I have so many interests that sometimes it's quite difficult to see the wood for the trees... especially on my desk, which typically has several piles of papers - journal articles, pages from magazines etc that I am in the process of reading (or intending to read). But sometimes this eclectic disorganisation actually pays off.
The other day, during a desk tidying exercise, I found an article that I had torn out of The Psychologist magazine in February called From Brain Scan to Lesson Plan. I put it in my bag to read on the train on the way to meet a friend in London, so later in the evening, something he said prompted me to talk about some of the ideas in the article. One of the things he was interested in was the proliferation of 'neuromyths' in the world of teaching, such as the use of the concept of preferred learning styles to improve learning outcomes (for which there is little scientific evidence). He asked me if I would be prepared to give a talk to the music teachers he works with at Newham Music Academy about the Psychology of Learning as part of their professional development programme.
I agreed in a fairly tentative way, because I wasn't initially sure exactly what I could discuss that they would find interesting (and useful), but then I started doing some research into the links between neuroscience and learning, and strangely enough, this led me to articles about how neuroscience studies have shown that the study and practice of music may actually enhance an individual's general ability to learn. Bingo! Now I have a sense of what the talk could be about. What's more, I realised that I could also link this to studies about improvisation, as much of this work has focused on jazz musicians.
It encourages me to keep up my habit of saving articles of interest, and also to be less bothered about the state of my desk!
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