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A fresh conception of women's empowerment through education as a process of recognition, capacity development, and action in a community setting
Introducing a spelling test to a student by saying, 'Let' s see how many words you know,' is different from saying, 'Let's see how many words you know already.' It is only one word, but the already suggests that any words the child knows are ahead of expectation and, most important, that there is nothing permanent about what is known and not known. Peter Johnston Grounded in research, Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Livesshows how words can shape students' learning, their sense of self, and their social, emotional and moral development. Make no mistake: words have the power to open minds – or close them. Following up his groundbreaking book, Choice Words, author Peter Johnston continues to demonstrate how the things teachers say (and don't say) have surprising consequences for the literate lives of students. In this new book, Johnston shows how the words teachers choose can affect the worlds students inhabit in the classroom. He explains how to engage children with more productive talk and how to create classrooms that support students' intellectual development, as well as their development as human beings.
New discoveries in physics combined with a greater awareness of extra-ordinary phenomena all around us challenge our traditional beliefs. Research into resonant viewing crop circles and extraterrestrials shows our world to be vibrant, multidimmensional, and full of mystery.
BRILLIANTLY EXPLORING TODAY'S CUTTING-EDGE BRAIN RESEARCH, MIND WIDE OPEN IS AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INTO THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN PERSONALITY, ALLOWING READERS TO UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES AS NEVER BEFORE. Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works -- its chemicals, structures, and subroutines -- and how these systems connect to the day-to-day realities of individual lives. For a hundred years, he says, many of us have assumed that the most powerful route to self-knowledge took the form of lying on a couch, talking about our childhoods. The possibility entertained in this book is that you can follow another path, in which learning about the brain's mechanics can widen one's self-awareness as powerfully as any therapy or meditation or drug. In Mind Wide Open, Johnson embarks on this path as his own test subject, participating in a battery of attention tests, learning to control video games by altering his brain waves, scanning his own brain with a $2 million fMRI machine, all in search of a modern answer to the oldest of questions: who am I? Along the way, Johnson explores how we "read" other people, how the brain processes frightening events (and how we might rid ourselves of the scars those memories leave), what the neurochemistry is behind love and sex, what it means that our brains are teeming with powerful chemicals closely related to recreational drugs, why music moves us to tears, and where our breakthrough ideas come from. Johnson's clear, engaging explanation of the physical functions of the brain reveals not only the broad strokes of our aptitudes and fears, our skills and weaknesses and desires, but also the momentary brain phenomena that a whole human life comprises. Why, when hearing a tale of woe, do we sometimes smile inappropriately, even if we don't want to? Why are some of us so bad at remembering phone numbers but brilliant at recognizing faces? Why does depression make us feel stupid? To read Mind Wide Open is to rethink family histories, individual fates, and the very nature of the self, and to see that brain science is now personally transformative -- a valuable tool for better relationships and better living.
A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say. Yet our world, our civilisation has grown up on a foundation of words - laws, constitutions, treaties, charters, creeds - words that have tamed and liberated in equal measure. Our education, from earliest childhood, emphasises the importance of words. We take the world before our eyes and define it in a verbal language, and in so doing we capture it, understand it, celebrate it. But there are costs. In our reliance on the cold efficency of language we have neglected the wordless ways of the brain. The uniquely complex human mind is capable of the most exquisite images and visions. But visualisation is not merely about sight and the imagined, it is about the way we interact with the world through our five senses. In THE MIND'S EYE Ian Robertson demonstrates how we are underutilising our brain's powers of visualisation. Taking the lessons of hard science, he explains how the brain works and how important visualisation can be. But more importantly, how we can all unleash the awesome power of our brains. Following simple exercises Ian Robertson describes how visualisation can: improve memory and learning power be the key to creative thinking and problem solving offer powerful ways of combating stress fight physical illness and pain enrich musical and artistic experience enhance sporting skill and strength In his trademark accessible and imaginative style, Ian Robertson brings to life the hidden workings of the brain, and teaches us all how we can best capitalise on our inate abilities. A must read for anyone interested in how the brain works, or unlocking our mind's full potential.
A novel proposal that the cognitive architecture for volition and cognition arises from particular kinds of social interaction and communication. In Open Minds, Wolfgang Prinz offers the novel claim that agency and intentionality are first perceived and understood in others, and that it is only through practices and discourses of social mirroring that individuals come to apply these features to themselves and to shape their architectures for volition and cognition accordingly. Developing a (social science) constructive approach within a (cognitive science) representational framework, Prinz argues that the architectures for agency (volition) and intentionality (cognition) arise from particular kinds of social interaction and communication. Rather than working as closed, individual systems, our minds operate in ways that are fundamentally open to other minds. Prinz describes mirror systems and mirror games, particular kinds of representational mechanisms and social games that provide tools for aligning closed individual minds with other minds. He maps the formation of an architecture for volition, addressing issues of agency and intention-based top-down control, then outlines the ways the same basic ideas can be applied to an architecture for cognition, helping to solve basic issues of subjectivity and intentionality. Addressing the reality and efficacy of such social artifacts as autonomy and free will, Prinz contends that our beliefs about minds are not just beliefs about their workings but powerful tools for making them work as we believe. It is through our beliefs that our minds work in a particular way that we actually make them work in that way.
Author Kneen, who has conducted Shambhala Training workshops for more than 20 years, shows how to develop personal power through direct, genuine experience and how to cultivate natural bravery, authenticity, and gentleness. Directed especially to readers new to Shambhala Buddhism, she also teaches how to develop genuine dignity by connecting to the strength and wisdom of the world as it is.
This book will teach you a new way to communicate which gets to the heart of things! By asking Clean Language questions to explore the metaphors which underpin a person's thinking, you can help people to change their lives in a way that intrinsically respects diversity and supports empowerment. Both you and they will gain profound new insights into what makes them tick. The approach was originally used to help clients to resolve deep trauma. It is now being used to get to the truth and to solve complex problems by some of the sharpest and most innovative people in the world - coaches, business people, educators, health professionals and many others.
Though it's nearly impossible to imagine, times of personal crisis and upheaval are opportunities for self-reinvention and heightened artistic expression. Whether you are healing from a severed relationship, experiencing a job loss, or coping with another traumatic life transition, you can renew your strength and find new passion and purpose after things fall apart. Wise Mind, Open Mind offers a powerful three-step mindfulness approach to help you navigate times of unwanted change, rediscover your inner well of creativity, and move forward with passion and purpose. This book combines techniques drawn from contemporary mind-body approaches, Buddhist psychology, mindfulness, creative thinking, and positive psychology to show you how to tap into your gifts and create a practical plan for personal transformation that will help you move through the challenges you face. You'll learn to overcome the five common hindrances that may be keeping you from true fulfillment and happiness. Finally, you'll be able to embrace your circumstances, utilizing them to create a renewed personal vision and welcome new possibilities and greater creativity into your life.
What would a school look like if it was designed with mental health in mind? Too many public schools look and feel like prisons, designed out of fear of vandalism and truancy. But we know that nurturing environments are better for learning. Access to nature, big classroom windows, and open campuses consistently reduce stress, anxiety, disorderly conduct, and crime, and improve academic performance. Backed by decades of research, Schools That Heal showcases clear and compelling ways--from furniture to classroom improvements to whole campus renovations--to make supportive learning environments for our children and teenagers. With invaluable advice for school administrators, public health experts, teachers, and parents Schools That Heal is a call to action and a practical resource to create nurturing and inspiring schools for all children.
