The Neuroscience of Learning:A New Paradigm for Corporate EducationExecutive Summary

“Learning is not compulsory, but neither is survival.”—W. Edwards Deming

May, 2010

© 2010 The Maritz Institute All rights reserved 1

The Neuroscience of Learning:A New Paradigm for Corporate Education

May, 2010

Introduction“The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.” — Arie De Geus

In the current marketplace, most organizations are challenged to optimize their people-related initiatives and investments. They know that there is untapped potential, yet struggle to engage, develop and recognize the employees, customers and channel partners instrumental to their success.

Due to the advent of new technologies in the last couple of decades, researchers are now able to study neural connections as they happen in the human brain. We are beginning to understand how the brain is involved in everything we do, including learning, engagement, motivation and social interaction. Neuroscience research has produced more knowledge about the brain in the last decade than in all history prior.

Maritz has always been at the forefront in the effort to understand, enable and motivate the people who touch an organization. Today, we are tapping into the almost daily breakthroughs in neuroscience research to help organizations more effectively lead and influence mindful change in their employees, customers and channel partners. One of the key areas where that knowledge can be applied is learning.

Neuroplasticity Up until the 1980’s, scientists thought the structure of the brain developed during childhood and that once developed, there was very little room for change. Scientists now know, as a result of the technologies now available to us, that the brain possesses enormous capacity to change: People’s ability to process widely varied information and complex new experiences with relative ease can often be surprising. The brain’s ability to act and react in ever-changing ways is known as neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is perhaps the single most important concept in terms of learning and the brain. The knowledge that our brain is constantly changing and growing—that cortical plasticity extends throughout the human lifespan—shifts our understanding of what is possible for adult learners. Learning is not just changing external behavior, but changing the very wiring of the brain as it relates to those behaviors. Deep, lasting change is possible at all ages.

How Change Happens At the core, learning is change. Learning changes the physical structure of the brain and results in its organization and reorganization. Learning is always happening—consciously and unconsciously. Yet, when developing training for business environments, we spend most of our time focused on the content we want people to know rather than how they will learn. As a result, we fail to engage them, fail to keep them engaged, or fail to help them transfer their knowledge into action. Deep, lasting learning that results in changed performance does not happen. Learning design, informed by neuroscience, ensures that our designs align with how the brain acquires, processes and retains information. Our methodologies, tools and ways of delivering and sustaining training are aligned with the biology of the brain—that support natural brain processes—the way people really learn.

© 2010 The Maritz Institute All rights reserved 2

The Neuroscience of Learning:A New Paradigm for Corporate Education

May, 2010

© 2010 The Maritz Institute All rights reserved 3

Brain-Based Design PrinciplesFollowing are a list of design principles that reflect a brain-based understanding of learning. When we work with clients, we apply these principles and the key ideas behind them to ensure that powerful learning happens—the kind that leads to behavioral change and improved performance.

• Learning is a process. Make time for gatheringinformation, reflection, creation and active testing.

• Make a connection with the learner’s priorknowledge and experience.

• Create opportunities for social engagement andinteraction as part of the learning process.

• Engage both feeling and thinking.

• Actively attend to attention—gaining, holding and focusing the learner’s attention.

• Engage a maximum number of senses—especiallyvisual—when designing learning.

• In a fast-paced world with multiple stimuli, slow down enough to engagethe entire brain and all the different parts of the learning cycle.

• Learners control what they do or do not learn. The learning cycle shifts

power from the instructor and content to the learner and context.

• Drawing on what we know about neuroplasticity learning experiences muststart with what the learner knows.

• Stories, analogies and metaphors—especially those constructed by the

learner—are examples of powerful ways to make connections. • Experts and novices have radically different understandings and connections.

Paying attention to the unique attributes of novice and expert will significantly increase the impact of training.

• The brain is social—and learning is social. In a world where more and moreinformation and training is delivered digitally, we recognize that learning must still have a social dimension—using social media or face-to-face interactions.

• Emotion is a necessary part of learning. Getting the level of emotional

engagement right—not too much, not too little—adds a new dimension to the design of learning experiences. Our training ensures that right level of emotional engagement.

• Attention is a critical part of the design of learning. It is increasingly

challenging to engage attention—yet increasingly clear that without it, learning does not occur.

• Engaging emotion, creating connections to existing knowledge,incorporating novelty and utilizing storytelling are all ways to engage and manage attention.

• Learning can be deeper, richer and more memorable when multiple senses

are engaged. Integrating a greater degree of visual and multisensory elements into learning solutions can increase their impact and effectiveness.

Key IdeasPrinciple

The Neuroscience of Learning:A New Paradigm for Corporate Education

May, 2010

© 2010 The Maritz Institute All rights reserved 4

Where We Are HeadingThe chart below describes where we believe learning is heading—and the direction we are working towards:

• Present-Demo-Practice-Feedback • Gather-Reflect-Create-Test

• Cookie-cutter chunks • Right-sized chunks

• Information • Meaning

• What • How and why

• Content-centric • Learner-centric

• Explanation • Discovery

• Expert-driven • Learner-driven

• Teachers • Learning networks

• Set content • Dynamic content

• Start with what we know • Start with what they know

Current Future

The Maritz InstituteSimply stated, the role of The Maritz Institute is to help create: “Better Business. Better Lives.” The Institute serves as a bridge between the human sciences and Maritz business solutions, which are designed to help companies achieve strategic goals by engaging employees, business partners and customers. We bring insight – anchored in science – that provides a foundation for understanding, enabling and motivating people in ways that are most meaningful to them. For more information, visit: www.maritz.com/institute.