Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Make Living Easy!

Leading Learning
through
Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Pedagogy has had its monopolistic sway in the field of education long enough and teaching as building relationships has started gaining equal, if not more, importance as the role of education and the stature of students are rapidly changing. Similarly, the teaching-learning loop is about feelings as well as facts, and what goes on in the teacher’s mind as well as in the minds of the students. More importantly, the teacher’s role is redefined as using his/her senses as well as the subject knowledge.

In fact it is the mood of the teacher as s/he enters the class that affects the children more than anything else and determines the classroom climate, and the teacher’s intensity of motivation that determines the success of what is transacted in the class. In short, effective teaching depends upon the internal response and external behaviour of the teacher.

Introduction

Humanity has been very active in the field of education for centuries in formalized educational set ups churning out theory after theory by way of trying to understand the processes taking place in the act of educating the human child.

However, we still seem to be no nearer to a degree of consensus as to what might constitute an effective educational process.

Barring the contextual variables that play a major role in educational success – factors such as the family, social class and poverty – we are left with exploring the key school based variables – the curriculum, teaching and learning. And, among school level variables, the factors that are closest to student learning, such as teacher quality and classroom practices, tend to have the strongest impact on student achievement.

Our capacity to learn is the result of complex interactions and if we are to respond to the imperative of securing excellence and equity across the education system we need to enhance our understanding of how to maximize effective learning and teaching.

A recent entrant in the field of education is Neuro-Linguistic Programming that has been put into productive use across the world especially in the USA, the UK and the European Union in addition to touching Indian educational scenario at a peripheral level.

It is common knowledge that education is neither writing on a blank slate nor allowing the child’s nobility to come into flower. Rather education is a technology that tries to make up for what the human mind is innately bad at.

As Pinker says, our genetic and evolutional inheritance means that we have predisposition to speak; we do not have such a predisposition to write or to read. Education is the process of compensating for gaps in our biological inheritance and adapting natural predisposition ‘to master problems for which they were not designed’.

Experiments with NLP in Education

Michael Grinder, the brother of John Grinder, one of the co-founders of NLP, has been at the helm of affairs in training school teachers of the USA in NLP techniques relevant to school education. His Righting the Educational Conveyor Belt was the first book that dealt with the use of NLP in school education.

There have also been quite a bit of application of NLP in education being triggered by the efforts of Prof. Paul Tosey of University of Surrey bringing about academic recognition to NLP through his research activities that have produced and continue to produce PhDs in NLP.

The efforts taken in the UK for benefitting from NLP has been recorded very well with tangible qualitative and quantitative success stories proved by research activities. The majority of research papers and perspectives published contain discussions about the use of NLP in classroom practice that are positive towards it. It is also clear from the literature that contrary to some popular opinions, there have been a number of academic publications on NLP that are supportive of its use in schools and education in general.

The Proposal

It is proposed that a series of activities spread out for one year could be conducted on the effectiveness of the concepts, strategies and techniques of NLP that have proved to be useful in various settings across the globe for a select group of teachers who are known for their propensity for attempting various innovations for classroom success, handpicked from various schools in the region.

The programme could have six segments:

1) The first segment will be a FIVE day Workshop during the summer vacation when the participating teachers are given an immersion in NLP strategies, tools and practices that can be used in the classroom to create an impact on relationships, behaviour, learning, teaching effectiveness and student success. The participating teachers will also be trained in the methods of conducting action research.

2) The second segment is when the participants put into practice whatever they have learned through the workshop in their classes during the first quarter of the scholastic year. They will be applying the new techniques they have imbibed and test their effect in the classroom. They will also follow the procedures of action research and write a journal which could be developed into a full-fledged report of their general experience of applying the NLP techniques and the action research.

3) In the third segment the participants will come back to RIE for THREE more days during the quarterly holidays to share their experience, clarify their doubts and get more inputs in whichever areas they would need.

4) In the fourth segment, they will continue the experiment in their schools once again during the second term. They will be in a better position to pursue the experiment with deeper understanding of NLP techniques and methods of action research, and hence would be more productive in achieving better results and writing a scholarly report.

5) In the fifth segment, they will be gathering once again at RIE during the half yearly break for THREE days to share their experiences and vet the action plan and research output which could be documented for wider application in all the schools.

6) Finally, the experiences and the results of experiments will be fine-tuned and documented by Dr. John A. Joseph and Dr. Venkateshwaramurthy for publication and sharing. It should be ready by the end of the academic year to be used as resource material for more workshops during the summer holidays in different regions of India.

• A template should be developed for documenting the procedures and results of the action researches that would be carried out by the participants.

• The worthwhile documents prepared by the participants could be submitted to NIE or NCERT for professional recognition.

• An online forum should be created specifically for the members of the programme

The Tentative Content of the Workshop

During the five-day workshop, the participants will learn the relevant NLP concepts along with some input on Action Research. The participants will have the experience of the following aspects of NLP:

1. What is NLP

2. NLP Assumptions / Principles / Presuppositions / Beliefs of Excellence

• If you know exactly what you want, it is easier to get it.
• If one person can do something, anyone can learn to do it.
• You have within you all the resources that you will ever need.
• The meaning of the communication is the response it elicits.
• If you keep doing what you have always done, you will get the same result you have always got.
• We communicate on two levels: conscious and unconscious.
• Rapport means meeting someone in their model of the world.
• The more options we have, the greater our chances of success.
• The map is not the territory.
• People respond to their map of the reality and not to the reality.
• People with the most flexibility have the best chances of achieving the response they desire.
• We cannot change others, we can only change ourselves.

3. Well Formed Outcomes

The well formed outcome process is a detailed form of goal setting process that includes a range of areas. It is frequently carried out in a coaching context rather than with eyes closed and involves the person being coached exploring all the areas of their life that they may need to change and develop.

4. Eye Accessing Cues

Ideas about eye position (when people are thinking) are included in most NLP training although the explanations of this area of NLP are controversial. In relation to eye accessing cues and learning there is, however, some evidence to support eye position and effective memorizing of spellings. However, recent neuroscience and psychology evidence has shown that some eye movements are driven by linguistic expression and that these forms of movement are based on the location of the internal representation of the scene being described; also eye scan paths, during visual imagery, may ‘re-enact those of perception of the same scene’ again indicating that some forms of eye movement are not ephemeral. Further, eye positions have been shown to modulate brain function during guided memory and there is a coupling of speakers’ and listeners’ eye movements during some forms of discourse.

5. Representational Systems

The world around us exists in our own perceptions and memories. NLP has named our sensory channels “representational” systems referring to the way we “re-present” or make sense of our external environments. Due to the constant bombardment of the information we receive every day, NLP practitioners maintain that most people have created a set of filters in order to keep from becoming overwhelmed. These filters can be divided into visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (VAK) channels. When we are truly relaxed we find it easier to access and make use of each of these sensory channels. However, when we are stressed we tend to rely on our most comfortable channel(s). It is possible to perceive information in one channel, store it as a memory using another channel and express it using a third one. By noticing details of how people speak and act, we can better understand the systems they are using at the time. This then enables us to communicate and teach more effectively.

6. Sub-Modalities

Submodalities are the fine details of representational systems. In the late 1970s the developers of NLP started playing around with the submodalities of representational systems involving the enhancement of visualisation techniques (common in sports psychology and meditation), by including other sensory systems. Submodalities involve the relative size, location, brightness of internal images, the volume and direction of internal voices and sounds, and the location, texture, and movement of internally created sensations.

7. Meta Programs

Teacher’s Meta Programs influence the approaches adopted in their teaching and these styles suit students with matching meta program preferences. Where students have different meta program preferences from the teacher, then, even where the ‘hygiene factors’ are met, this leaves the student dissatisfied.

‘Hygiene factors’, such as ‘knowledge of the subject’, sense of humour’, ‘approachability’ and ‘willingness to answer questions’ were, as expected, relevant to achieving teaching competence. Other qualities that would contribute to teachers being ‘highly competent’ such as the ability to teach at the same level as the students and having the flexibility to explain things in different ways, emerged as important qualities. There are examples of teachers teaching from their own meta programmes which suited some students but not others. An improved awareness of meta programmes could result in a more flexible approach.

8. Anchoring

Anchoring is one of NLP’s most powerful techniques which can be used for any number of states and contexts. It works by focusing on an external trigger which elicits a positive emotional response. So, if a child is in a situation where they need to change their emotional state, anchoring can quickly access the required emotion. For example, a pupil who suffers from exam nerves can use an anchor to replace their fear with calm. Teachers too can utilise this technique in the presentation of learning material, introducing key words or other stimuli when students are at their most receptive to create an anchor that, consciously or subconsciously, will aid students’ subsequent recall of the material.

9. Rapport

Rapport in the classroom is one of the most important elements in getting a message across. NLP has specific techniques to learn how to establish and maintain rapport. These include strategies such as matching body language and posture, volume and speed of voice, use of register and slang. Other factors can include distance of speakers and eye contact.

10. Meta Model

In NLP the Meta-model is a set of specifying questions or language patterns designed to challenge and expand the limits to a person’s model or ‘map’ of the world. When a person speaks about a problem or situation, their choice of words, (or ‘indicators’), will distort, generalize, and delete portions of their experience. By listening to and responding to these language patterns the practitioner seeks to help the client to recover the information that is under the surface of the words. A therapist who ‘listens’ on the basis of their existing belief systems may miss important aspects.

11. Milton Model

The Milton model is a form of hypnotherapy based on the language patterns for hypnotic communication of Milton Erickson, a noted hypnotherapist. It has been described as “a way of using language to induce and maintain trance in order to contact the hidden resources of our personality”. The Milton model has three primary aspects: Firstly, to assist in building and maintaining rapport with the client. Secondly, to overload and distract the conscious mind so that unconscious communication can be cultivated. Thirdly, to allow for interpretation in the words offered to the client.[11]

12. State Management of Self and Others

Most of us experience states as ‘happening’ to us, and think of them as being outside our control. In fact, we create them by the way in which we perceive the world. We are able to choose our state and are able to run our own brain, rather than have it running us. People vary in how they perceive, interpret and react to different situations and that makes an enormous difference in state that they end up in. NLP teaches that states are any state of mind, either positive or negative, and can be controlled and that one can consciously create positive, resourceful states in oneself and in other people.

13. Storytelling and Metaphor

Storytelling and metaphor were widely used by Milton Erickson (the hypnotherapist). As well as noting the potential of such techniques to support learning and change, early NLP texts modelled and described the structure of effective storytelling in such contexts.

14. Sensory Acuity

NLP training frequently includes exercises to develop sensory acuity (the ability to notice small changes in body language, facial expressions, voice tone and posture to enhance awareness of what another person is thinking and feeling).

15. Visualisation

Visualisation is what it says. However, in NLP the emphasis is often on the visualization of positive future goals as if they have already been achieved (including detailed information about what will be seen, heard (internally in terms of self talk and externally in relation to the sounds around) and emotions and bodily sensations.

16. Modelling

Modelling differs from other research-type methodologies as it seeks to identify the skills, attitudes, behaviours and subjective inner experience of effective people in a wide range of contexts in such a way as to make these attributes transferable and learnable. Specifically, modelling seeks to identify and categorise behaviours and subjective experience in relation to areas such as: language patterns, body language, beliefs, internal dialogue, internal representations and the order of internally processed experience as expressed through language patterns and subjective internal representations.

17. Influential Language in the Classroom

Influential language patterns emerged from the research as a key area of potential benefit to teachers. This was not just in terms of behaviour management but also in relation to the development of positive relationships, the positive reinforcement and encouragement of learning, motivation and questioning skills.

18. Reframing

Reframing is an NLP technique which develops ownership, empowerment and flexibility in behaviour. In its most basic form it could change a negative idea like, “It’s horrible when it rains as I can’t play football at lunchtime,” into a positive one such as, “When it rains it means I can make the most of the indoor equipment and play volleyball with my friends in the hall.”

19. Language

Language can serve as a powerful tool in the hands of people who are adept at using and achieving pre-determined results. For example, language can be used in the process of gradually increasing the compliance using small steps called pacing and leading. The core concept is that if you want to influence someone then you need to pace their current experience before you seek to lead them. The more you pace first, the more likely you are to be able to influence.

20. Neurological Alignment

Logical levels are a way of identifying where a learning problem originates. Often, we are tempted as teachers to see the surface level only, when pupils are either being disruptive or struggling to learn, or more often than not, both. Looking 'below the surface' is an important first step in creating rapport with pupils. Just asking the question 'why?' will lead you to far more useful interventions with longer term effects.

21. TOTE

Our claim is that people develop programs, in this TOTE format, for all of their activities. Each of us has a strategy/TOTE for decision making, creativity, motivation, learning, reading, spelling, doing math, singing, teaching, and so on. The particular representations and representational systems that make up the specific test, operation, or decision point will determine the effectiveness of the strategy. One of the most important aspects of NLP model is that it offers an explicit way to be able to observe and recognize strategies as they are occurring.

22. Perceptual Positions

This is an invaluable NLP technique for all forms of conflict resolution as it enables you to see a situation from a variety of other perspectives other than your own and to see how your own behaviour impacts on others. Sometimes teachers need to ask their students to look at something from an entirely different point of view than the one they would naturally adopt. Perceptual positioning is an approach which can facilitate this. For example, the teacher might conduct an exercise involving three students of differing opinions where they set up three chairs, each of which is tagged with a ‘position’, and ask students to move from one chair to another in order to adopt a different view.

23. NLP learning strategies

NLP techniques shift the focus from simply memorising information to using and developing fundamental sensory processes. A simple example of this is teaching spelling: rather than just learning how to spell a word using a conventional mnemonic technique, the student is encouraged to look at the word from right to left as well as left to right. This takes the focus off the words themselves and places it on the process of learning instead, allowing the student to understand rather than just remember how the word is spelt. This method is shown to give students more confidence in their ability to learn, which in turn generates better results.

Visualized Benefits of the Programme

 New knowledge and skills development for teachers will be the key outcome of this programme. By the end of this training course delegates will have:

 Improved awareness of the impact of communication
 Improved ‘people-reading’ skills
 Increased rapport and communication skills
 Practical tools to help manage their emotional state
 More clarity and freedom from distraction
 Effective ways to positively influence people

 This workshop in NLP also will transform the teachers from passive presenters of information to skilled behavioural technicians.

 They will be able to debug the existing inefficient learning strategies of students and replace them with efficient ones.

 It will sharpen the participants’ Basic Skill of Teaching:

 Adding value to their overall understanding of children and their minds
 With a technical know-how of modelling, and can in real sense become super role models for the children
 By increasing their professional competencies in and out of the class
 By managing their own emotional and psychological states

 They will leave the course with the NLP practical skills that will help them to:

 Design and deliver lessons through different sensory systems so they can engage with the whole class
 Build rapport with their students, which means that students actively search for ways to understand them
 Utilise metaphor to create a desired learning state, so they can assist their students to reach the learning intention
 Identify the filters students are employing through their language patterns which means participants will know how to correct misunderstandings in communication
 Increase their influence by learning how to challenge limiting beliefs to enrich the pupil’s experience of learning

 Having imbibed the competencies of an effective teacher they will be able to:

 Set the content and context for learning in an organized manner, with progression from one lesson to the next.
 Establish clearly defined outcomes for learning.
 Use positive language and assume the student will want to participate as long as the teacher is engaged in a responsive manner and differentiates learning to suit the needs of the students.
 Use open questions to encourage the student to imagine.
 Add metaphors and storytelling to engage the students and break up the lesson into left-brain and right-brain activities.
 Create a warm, friendly, fair and firm tone in the classroom that encourages students to experiment and feel safe about making “mistakes”.
 Use language the student can relate to and listen to students.
 Encourage students to ask questions and give relevant, respectful feedback.
 Use different modalities to explain concepts and teach lessons.
 Have a heightened sense of awareness in the classroom.

 Teaching requires mastery over interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. In fact, NLP offers teachers a range of tools and techniques to develop interpersonal and intrapersonal capacity, manage emotions, and communicate more effectively. Bandler noticed that people who teach a subject may be very good at it, and know a lot about that particular area. However, they usually know very little about how they learned it, and even less about how to teach it to someone else. This programme would rectify the lacuna.

 This programme will enrich the job of a teacher by installing effective strategies for learning in students by understanding and accelerating the learning process. It will give the teacher the skill with which to elicit and utilize the existing learning strategies of the students to help speed up and promote individual learning.

 Increasing young people’s access to learning opportunities, improving their achievement and adding value to teacher effectiveness are inextricably bound to the public investment made in teacher training, both initial and continuing. The goal surely is to increase benefits for ever-increasing numbers of learners for ever-increasing numbers of earners in cost-effective and efficient ways, starting with teacher classroom practice which this programme will enhance.

 This will provide a unique opportunity for teachers to present their first-hand practice evidence and for this to be placed in a research context so that there is a firm basis for future discussions and evidence-led evaluation of NLP applied within teaching.

 A key driver of this programme is the objective to facilitate teachers’ reflective practice, and to share the learning derived from that reflection within and beyond the education community.

Conclusion

NLP is a set of techniques which should never be considered in isolation; part of their appeal is the fact that they can be laid over any existing structure or lesson plans and seamlessly integrated. A teacher who is trained in NLP has the ability to identify what a student needs in order to overcome their individual challenges and has the right tools to help them reach their own solution.

A complex subject, it is surprisingly easy to pick up, yet the results when employed are nothing short of astounding. In addition to helping to improve rapport and personal issues such as confidence, motivation and behaviour, the techniques have also been shown to have a rapid effect on academic results, by allowing the students to access the information in a different way.
Suitable for teachers from nursery classes right up to those delivering adult education, NLP is a set of tools which enables individuals to not only achieve their potential but also to enjoy the experience, and develop patterns of thinking and behaviour which will be useful not just inside, but also outside of the classroom too.

If promoted properly, this programme has the potential to transform education in India to face the challenges of the 21st century which is the need of the hour.

John A. Joseph