Transforming Learning | The Learning Code Institute
“Genes Change Slowly, Your Brain Changes Quickly”
Each of the 7.5 billion of us on Earth has a unique makeup of genes and brain tissue that give us a unique Individual Adaptability/Intelligence Factor that no one else on the planet possess. At The Learning Institute, we have found that to help educators, business leaders, students, and homeschool parents more effectively comprehend and apply this concept of brain variation, an understanding of what we call the Biological Learning Preferences is advantageous.
The main advantage of understanding the different Biological Learning Preferences presented here is not to encourage breaking students into groups that are taught in what their primary preference might be, like visual, auditory, spatial, and kinesthetic, as some suggest. This just makes the whole learning process way too mechanistic and is the main reason the psychometric research on teaching to a preference is so disappointing. Homeschool parents generally have the advantage of focusing on one or few students compared to having a class of 30 our more students. However, understanding this concept remains extremely important.
Ever since Harvard’s Howard Gardner published Frames of Mind, The Theory of Multiple Intelligence 2 in 1983, scholastic and corporate educational systems have been trying to figure out ways to imbed the theory of multiple intelligences into the learning process in order to accelerate it. While the anecdotal evidence is very positive, the research proving that the theory works is very weak. The teachers who understand it and apply it rave about it. Yet, in general, the researchers who study its effect with scientific rigor find the evidence does not support the rave reviews at all. Why this discrepancy?
At The Learning Institute, we believe this discrepancy exists because the simple yet disruptive idea that each one of us has a unique way to learn is vital to understanding why our existing learning systems aren’t working and what to do about it. It helps educators more simply and easily appreciate the diverse biology of their charges. Those educators, trainers and homeschool parents who gravitate to the Biological Learning Preferences way of thinking see it as a simpler way to understand why the existing system cannot possibly account for our individual uniqueness. And this alone makes a dramatic difference in how teachers and business leaders connect with learners. They no longer see people as similar machine parts, all to be molded in the same way. Instead, they begin to see them as unique souls that need unique treatment in order for them to thrive and prosper in the real world.
Exploring our Biological Learning Preferences is helpful because it will give you a different perspective, and clearly show that we do all learn differently. Please understand that to provide learning environments that naturally create profound learning, knowing that each of us learns in a different manner, is only a tiny piece of the puzzle. It is not “the answer.” However, it is important. The rest of the pieces of the puzzle are presented in the other chapters of “Cracking The Learning Code” that lay out the other elements of The Learning Code science. Visit us to learn more about how to effectively and joyfully facilitate the learning process regardless of the subject matter and content.
So how does knowing your Biological Learning Preferences fit into helping you understand learning and behavioral change? We can look to evolutionary biology for the answer. Evolution is like a sieve: over the millennia, nature poured in billions upon of billions of variations of body types and nervous systems in at the top, and only the 8.7 million species that best “fit” today’s world made it through. It is estimated that less than 1 percent of all the basic nervous systems and body plans that were tried out by different species over the last three billion years survive today. But within each element of the general design of each species hides a profound level of diversity.
Take humans, for example. There is a general design for fingers, ears, and eyes, but within those general designs lies massive diversity. We all have fingers, but every fingerprint on earth is unique, we all have ear lobes, but all ear lobes are unique, and each of our eyes has an iris, yet each iris in the world is even more unique than our fingerprints. It is the same for genes and brains.
As anthropologist Stephen Jay Gould explained, the “surprising fact of life’s history is marked by a decrease in disparity followed by an outstanding increase in diversity within the few surviving designs.” These general plans provide each of you with a very general modality in which you prefer to learn and adapt to your world. You see these general brain plans creating preferences in everyone you know. These preferences are not the only way you learn, but they make you predisposed for things and information that resonate with your preference. Some of your friends might have a musical preference and are drawn to music; others for numbers and are attracted to math; others for words and are attracted to literature.
At The Learning Institute we’ve used the latest scientific research on the general brain plans to define the eleven main Biological Preferences, which you’ll find in Chapter 12 of our book. Or visit our website at and click on our research and 11 Biological Preferences.
Why So Much Diversity?
It’s essential to recognize that no single general brain design is better than any other. Nature in its great wisdom determined that the survival of our species depends on our different individual Biological Preferences working together as one global brain to support the survival of the whole human species.
The different preferences are the fuel our species uses to enhance our group survival and success. So, it is important to realize that we can only reach our maximum species potential when we learn to work with, rather than against, others in our species with different Biological Preferences. For more on these and much more on how classroom educators and homeschool parents can begin to facilitate joyful and effective learning please visit us HERE.
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