule für Angewandte Linguistik, professiona)
| | N/A | | Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, OmegaT, SDL TRADOS | | About me
A fluent speaker of a number of languages (E/G/NL/SP), with a good understanding of several others, as a professionally qualified translator (Dipl. Übersetzerin HF) I have specialized in my two native languages English and German. The languages pairs I work with therefore are G-E and E-G.
Next to translating, I also provide editing and proofreading services. Special fields I have worked in to date comprise: Art and Antiques, Communication, Economy, Finance, Marketing, Pedagogy and Psychology.
I work from a well-equipped office with high-speed broadband. As a Mac user I do not, at present, employ Trados (Mac non-compatible), preferring to use OmegaT, another CAT-tool, when necessary.
I work closely together with several professional translators. Pooling our knowledge and drawing on each other’s know-how is a great boon – not least for our respective clients. This also means that I am able to offer other language pairs to complement my work if a client wishes assignments to be translated into several languages.
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Keywords: German, English, Psychologie, Pedagogie, Kunst, Antiquitäten, Pharma, Finanz allg., Wirtschaft allg.
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Nov 11 |
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