This Will Challenge Your Beliefs In A Way You Never Expected Bias and prejudice are formed in our mind unconsciously. When we act, we don’t even realize there may be bias behind it. We simply take in different opinions and make them become our beliefs that we don’t ever challenge. Take a moment and think about the thoughts you have, what makes you think this way and what effect you have to the world by thinking this way? “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” - Maya Angelou It’s good to think critically, but don’t just think critically about others, think critically about your own ideas too. When you think, take reasoning, empathy and humility into account. TIM MINCHIN: Be hard on your opinions | ZEN PENCILS
Music Training and Neuroplasticity With our multi sensory brain, music harnesses powers of nature, culture, and mind. How much is the brain changed by the effects of music training and neuroplasticity? Music is one of the most demanding cognitive and neural challenges, requiring very accurate timing of multiple actions, precise interval control of pitch not involved in language, and multiple different ways of producing sound. Auditory and motor actions influence each other in a constant interplay, which is largely unknown. Brain Lesion Effects on Music All brain imaging is done in a time scale of seconds, but the brain functions in the scale of milliseconds. A lesion in the auditory cortex causes “amusia” where a patient can speak and understand everyday sounds, but cannot notice wrong notes in tunes, or remember melodies.Another case, a 71-year-old cellist, had encephalitis and lost ordinary memory, but remembers music. But, recent research shows that when studying infants these differences do not necessarily exist.
How To Waste Time Properly - Issue 7: Waste Ever since Frederick Winslow Taylor timed the exact number of seconds that Bethlehem Steel workers took to push shovels into a load of iron ore and then draw them out, maximizing time efficiency has been a holy grail of the American workplace. But psychologists and neuroscientists are showing us the limits of this attitude: Wasting time, they say, can make you more creative. Even seemingly meaningless activities such as watching cat videos on YouTube may help you solve math problems. Brent Coker, who studies online behavior at the University of Melbourne in Australia, found that people who engage in “workplace Internet leisure browsing” are about 9 percent more productive than those who don’t. Schooler gave participants a series of “unusual uses tasks” (UUTs), which asked them to invent as many different uses as they could for a mundane object. People who engage in “workplace Internet leisure browsing” are about 9 percent more productive than those who don’t.
Activity theory Introduction to Activity Theory applied to a work context The premise of activity theory is that a collective work activity, with the basic purpose shared by others (community), is undertaken by people (subjects) who are motivated by a purpose or towards the solution of a problem (object), which is mediated by tools and/or signs (artefacts or instruments) used in order to achieve the goal (outcome). The activity is constrained by cultural factors including conventions (rules) and social organisation (division of labour) within the immediate context and framed by broader social patterns (of production, consumption, distribution and exchange). Activity theory provides a conceptual framework from which we can understand the inter-relationship between activities, actions, operations and artefacts, subjects’ motives and goals, and aspects of the social, organisational and societal contexts within which these activities are framed. Example of application of Activity Theory in a TLRP project
To scan or not to scan, that is the question… Starting on the road to a paperless lifestyle can be a little overwhelming. Of course, there are some tools that can help to make it easier. There are things you can do to better organize your digital documents. Do I scan this or not? I tend to think in frameworks (an occupational hazard, I’m afraid) and when I got started going paperless and knew I was going to have to pick and choose the documents to be scanned, I tried to think about what documents were worth scanning and what documents were not. 1. Imagine a spectrum that runs the gamut of frequency of use for any given document. When you are considering scanning a document, consider how frequently you’ll actually use it in electronic format. I say rough guide because there are always exceptions. 2. Again, there is a spectrum you might imagine that looks something like this: Figure out where you are on the spectrum and that will also help guide you in deciding what to scan. Deciding what to scan Click to enlarge And good luck!
Self-Efficacy This summary was written and compiled by Karin Kirk, SERC, and contains an overview of motivation research and pertinent references. Self efficacy is commonly defined as the belief in one's capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome. Students with a strong sense of efficacy are more likely to challenge themselves with difficult tasks and be intrinsically motivated. These students will put forth a high degree of effort in order to meet their commitments, and attribute failure to things which are in their control, rather than blaming external factors. Self-efficacious students also recover quickly from setbacks, and ultimately are likely to achieve their personal goals. How can students gain self-efficacy? There are four sources of self-efficacy. Mastery experiences - Students' successful experiences boost self-efficacy, while failures erode it. Pedagogic strategies that foster self-efficacy Other pedagogies for improving self-efficacy include: Teaching Practices to Avoid Further reading
how-to-be-productive_530adf38cc928_w1500 Here’s How The World’s Most Brilliant Minds Scheduled Their Days Sources: RJ Andrews Infowetrust.com Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: Six Emotional Leadership Styles - Leadership Training From MindTools Choosing the Right Style for the Situation Find out how emotional leadership styles can affect your team's happiness. © iStockphoto/Kuklev Imagine that you work with a positive, charismatic leader. She's excited about the future of the organization, and she shares this excitement with her team. She makes sure that people understand how their efforts contribute to this future, and this inclusion sparks loyalty and intense effort in the team. Generally, morale and job satisfaction are high, because team members feel that they're making a difference. However, some people in her team don't respond well to this style of leadership. She could be more effective by varying her approach to leadership, depending on the situation; and she could do this by using "six emotional leadership styles," each of which is useful in different circumstances. In this article, we'll look at these six emotional leadership styles. The Six Emotional Leadership Styles Note: We'll now examine each style in more detail. 1. 2.
Meditation and Neuroplasticity: Five key articles | Meditation Research Meditation not only changes our mind but also our brain – this is what more and more neuroscientific research suggests. Neuroplasticity – the change of brain structures as a result of experience – is considered to be one of the most important discoveries of neuroscience. Over the last 10 years evidence has been growing that not only the acquisition of navigational knowledge by London Taxi drivers (see video) or learning a new motor task like juggling (see article), but also meditation practice can lead to significant changes to brain structures. Here I respond to a recent request and list five key articles on that topic. Article 1: Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness To my knowledge this is the first study showing differences in brain structure between meditators and non-meditators. Lazar, S. doi: 10.1097/01.wnr.0000186598.66243.19 Article 2: Long-term meditation is associated with increased gray matter density in the brain stem Luders, E., Toga, A.
25 Killer Websites that Make You Cleverer It’s easy to forget that we have access to a virtually limitless resource of information, i.e. the Internet. For a lot of us, this is even true at our fingertips, thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones and an ever-increasing push for online greatness by tech engineers all over the world. As a result, there are countless websites out there that are geared to make you smarter and more brilliant for either a low or no cost. Here are just 25 killer websites that may just make you more clever than ever before. 1. This isn’t the first time I’ve recommended this language-teaching website (and app), and it certainly won’t be the last. 2. Have you ever wanted to pick up a subject you’re not well-versed in, but you didn’t have the money to invest in a college course? 3. Guitar is one of the few instruments out there that’s actually pretty easy to learn if you’re a little older, making it one of the most accessible instruments. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.