AN EXAMPLE OF LATERAL THINKING IN EDUCATION
Recently I was approached by an English teacher from a High School in the United States. She told me that her year 12 students were reading at an elementary school level and her task was to correct that.
This teacher understood the concept
“if student can’t learn from the way you teach, then teach the way they learn”
and so went looking for an alternative solution.
Looking for material that would spark their interest she came across an article on Micro Expressions and Lie Detection, which immediately had her student’s full attention.
Now search for more material, she found my website and articles and eventually contacted me. We set up a Skype call and talked about the many ways and different reasons for Reading People, and not just for detecting liars. All the time I was thinking in what best way could I be of service to her and her students.
Being a lateral thinker and always linking together what others might see as unrelated issues, I realised that here was an opportunity to do much more than just improve their ability to read, and that my apps ProfileMe and ProfileMatch were ideal to do just that.
One of the biggest issues we have in western society today is in social and personal relationships. In some countries including Australia, as many as 1 in 3 children suffer psychological issues. These range from mild depression through to chronic self harming and suicides, which stem from self esteem and relationships with others. These problems don’t mysteriously disappear when they leave school, they follow them in to their adult years, effecting there private and workplace relationships.
The best way to deal with a problem is to not focus on the problem, because the solution is never inside of the problem.
Let me explain what I mean by that. In this case the problem was poor reading skills. Focusing on improving their reading in the traditional manner hadn’t helped. The students obviously had little interest in the school’s issued material but they do have a great interest in reading each other, and that created the opportunity to improve their reading skills.
Understanding the 2 mobile apps will explain how numerous issues can be addressed while the students follow their interest. So, let me explain how the 2 apps work.
Both apps introduce the same small number, yet very relevant of personality traits; 7 traits in total and each app has a specific task. ProfileMe shows you how to read a person’s traits while ProfileMatch shows you how to talk to their traits in relationship to your own trait preference.
With ProfileMe you either profile yourself OR profile another person to recognise their personality traits. The generated reports explain what each trait is and how it relates to that person. For instance, are they likely to be overfriendly friendly or more reserved when meeting new people for the first time.
With ProfileMatch you profile yourself AND you profile a second person. The app generates a report that explains how you prefer to interact with people, how the other person prefers to interact and from that how you can build better and faster rapport with them.
Both apps have video and written explanations that the students must read to be able to gauge and determine the trait level, eg if it’s high mid or low. Both apps then have generated reports that they must also read. In a class of 25 students there would be 25 individual ProfileMe reports and 24 relationship profiles with ProfileMatch.
ProfileMe gives each student the opportunity to understand themselves better; what pushes their buttons and why they react to situations the way they do. The process will help them build understanding and self resilience so that undesirable behaviour from other people won’t have the same effect as it may have had in the past (anti-bulling).
The teachers intent is to pair students together when working with ProfileMatch. As they work through profiles together they can’t help but start to understand each other better. As they test the advice in the reports they will naturally change the way they treat each other to a more positive one (social skills and communication skills improvement)
The great thing is that neither app does the profile for you. The apps guide you through the alternatives for each trait that you make selections from your own observation. With repeated use the apps will eventually become redundant. Redundant because the more you use them, the more you’ll learn and the more you can do it without the app. What the apps teach will become second nature to the app user.
It can even be taken further into an understanding on how each trait moderates or enhances the other traits. In the case of ProfileMe there are over 1,458 possible combinations and over 2 million for ProfileMatch, both giving so much more scope in the area of social and emotional learning.
In Summary
While the students focus on something they are passionate about;
- their reading skills are automatically improved without any obstruction to, or negative focus on, the their poor reading ability.
- the culture of bullying must change for the better without bringing any attention to it.
- communication and social interaction skills improve, again without brining any attention to it.
When you put these together, the teacher’s role becomes easier and more enjoyable, strife in schools reduces and general community interactions must also improve.
At the end of the day, it’s not just about improving the students ability to read, yet that will be achieved.
For more information and quick links to the apps
ProfileMe –
iTunes No longer available
Google Play http://tinyurl.com/ProfileMe-GP
Profile Match
iTunes No longer available
Google Play http://tinyurl.com/ProfileMatch-GP
The Face – How to get your ideal career to match your personality.
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006B5SB0O
Google Play https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Alan_Steven_THE_FACE?id=a3xZAgAAQBAJ
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