Kinaesthetic
& Breathing in Presentations Kinaesthetic
This section has to
do with the body
language you use to communicate. It is worth
remembering that you cannot not
communicate, so optimal communication simply means
being aware of how you do
it.
Allan and Barabara
Pease describe a
study of hand gestures performed in USA universities
in 'The Definitive Book of
Body Language'.
Several
college lecturers were asked to perform different hand
signs while giving their
normal lectures. In some classes they would
occasionally put their palms up, in
others they would now and then use a palms down
gesture and in others they
would sometimes wag their finger at the audience. The
student group was tested
for content retention after each lesson.
The results were as
follows:
- Palms up
lectures: 84% recall
- Palms down
lectures: 52% recall
- Wagging finger
sessions: 28% recall and
some listeners walk out. The
conclusion from this study is that lecturers' hand
gestures can influence the
percentage of listeners' retention.
Just as with voice
tones we can
distinguish body language communication along an
approachable to credible
continuum. This involves both head and hands:
Approachability is
demonstrated by
holding your palms up and nodding your head. Nodding
is a natural action when
listening to people as it shows that you are attentive
and encourages the
speaker to continue the interaction. You can use these
approachable gestures
when inviting pupils to participate in a discussion or
ask questions after your
explanations. I tried this out in the context of a
round table at a teachers' conference. It was
question time for the floor and
there was lull in audience participation so a
silence ensued. In order to
encourage them to start taking part again I stood up
with palms down and said'
“Any questions?” There was no response. Then I
realised that I had given the
wrong signal with palms down, so I stood up again
with my palms upturned this
time and said in the waviest voice I could muster,
“Any questions?” Within
seconds two hands from the audience shot up and we
were back in play. To practise
approachability you can copy this straightforward
performance in class and
notice how it gets results.
Credible mode is
shown by keeping your
head still and holding the palms of your hands
downwards. This
signals that you are sending the
messages: I do not want
interruptions
and I mean what I say. Occasions such as the start of
a session or when you
want to focus attention are the times to use the
credible stance. Setting
homework is another instance for the credible
approach. When you are
instructing the group adopting a credible posture is
the recommended approach.
Being approachable at this time may send the message
that the tasks are
optional and you could find some pupils uncooperative.
This is due to your
non-verbal mismanagement.
Using both approaches
appropriately is
charisma. Try setting the next homework tasks in a
credible fashion and then
changing to approachable mode to elicit questions and
ensure full
understanding.
The Cardinal
Points
When making hand
gestures in class it is important to be aware of what
you are unconsciously
signalling. On
one occasion I was the teacher of two classes of
teenagers who had the same
academic level. Their classrooms were next to each
other, separated by a wall.
One morning I was returning some corrected essays to
group A and I mentioned
that they had performed well, in fact much better
than others. At this point I
unconsciously gestured to the wall which separated
their classroom from group
B. Some pupils interpreted this as a sign that I
considered them to be more
academically successful than those in group B. A
group lost no time in going
round to tell B group. However much I later tried to
answer questions about the
supposed comparison with group A, I lost group B's
trust for several months.
They understood that my expectations of them were
lower than that of their
peers and they did not appreciate it. This was all
due to inadequate gesturing.
When
gesturing in class be aware that there are four
main areas:
> ME:
pointing towards yourself
> YOU:
signalling towards the group
> THIRD POINT:
the board, visual aids, screen, a book...
> OUTSIDE:
anywhere not in the classroom
Gesturing towards ME,
oneself, is a
useful way of maintaining attention since you are
putting yourself forward as
the main speaker, as opposed to inviting group
participation in the
approachable YOU gesture.
While using the YOU
motion remind
yourself that you are giving not only an invitation to
participate but also
underlining what you are saying. Get used to
accompanying this gesture with
positive remarks about the group and, while stating
the negative comments, send
them OUTSIDE.
The THIRD POINT is a
useful halfway
place between ME and YOU. The latter are personal
references, while third point
is impersonal. Teachers can use it as support for a
credible approach because
it will not affect the personal relationship with the
group. If you need to
call a pupil's waning attention to the content at hand
you can look, not at the
person in question but at your workbook and say, “Even
John can see that we are
on page six exercise four” You have
focused John, not by giving eye contact which might
seem aggressively personal
but by directing his attention to the impersonal
content, thus short circuiting
face-to-face conflict. You have also avoided turning
group attention to misbehaviour,
thus focusing on what you want.
Instructions such as
homework,
classroom rules and content overviews are candidates
for third point visual
displays since what is written, apart from being
clearly visible, is more
credible. You can thus introduce work to be done in a
top down, impersonal
manner and this allows you to retain a positive
personal relationship with the
group.
Linked to the ME/YOU
focal points is
the question of where teachers focus their own
attention. The ME focus is internal
and the YOU towards the group. In computer talk these
two directions are called
downtime and uptime. When you boot up your computer
the machine takes a moment
or two to self-check, update your antivirus and get
the operating system ready
for your input. This is downtime. The machine is not
available for external
stimulation and concentrates on its own internal
processing. Uptime occurs when
the computer is ready for your use. It becomes
interactive.
Both approaches are
closely related to
Gardner's model of multiple intelligences. Daniel
Goleman fused two of these
intelligences, interpersonal and intrapersonal into a
new model he called
emotional intelligence.
Downtime
is when we are inside using our intrapersonal
intelligence to understand our
personal reactions to outside reality; uptime
corresponds to interpersonal
intelligence which we use for understanding others.
Teachers normally have an
evolved emotional intelligence. It is what motivates
them to work with people. It is recommended for those in the teaching profession to remain in uptime throughout their classes. You avoid internal dialogue by maintaining attention on the behavioural feedback you are getting from the group and acting on it.
According to a study
quoted by Pease & Pease
motivation
in class may not be the primary enabler for learning.
This research suggests
that something as simple as the position of pupils in
the class group may be
the prime element in enabling learning. The study
found that depending on
pupils' places in the classroom they remembered more
or less of the information
imparted by the teacher. The retention data is
summarised in the following chart:
Teaching
position
The numbers represent
the retention percentages of pupils who were in those
positions in class. It is
clear that those in bold print remembered a higher
number of items than the
others. The study is named the funnel effect after the
outline in which these
pupils appear within the class grouping.
The importance of
these results lies in
the fact that they underline how position can affect
understanding and
memorisation of content in a classroom. It means that
pupils with a poorer
academic record could be placed within the funnel in
order to improve their
output. It is worth experimenting with class positions
to test whether or not
they have this enabling effect. It also underlines the
use of a horseshoe, half
circle, grouping when possible.
These learners tend to
speak slowly. They learn by doing and prefer hands on
approaches. They have to
move to learn and so appear fidgety in class. They
suffer from short attention
spans. Ken Robinson, the education expert, tells the story of one K student and how she came to shine. To get an insight into kinaesthesia in others it is worth listening to his tale. In order to allow for
open-minded and
creative management teachers are recommended to
breathe abdominally throughout
their classes. This may not come naturally, especially
in situations of
conflict so here's a visualisation you can practise
which will quickly allow
you to achieve low breathing quickly.
In order to calibrate
that you are
performing the exercise properly while you are doing
it put one hand on your
solar plexus and the other on the opposite shoulder. Think
of a place where you felt comfortable in the past.
You are going to recreate it
mentally now. In
your mind's eye look round the place you have chosen
and visualise what is in
the foreground, the background and towards the sides
of your picture. Look up.
What do you see? Now look down and describe your
vision. Add the colours you
remember or want and make your image bright. Now
listen carefully to the sounds you can hear in your
favourite place. Are they
high pitched or low? Loud or soft? Are they far off
or near? Adjust the sound
to suit yourself. Add background music if you wish. Step
out of your picture. Move it back. What do you feel
about the place you have
visited? Come back
out of your reverie gradually.
Now you can measure
if your
visualisation has been performed correctly. Notice
which of your hands is
moving. If the hand on your shoulder is moving then
you are breathing high and
you should do the exercise again. If the hand on your
solar plexus is moving
slowly in and out, congratulations, you are breathing
low.
Notice that you can
now use this
visualisation to get quickly into a relaxed breathing
pattern. In the same way
as you began to breathe abdominally by building up a
picture you can induce low
breathing rapidly by evoking this image at any time.
Calibrating group
breathing
In the same way as it
is recommended that the teacher breathes abdominally
during lessons it is
positive for pupils to keep breathing low and remain
alertly relaxed for
optimal learning. Those who feel threatened are on the
defensive, breathe high
through nerves and are not open to learning.
The only time you can be sure that a group is
breathing low and thus
feeling open and relaxed is when they are laughing.
However it is also true
that teachers did not join the profession to entertain
their pupils in a comic
show. So how else do we know when our class is
breathing low?
Visually the group
will appear rather
still when they are on the job and breathing low.
Stressful breathing patterns
are visible through lots of uncoordinated movements
and a lack of visual
harmony.
As a corollary to
that pupils will show
fluid movements when unstressed and open to learning.
On the other hand the
class's kinaesthetics will appear as jerky and
unbalanced.
You can expect
fluidity of speech from
low-breathing pupils but lack of fluency in those
breathing high. This is to be
anticipated because high breathing physically
restricts the flow of breath,
crippling smooth speech patterns. It also has the
effect of reducing oxygen
flow to the brain so that processing is weakened and
comprehension impaired.
Breathing also
indicates the quality of
relationship. When you calibrate your group's
breathing remember the following
patterns: When
the listeners' breathing is Low, the communicator is
trusted. When
the listeners' breathing is High, trust in the
communicator is Low.
In his book on
emotional intelligence
Goleman tells the story of an academically bright
student called Jason. He had
the goal of getting into a top university and so
strived for the highest marks.
In one physics exam his score was less than an A and
he blamed this on the
teacher. The upshot was that Jason confronted his
physics master on the subject
and ended up stabbing him with a knife in the
collarbone.
The question this
raised in Goleman's
mind was to figure out how a high-achieving student
could suddenly turn so
irrational. His answer was that academic intelligence
does not measure
emotional life. Jason's academic record gave no hint
of his emotional
imbalance.
Understanding how the
brain is
structured is helpful in explaining how we react in
different circumstances. According
to the model of
neurologist Paul MacLean, director of the Brain
Evolution and Behaviour Lab in
Poolesville, Maryland, our brain is composed not of 1
unity but 3. Each
represents an evolutionary level. MacLean calls
it the triune brain and
it has evolved over time: At the base of the brain
there is the cerebellum which is the
structure that we share with
reptiles. The next layer up is the limbic
system which all
mammals possess. The top slither is what makes us
human: the
neocortex.
Each brain is connected
to the others by nerves but appears
to operate as an autonomous system. This is what
happens in a situation of
conflict. In one
class of 14 years olds I was teaching the pupils
were on task. I was going
round helping individuals out. Suddenly I noticed
that one boy had moved from
the back of the classroom to the front and was
leaning over a special needs
child. As I approached the special needs boy told me
that the other had taken
his scissors. I asked why. The response was that the
intention was to use the
scissors on the owner. Slightly taken aback I
ordered the misbehaver to return
the scissors and get back to his seat. He retreated
but in a slow motion
fashion doing the pimp roll to demonstrate that he
was complying but
disagreeing. I encouraged myself to breathe low in
order to be open to
strategies for resolving the situation. By this time
the whole class was alert
to the conflict. Nobody turned to look at the
misbehaver, however, because he
was a bully and they were afraid of any
consequences.
I repeated the
order of getting back to
his place and sitting down. He went back but then
remained standing behind his
chair. So I said, “Stand up!” He was in two minds
about what to do, shifting
uneasily. I then addressed the whole class referring
to the misbehaver still
standing and saying that I liked to see obedient
pupils. His mates meanwhile
were urging him to sit down but of course I had put
him in a double bind. No
matter what he did he was complying. After a minute
of this stand-off he could
take it no more and rushed headlong out the door. I
told the group to note that
this was called self-expulsion and instructed them
to carry on working. I never
had any more trouble with the misbehaver in
question.
In
brain terms what happened in this disturbance was that
the
boy's thinking brain shut down until he was left with
the reptilian choice of
fight or flight. He opted for flight. If I hadn't been
consciously breathing
abdominally I might have been caught in the same black
and white choice since
my brain is structured in the same was as his.
Teachers lead best by
remembering to breathe low, thus keeping fresh oxygen
flowing to the brain and
so maintaining their options open.
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