It is time it debunk a popular myth about the brain: Your brain cannot multi-task. You cannot focus deeply on two tasks at the same time. What the brain can do is serial task. You can switch between task a, b and c then back to a, c and b. However, according to Dr John Medina, this is slower than if you just focused on one task at a time.
Do you remember lectures from your university days? (If not, that is a whole other topic!). The lecturer stood at the front and talked for the whole class and you, like most others, desperately attempted to write every word so you would not forget. However, your brain cannot focus on two tasks at deep focus simultaneously. You can’t write and listen at the same time. The lecturer would say something interesting and as you went to write it the lecturer kept talking and you might have ended up writing what they were saying, rather than what you want to recall. Plus we’re often so busy trying to get all the notes down, at the end of the class you had no idea what you had learned. The brain cannot be learning and processing the information at the same time.
Many people ask me whether it is OK to study with music. The answer is it depends. If a student puts music on to study or learn with and is singing, humming or focusing on the music they cannot be processing the information. However if a student puts music on to listen to while working and does not hear the music, it becomes white noise in the background, then this is fine. Often a student will say to me what is the point of putting on the music if I don’t hear it? This person should not have the music on while working.
Scientists have found that it is in the pause and in the silence that true learning occurs.
In a recent study, a team of scientists showed that in listening to a musical symphony, just a one- to two-second break between movements triggers a flurry of mental activity. So could a one- to two-second pause between sentences be just as powerful in helping others comprehend our information? Any comedian will tell you that is the timing of pauses in their delivery that determines their success.
The average teacher, when asking a question, waits one second before they do one of three things: call upon someone to answer it, ask another question or answer the question themselves. One second is not enough time for processing. A general rule of thumb is to give students between seven to 10 seconds to think about an idea or answer before you call upon them to share. The first time many teachers do this, students often say, “don’t you know the answer??”
Mind Up Education, a curriculum developed by Goldie Hawn in association with Neuro Scientists, has found that asking students to be quiet and still three times a day, for up to three minutes, has had one of the biggest impacts on students learning ability. Most students have not experienced true stillness and silence and many will struggle to do this for 30 seconds initially. You need to build them up to the 3 minutes.
Another rule of thumb is to teach or learn for 20 minutes and take a five minute break. It is in the five minute break where the power of the pause is activated. Skillful junior school teachers do this; they break up their content, with songs, activities, think time or a simple please stand up turn around and sit down. For students, the iStudyAlarm, available from iTunes and Google Play, helps them take frequent breaks and keep them on track with their study.
The power of stillness is not just for the classroom: A typical day for most educators tends to look like this: Get up, busy busy busy busy busy flop into bed… Then the brain starts processing. If you have had no down time for your brain during the day, it will use the time you are finally still and relaxed to process the day’s events, ideas and learnings.
In my own home, we have been practicing a version of this for the past seven years. Like many households, mornings are busy, getting kids ready for school, organsing the day, getting chores done etc. The afternoons and evenings with sport, music practice, homework, getting dinner ready, etc., are the same. Each morning, we sit down at the dining room table for breakfast, even if it is only for three to four minutes. It is a wonderful calm within the storm of busyness and a valued connection for the family each day. Similarly, we eat dinner together every night at the dining room table, with the TV off and mobile phones away. It is another pause in our busy day to connect, talk, reflect, learn and just be with each other. Our children have been known to wait until this time each day to share something important, waiting for the whole family to be together rather than telling us each individually.
As you reflect on the power of silence and stillness, how might you create times for this silence, stillness or pause in your classroom and in your own personal life?