Our brains are always changing as a result of environment and experience. Thanks to breakthroughs in neuroscience in the last two decades, we now know how the brain responds during learning, allowing us to design learning experiences that make the learning process more effective and lasting, creating networks of durable long-term memory.
The Way Experience method explores and activates strategies and tools that work at the neurological level promoting optimal brain processing, thus creating a highly effective learning experience with measurable results.
First. Our brain has a hard-wired criterion of selection for entry of information, giving priority to information that is different from the expected pattern. This means that information that is new, different, changed or unexpected is more likely to catch our attention.
In our materials you will find all these characteristics, as the way we arrange information has been designed so it is different from the habitual type of exercise found in traditional text books.
Second. Our worksheets and tasks invite learners to combine the information in such a way that they turn learning into a challenge that they want to rise up to.
By presenting information in well-defined sections and using color-coding, we make it significantly easier for our brains to decode the key elements that conform a well-structured, accurate and rich discourse.
Third. By presenting learners with specific goals we are setting them up for accountable achievements.
Then, showing learners that they have the power to improve, and by providing opportunities to progress towards the set goals, they’ll come to the conclusion that they CAN control the outcome. Reaching this conclusion enhances attentive focus, motivation, curiosity, memory, persistence and perseverance.
Fourth. Constant Assessment with Specific Feedback. What specific feedback allows you to do is to make constant adjustments and find out if such adjustments are successful.
This is an essential component of video games, constant feedback and unlimited chances to try again without pressure.
Through the experience of using The Way’s Method, learners find that despite frequent errors, if they act on the feedback they receive and persist, they will eventually improve and make incremental progress toward their goals.
Fifth. The importance of the Feedback Templates and the section My Nice Thingies.
When the brain receives feedback on progress that has been made, the associated memory, skill or concept networks involved are reinforced.
Sixth. Long-term Memory Construction takes place when new bits of information are practised.
“Indeed, practice really does make permanent as long as the practice involves active mental manipulation, construction of new ideas, and opportunities to apply the newly acquired knowledge and skills in different ways than they were originally learned. “
Understanding by Design meets Neuroscience, by Jay McTighe & Judy Willis
Seventh. The four elements that enhance learning as identified by research in neuroscience are:
All four elements are present in The Way’s Method, thus making the learning experience so effective and rewarding that it is almost addictive.
