Every moment of time is a point of transition, and we assign more importance to certain points of transition – such as a New Year and especially a New Century or New Millennium. We often use such moments to review what we’ve achieved and to consider where we want to be, where we want to go – New Year’s Resolutions or to use the NLP description, describe our Outcomes.

We have been reviewing our NLP Education Network, and setting our Outcomes. One new aspect we are introducing is a programme of workshops for teachers. You will find more information on the trial we are setting up in Hertfordshire and Hackney in the centre pages of New Learning.

I though t that you might like some background to the thinking that will differentiate our programme – and much of our work – from that provided by many other successful organisations. We would also welcome your response, your thoughts and ideas on how we might develop this programme. Perhaps you may even like to get involved in some way – as a workshop developer or leader, setting up and promoting such a programme in your area…

There is nothing more natural for human beings than exploring and learning; we are born to learn; learning is something we do instinctively and easily. We have learnt to walk and talk, to explore and communicate with our environment. We have been so successful that we have explored practically every part of our Earth, can exist in almost any environment, even from earliest times it seems that we have been fascinated about and wanted to explore our wider galaxy and universe. We live in a time when we are actually beginning to learn about such fundamental things as the ingredients that make us human together with the recipe for putting us together!

If learning is so natural and easy, what is going wrong in our education system? Why are so many people – students, teachers, heads, secretaries, advisers, inspectors, lecturers, professors, educational psychologists… – experiencing such high levels of stress and anxiety – and, even more importantly, what can we do about it, what are we doing about it? Perhaps we are missing something very simple and fundamental? Education is being more-and-more driven by all sorts of pressures and teaching has become so focussed on the content of the curriculum and the way in which it ‘should’ be presented. However, learning is not simply about content and the way in which teachers put it across, it’s about how we relate to the content, and how e relate to the process of learning; what goes on inside us when we are learning – or asked/required to learn.

Throughout my career, I have had a very simple belief - Learning is about developing our understanding and relationships with our (personal) world -

This has been my way of maintaining an integrated understanding of and approach in a world of education that typically divides, separates and often alienates – for instance one so-called ‘stage of learning’ from another, one ‘subject’ from another, one ‘responsibility’ from another, one ‘union’ from another, one ‘ability’ or ‘special need’ from another. One of the joys of NLP is that it provides a coherent and integrated approach to most, if not all, aspects of education.

So, as we approach our 3^rd birthday, we are undertaking a major review of our Network and what part we plan to play in influencing our education system and the people who work in and for it – by enabling success.

The following paragraphs provide some descriptions of our thinking and approach, and we look forward to receiving your views and comments. If you want to participate or get involved in such a programme, or its development, please contact us.

Helping you understand yourself, who you are and how to take care of yourself

Is there anything more important in your life than developing the ability to understand yourself and take care of and responsibility for yourself? Perhaps the caring professions, including teaching, have traditionally attracted people who see their main role as taking care of others - and who then act as if they are actually responsible for others and everything they do, sometimes at the cost of acknowledging their own needs and wants (sounds familiar?).

In the current Educational climate, with the very public demands on teachers to work in particular ways (defined by others) and achieve particular targets (defined by others), it would seem that the traditional way of being a teacher isn’t working – the stresses they are experiencing are all too evident!

NLP enables you to understand your self, take care of your self and make your world what you want it to be. NLP provides you with the ‘how’ to maintain your confidence and self-esteem and help you develop the self-knowledge, techniques and skills to once again experience the success and value of being a teacher!

Helping you understand - how they see themselves, how they do what they do and how to support them and their development

Everything in Education involves relationships – with your colleagues, your pupils/students, their parents, the governors… Imagine the impact if you understood how they did what they did – how they made sense of their world, what leads to their behaviour. Imagine the impact if you could communicate with them in a way that always built the trust and understanding that inevitably created a supportive, co-operative working environment – for you and them.

A common experience for people working in Education is a feeling of isolation that, in the current demanding environment - requiring they take their responsibilities and provide results in a very public way - is very disabling and inhibiting.

• developing rapport
• pacing and leading them – be it to get your point across, gain their trust and confidence, develop their skills and abilities
• developing co-operation
• building self-esteem
• creating a successful department/school.

Helping you understand learning and facilitating the learning of others: Learning how we Learn

Current emphasis in Education is on results and on teaching to achieve them – with advice and instruction to teachers on what to teach and how to teach it!

The basis of Education is supporting the learning and development of learners. Interestingly enough, in the UK there is no pedagogy for learning, no accepted theories or models for how we learn. From experience, we all know that we learn, and in many different ways. We have all achieved mastery at many things – walking and running, communicating in words and actions beyond our native language, thinking, dreaming, drawing and painting … and, in our early years, completely informally and with such verve and vigour that no-one could stop us! But, how do we do this? NLP provides some powerful clues!

NLP provides practical models, tools and techniques to increase your knowledge and understanding – both generally about learning and how we learn, together with how we each experience learning and learn in our own unique way – which you can then apply to your teaching!

Each of us in our time play many parts. How do we relate to these roles and responsibilities and how can we ensure success?

We each take on many roles and responsibilities – both in our professional and our personal lives. In some circumstances we undertake them with ease, yet in other circumstances we find the same role very challenging and confronting. How do we do this, and how can we transfer success in one context to success in another?

One of the presuppositions of NLP is that we have all the resources we need to do what we want to do! The enigma about your own excellence is that it is habit – what you do well you do without even thinking about it, ie it derives from your unconscious competence. NLP provides us with the model, tools and techniques for uncovering your excellent habits – so that you can do it more often – and you can also teach it to others in ways that work for them!

Applying NLP will provide you with the understanding of ‘how’ you take on your particular roles – the identity, beliefs and values, competencies and skills that make you the teacher, leader, manager you are! NLP will enable you to understand your self and the people that you work with, so that you can be even more like the person you really want to be:

Helping you understand the impact of your environment and making it work for you

Your working context/environment – the physical space, the people you work with, the parents and wider community, politicians and the media all have a tremendous impact on you, your pupils and your teaching.

Have you ever been trained on how this works – and how you can make it work for you and your pupils whatever the circumstances, rather than be victims of it?

NLP provides you with the ‘how’ to manage the impact of your working environment – for your pupils and teachers and for the people that support them. NLP will enable you to understand your self, take care of your self and make your world what you want it to be.

Helping you understand the pupils that generally cause most concern – and thereby supporting them and helping them help themselves

The pupils that cause most teachers most concern – and probably those that suffer most from the inadequacies and iniquities of ‘the education system’ – are those that come from (what are described as) ‘poor’, ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘deprived’ backgrounds – which is not exactly a good start! - and those who are defined as having ‘special educational needs’.

Why has the movement towards ‘equality’ (of opportunity), towards ‘differentiation’ and integration’ been such a difficult and strained one? Perhaps it is because so much of what we know is based on describing behaviours and then assigning general labels to these behaviours – eg ‘learning difficulties’, ‘behavioural difficulties’, ‘emotional and social difficulties’, ‘physical disabilities’. All such descriptions are based on problematic behaviours (can’t, won’t and don’t) and also on an assumption that they ‘do not fit in here’/’we cannot cope with them’.

What has been missing from practically all discussions around young people who ‘have’ ‘special educational needs’? I would suggest it is an acknowledgement and understanding of the unique personal experience of the pupil – what goes on inside their minds and bodies, what do they think and feel that leads to their behaviour? This has, up until now, not been part of the vocabulary of people working in and for education; it is not a question that seems to have occurred to people, let alone one to begin to answer. No wonder that this whole area is surrounded by disillusion and upset

At last NLP helps provides some positive ways forward, some answers –

• firstly to achieving an understanding of ‘How do they do what they do’
• thereby leading to an acknowledgement and appreciation – and mutual respect
• thereby to helping and supporting development and change

can – and will – always be adapted to meet your particular needs.

Jeff Lewis: March 2000