Time To Think

LISTENING TO IGNITE THE HUMAN MIND by Nancy Cline.

There are 10 components to create a thinking environment in your home, business, class or Shine Centre session.

Attention
Listening with respect, interest and fascination.
The quality of your attention determines the quality of the other's thinking. Give them unwavering eye-contact.
Do not interrupt! Don't think you know what they are trying to say. Don't give them your ideas and opinion. Just listen.

Equality
Give equal turns and attentions. Let everyone have their say.
Keep agreements and boundaries.
Treat each other as thinking peers.

Appreciation
Have a 5:1 ratio of appreciation to criticism. In other words for every one thing you criticise have five things you appreciate. “I am so pleased with they way you wrote that word so carefully, you listened to the story so beautifully and could tell me all about it at the end. Your memory is excellent. Now let's look at improving the way you write your 'e'. Thank you, for trying so hard!
(always try and end off with an appreciative comment!)

Ease
Make sure that when you are trying to create a learning environment there is freedom from rushing or a sense of urgency.
No 'quickly, hurry up and finish the page – we have a lot to get through!'

Encouragement
Do not create a sense of competition.
No ' let's see who can do this the quickest'


Feelings
Allow sufficient emotional release to restore thinking.
You don't have to solve the problem but give them the time to release a problem or feelings of anxiety.
Most people and certainly children cannot think when they are anxious.
(I had a humbling experience with a little boy I am helping with reading at the private school I work at. I have worked with him all year with a sense of urgency as his reading is two years below his grade. I never stopped to really give him anything other than a reading lesson. Until one afternoon, we did some creative writing around feelings. He released so much pent up sorrow and anxiety that he did not stop crying for 30 minutes. This little boy is so lonely. I am not sure how much I can change his life for him. I suspect not at all, but I am going to make sure that our sessions together follow these suggestions.

Information
Provide a full and accurate picture of whatever it is you are working on.

Place
Create a physical environment that says, “You matter.”
(I would like to think that the Shine Centre does that.)

Diversity
Everyone adds quality because of the differences between us. Be it cultural, physical, emotional or mental. There should be no such thing as 'they' when you speak about other people. No generalisations.

Incisive Questions
Ask yourself incisive questions about the child or the situation.
What might you be assuming that could be limiting things.
If you assume something more freeing about what new ideas there might be.
What assumptions might your child have about themselves, their abilities, their teacher, their class or you that may be holding them back.
By asking them incisive questions you may discover things you did not know and so might they.