MY BRAIN POWER SESSIONS @ TCS SHOLINGANALLUR CHENNAI

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Secret of unlocking creativity in kids

The simple way of unlocking the power of creativity in children is by asking them just two simple words: 'Why not? ' Used correctly this enables children to:

• Value their creative ability
• Practice presenting their ideas to others
• Have confidence in their ideas.

As your child unleashes their creative thinking, they might come up with some suggestions that may be hilarious. By all means laugh with them but not at them! Otherwise we are back to square one making them have no confidence in their thoughts for improving it. So at this stage, remember to focus on what really is important: no matter how bizarre their suggestions might be. It does not matter whether your child is in junior or high school - the same thing applies.

Remember that the precise nature of their ideas is not important here - developing confidence in freely expressing their creativity is the utmost need of the hour. Getting an idea from vision to reality follows a creative pattern. By trying out new ideas combined with determination to succeed, inventions and discoveries are made. 

Mistakes are good

In this competitive world, failure has too much of pessimism attached to it. Far more people see mistakes as a sign of failure. However, the fact is that they are indeed the learning curves. We,as humans, are always in the process of  learning things. Sometimes it so happens that we might have barked up the wrong tree - that's it! There is actually nothing to be ashamed of. Rather mistakes are to be analysed, decoded and should be encoded into learning opportunities for futuristic development.

Failures and mistakes are part of a new venture.We need to take risk and try a lot of things with the knowledge that only a few will work out. It is only a matter of perception. If we convince ourselves that failures are an inevitable part of challenging, then to fail sometimes becomes a smart thing - provided that we learn from our mistakes and resolve to do things differently the next time.

So the next time you make a mistake notice them, put them into your memory bucket, reflect on them and adapt what you do next time accordingly.Make a conscious effort to remember your mistakes so as to repeat it less likely. Only then will mistakes begin to have a real value to you!

"Experience is the name we give to our mistakes" - by Oscar Wilde.

How creative thinkers work?

Research has shown that people who are good at thinking creatively don't necessarily have high IQs. Instead there are three particular personality characteristics that seem to be more important. The first aspect is openness to experience, willingness to take risk to try new things, and lack of concern about conforming to accepted standards. The second is curiosity. Creative thinkers constantly question, inspect, seek and probe. This is partly because they are more likely to notice new things, or spot contradictions or flaws. When they notice these, they don't simple accept them - rather they try to investigate it further. Finally comes in the persistence. Creative people go further to fix up problems, unwilling to accept the conventional solution.

Now let me suggest some of the known ways to make our brain think a creative way....Brainstorming is a strategy used to encourage creativity. The idea is that by telling people to come up with any idea, you encourage them to break free from the fixed sets and make them think out of the box.Group brainstorming offers the further bonus of feedback, where divergent thinking by one person can be taken further by another. Circumstances also boost creativity. Have you ever experienced situations wherein a solution to a problem pops up when you stop thinking about the problem? This is because when we are not under pressure our mind becomes more receptive, shutting off distracting thoughts and outside perceptions. This can be enhanced through meditation and relaxation techniques. Emotional intelligence also influences in motivating creative thinking because it helps in understanding yours and other feelings or concerns which indirectly guides your thinking and actions. In today's world creative thinking is at premium, so it pays to examine the habits of people who think this way!

Mental speed - COUNTDOWN

The most general ability of all is the g factor - general intelligence that probably underlies all types of intelligence and is so important on the performance of IQ tests. Studies reveal that there is a strong relationship between the g factor and numerical-mathematical intelligence (NMI) which is the sub type that helps to manipulate numbers and understand the relationships between numbers and similar abstract concepts. This means that an NMI exercise is probably a good measure to strengthen the g factor. Lets start with a simple NMI exercise called COUNTDOWN. Countdown is an exercise in mental arithmetic, in the guise of mental subtraction. Tell your kid to simply pick up a number between 93 and 99 and subtract 7 from it repeatedly(mental subtraction) until he/she gets 0 or less. Time your kid and record how long it takes for the kid to reach 0. Make them do this atleast five times and workout the average time. Repeat this exercise with different numbers for subtraction and chart down the progress. If your child's time comes down, it strongly suggests that the g factor is sharpening and their mental speed is increasing. Though this seems to be a simple mental workout, it plays a vital role in gaining mental strength in kids.

Try out this simple NMI exercise for your kid and look out for the changes!

5 R's of Note making

The important aspects of learning includes careful listening, paying attention, understanding, synthesizing and organizing all main ideas in our brain. These components require a good note taking technique for an effective and better understanding. There are many ways to take notes, and everyone seems to have their preference when it comes to note taking. Many methods involve some or all of the 5 R’s of note taking: record, reduce, recite, reflect, and review.  Let me brief on these 5R's.

The first step in note taking is record.  When you record, write down only important facts and details.  When you take notes be sure to write only the things that are important and not the words that doesn't matter. The second step when taking notes is to reduce your information or notes to short simple phrases.  When reducing your notes to short phrases you will take out only the important words from a paragraph and make it into a smaller sentence or phrase.The third step to note taking is to recite.  When you recite your notes jot down the important informations into your own words.The fourth step in note taking is reflect.  For this step you will look back at your notes and add any information to them that you think is important to know or add to them.The last step in note taking is review.  When you review go back and look at your notes and information that you have written down.

Like any skill, note taking develops with practice. Practicing proven note taking techniques can dramatically improve a student’s academic performance. 

Overlearning

The degree of memorizing something repeatedly beyond the point at which you think you know is termed 'Overlearning'. This overlearning is generally used in kinder-gardens for their initial learning and also in music or other physical skills because it helps complex actions become more automatic and easier. This overlearning should not be mistaken for cramming because cramming does not yield long term knowledge or understanding of the material. On the other hand, overlearning helps in acquiring procedural memory. In this context, I would like to brief on what procedural memory is: It is a memory for the performance of particular types of actions. This is created through procedural training or repeating a complex activity over and over again. The procedural memory involves the utilization of cognitive and motor skills below the level of conscious awareness.

Implicit procedural learning is essential to the development of any motor skill or cognitive activity.The acquisition of skill requires practice. Merely repeating a task alone, however, does not ensure the acquisition of a skill. Skill acquisition is achieved when an observed behaviour has changed due to experience or practice. This involves analyzing the desired skill and repeating them over and over to achieve success. So the process of overlearning helps the learner is to perform an activity accurately.

The situations where overlearning is involved includes learning multiplication tables, learning vocabulary for a foreign language, mastering an instrument, in making speeches or giving a performance in front of the audience.Studies have revealed that this overlearning actually reduces the amount of mental effort leading to better performance even under a pressurized situation. This goes by the old saying "Practice makes a man perfect"!