It was another beautiful day in the life of a pearl fisherman. In the middle of an online meeting with 26 participants, a pearl just rolled towards her. Because discussing a learning preference profile often resembles opening a shell (the brain) where we find grains of sand to which we add material so that the pearls can develop.
Yesterday, during that online meeting, a pearl suddenly rolled out of such a shell. For a MILS coach, a pearl is a learning strategy that we do not yet know. A strategy that is not yet included in our 'Handbook for MILS coaches'. The person started to say that it wasn't too bad with her high exercise score. She could easily sit still for an hour and doesn't need any exercise, but she starts tapping her foot almost immediately, she said. This is a very well-known learning strategy, many students 'tremble' with their leg or move another part of the body in order to meet the movement needs of their brain.
This person said casually that she followed her heartbeat while moving. So her foot tapped to the rhythm of her heart. Now moving in the rhythm of your heart and music in the rhythm of your heart is a very well-known way to relax your brain (study music on You Tube). Even when speed reading, for example, we recommend that you make the movements with your ‘pointer’ under the lines in such a way that they are synchronized with your heart rate. This puts your brain waves in alpha state and allows you to absorb information more easily and keeps your brain relaxed.
So making combinations with movements and rhythm of heartbeat to put the brain in a learning state is not new, but the simple solution of tapping the foot in that rhythm… so simple and effective! This strategy has helped the person through secondary and higher education. Now that I write this down, I am surprised that I have not fished out this pearl before.
The explanation is that even for a very experienced MILS coach it remains difficult to come up with new strategies for learning preferences that are far removed from your own. My own exercise score is 12, I can let my brain run and learn for over an hour. This is in grand contrast to someone who experiences exercise as a necessity while learning.
As MILS coaches, we like to learn and so do many of the students we administer the MILS to. New MILS coaches are always surprised that students have often figured out quite complicated learning strategies themselves. But because all MILS coaches unearth their own beautiful pearls, we enthusiastically share our new finds with each other.
What are you going to teach us?