Talker or Brain Based Mentor at University?

Some  university faculty add value to the learning process. Others clearly do not. That’s not new. But what separates good faculty from those who fail the learning process?

New neuro-discoveries changed playing fields yet some faculty cling to sage-on-the-stage mentality. Poor faculty see their role to lecture and test for facts that stick through rote. Are learners quiet? Did they arrive on time? Did they read a chapter of the text? If not – why not? Organizational concerns appear valid and help lecturers deal with minimum fuss. It would work fine if lectures worked. They don’t.  They cut learner retention at 5% while brain based teaching approaches jump to 90% retention.

What sets effective faculty apart? Their mentoring skills for starts. They might toss out a 2-footed question that draws learners in with one foot and leaps forward into course content with the other. Brain based faculty recognize that if their approach isn’t truly interactive, learners likely lose out and not succeed in their sessions. Rather than tell facts up front, effective faculty help learners to hook new facts onto past experiences. Mentoring skills tend to stoke what learners know to improve their situations. Yes,  university learners can grow their skills, regardless of where they start.

Ask the lecturer in this video and he will say he engages listeners.  He might even go on to suggest today’s audiences expect too much and give too little. Ask listeners and they may support these 100 reasons to run hard from lectures!

Have you considered lately how …

Brain based teaching is more a mentoring role as guide to the side, rather than sage on the stage lecture ruts roles, for which they trained. Rejuvenated faculty can renew an entire university.  Yes, even when a few faculty shift directions brain friendly roles not dictated by how they were taught to teach, so much as how current minds reshape to learn.

The gap between telling details and creating approaches to newly discovered solutions – narrows when faculty devise dynamic tasks and then facilitate a wider mix of intelligences. Without doubt, it takes smart skills for change that stirs curiosity and nudges adult brains along. Faculty that the MITA Brain Based Center certify, often learn alongside students, and learners sometimes teach.

The shift from telling to talent-building leads to innovations beyond campus circles and extends to every field. A university campus that shifts to brain based mentoring tasks could become first to offer their prototype campus for the nation’s lab. Ready for the coming university brainpower boom?

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Created by Ellen Weber, Brain Based Tasks for Growth Mindset