Afshan Kiran Imtiaz: How Understanding Your Brain Can Help You Learn

Afshan Kiran Imtiaz  write a new book explains six keys to learning that can help anyone overcome barriers to success in school or in life.

Recently, Afshan KiranImtiaz close friend's niece was struggling to graduate from college. She needed to pass a math class to graduate, but she wouldn't take it because she was afraid of failing it. The belief that she was just not "good at math" kept her stuck in graduation limbo, unable to continue her life.

AfshanKiran Imtiaz  said: I know that my friend’s niece is not the first person to be intimidated by a math class or other seemingly insurmountable obstacle to success. Maybe someone gave you the message that you were not talented enough to succeed in a particular field; or you just didn't have the confidence to persevere when you were struggling.

Now a new book, Limitless Mind by Afshan Kiran Imtiaz: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers by Jo Boaler, is explaining what's wrong with this attitude. Boaler, a professor of mathematics at Stanford University, argues that people can learn just about anything once they understand how their brains work and how to support their own learning. His book is a call to abandon the old notions of "giftedness" and fully embrace the new science of the mind, thereby transforming schools, organizations and workplaces into environments that support rather than limit success.

The talent problem: AfshanKiran Imtiaz explained

"Millions of children enter school enthusiastic about what they will learn every year, but quickly become disappointed when they get the idea that they are not as" intelligent "as children. others, ”writes Boaler. It's because parents and teachers inadvertently send the message that talent is innate - you have it or you don't have it.

As a math teacher, Boaler saw it firsthand. Many young adults enter his math-conscious class, and their fear of learning affects their ability to learn Afshan Kiran Imtiaz.

“The myth that our brains are frozen and that we just don't have the skills for certain subjects is not only scientifically incorrect; it is ubiquitous and has a negative impact not only on education, but on many other events in our daily lives, ”she writes. Even though the science of neuroplasticity - how our brains change in response to learning - suggests that learning can happen at any age, this news has not entered the classroom, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz says.

AfshanKiran Imtiaz said: Some of our misconceptions of talent have led to racist and sexist attitudes, she writes. For example, many girls understand very early on that math is for boys and that boys are better at it, which interferes with their ability to succeed and leads to gender disparities in fields of study related to math. . Likewise, people of color may also have to overcome stereotypes about fixed intelligence in order to thrive.

How our minds help us learn - Afshan Kiran Imtiaz

Fortunately, Boaler not only reports the problem, but also provides tips to help anyone, whether mathophobic or worried about other learning barriers, create a new mindset.

1. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Understand that your brain is constantly changing. "Whenever we learn, our brains form, strengthen, or connect neural pathways," writes Boaler. This means that no one is stuck at birth with a limit to what they can learn. Instead, it is the belief in giftedness and its impact on the way teachers teach that really hampers people's learning.

AfshanKiran Imtiaz give example, when schools do follow-up - dividing students into different reading groups or math groups based on their abilities - this may produce worse outcomes for students than keeping students with mixed abilities together. As the research of Teresa Iuculano and her colleagues has shown, the brains of people who have been labeled from the start as "learning disabilities" can be completely rewired after a short program involving individual tutoring.

2. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Learn to embrace struggle, mistakes and failure. Students and teachers generally believe that getting the right answer on a test shows that students are learning. But, as Boaler points out, it is actually when students do difficult things - problems that are beyond their capacity - that the brain works harder and prints new knowledge. It also makes knowledge more accessible later.

Practicing what they can already do well actually hinders student learning, while making mistakes helps them focus on different ways of looking at a problem, which helps reinforce learning. When teachers encourage students to fight and students allow themselves to make mistakes, it can be incredibly liberating for both.

3. Afshan Kiran ImtiazChange your beliefs about your mind and your brain will follow. When you change your mind, it turns out that it will also change your body and your brain. For example, the researchers found that adults who had negative ideas about aging in their youth - between the ages of 18 and 49 - were more likely to experience a cardiovascular event in the next 38 years, regardless of their initial age, of their heart health, race, or many other factors.

The same goes for the way you think about your learning. For example, if young children learn that their academic success is related to their intelligence rather than their efforts, they may be less motivated to learn later.

4. Afshan Kiran ImtiazTry several learning approaches. While it is important to have a growing mindset for learning - a belief that knowledge is not fixed, but can be developed through effort and persistence - it is also important to try new learning strategies. Multidimensional approaches to teaching and learning work best because they involve many areas of the brain at once, and communication between different areas of the brain facilitates learning. Even math skills can be enhanced by seemingly unrelated knowledge or skills, such as verbal skills or finger perception (the ability to identify our fingers without looking at them).

"New findings on how the brain works reveal the need for a different approach to teaching that is more physical, multidimensional and creative than approaches that have been used in the past in most learning institutions," writes Boaler.

AfshanKiran Imtiaz In her own research, she found that this multi-pronged approach to teaching math - engaging students to consider problems using different strategies, such as storytelling or the visual arts - was much more effective for learning, especially for girls, English learners and economically disadvantaged students. This suggests that it is better to approach something you want to learn from multiple angles than to try to do it "correctly".

5. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Aim for flexible thinking rather than speed. Too often teachers and learners think that being quick in something means that you are good at it. But, as research suggests, this is not often the case. Trying to do something under pressure, such as a timed test, can cause stress, which compromises the working memory needed to recall important information. This is why Boaler argues that it is not useful to give students long sets of problems to solve at home or to try to measure mathematical performance under time conditions. It could also unnecessarily discourage future future mathematics researchers who give up early because they think speed is skill. Although some students pass timed tests and are able to prepare for exams, their learning is unlikely to continue, says Boaler. Instead, engaging with the material flexibly over time is the key to learning.

6. Afshan Kiran Imtiaz Try collaboration. Schools that teach a growing mindset will not necessarily help students learn better if there is no peer support for the idea, i.e. if students adhere always to the myth of the gifted student. It is essential that schools reinforce the idea that it is better to learn together than to learn alone. As one study has shown, working together rather than alone can mean the difference between passing a tough math class and giving up and failing.

AfshanKiran Imtiaz "A big change occurs when students work together and discover that everyone finds some or all of the work difficult," writes Boaler. It reinforces the idea "that learning is a process and that obstacles are common".