Conceptualization into Classroom Practice
 Neumind takes a revolutionary approach to teaching and learning because it starts with what the brain can do already, celebrating its power to produce phenomenal results, and working to harness that power to achieve specific learning goals. It opens up incredible possibilities for anyone who embarks upon its unique journey of discovery because Neumind utilises the brain's natural techniques, activating and training them at the same time as using them to learn. In this way, learning is far more than data-gathering and processing. It becomes a holistic process of self improvement, building knowledge and skills and confidence in every aspect of the brain's performance, and changing the way a child thinks and learns forever.
When I was at school, teaching and learning were very separate things. The teacher taught, the pupils tried to learn, and there was rarely a connection between the two. We were never shown how we might learn, just what we needed to know, and for most of us education was a struggle. Some succeeded, others failed. Our brains felt like they were being bombarded with information without really knowing how to cope. Everything we were told suggested that learning was hard, and we just had to do our best to cope. But at the same time we were learning games in the playground, retelling stories and jokes, exploring the world in fun, imaginative ways. Our brains were working wonderfully, we were relaxed and happy until we went back into class, and the battle to learn began again.
Neumind allows that spirit of creative adventure to continue even when engaged in serious learning. It works with the brain, not against it.
I remember the first time I realised the wonderful significance of this. I was sixteen years old, most of my way through High School, and I read about a ‘magic trick’ for remembering lists. It involved thinking in pictures, creating memorable stories to link together ten items in sequence. I tried it, it worked, and immediately I knew that this felt different, unlike any sort of learning I’d tried before. The fun, colourful, relaxed side of my brain was being brought to the challenge for the first time, and the improvement was almost unbelievable.
I remember my excitement. If I could remember a list of ten items, why not twenty? Or thirty? Or a hundred? And why not try to use all of my brain like this to learn numbers, names, dates, equations…? The most exciting thing about my ‘magic trick’ was that it wasn’t magic at all. It was completely natural. This was how my brain already worked when I was reading a story, drawing a picture, singing along to a favourite song. This felt good and I was determined to keep feeling good about everything I had to do in school.
That ‘magic trick’ changed my life, because it changed the way I thought about learning. I realised that I didn’t need to struggle to squeeze information into my brain: I just had to open up my brain, to activate its inbuilt systems, to take in new material in ways that felt natural, relaxed and fun. Learning could be should be enjoyable. I could feel confident in my ability to learn anything; and confident that any ‘real’ learning like this I did was a priceless investment, because by doing it I was improving my brain and building up a creative and connected wealth of knowledge and skill.
By the time I sat my final exams at Oxford University I could hardly wait to show off what I could do. I was studying English Literature, and had spent three years researching and exploring a wide range of authors and texts. For the exams, I would need to have a vast amount of information at my fingertips: ideas, quotations, characters, dates. More importantly, I would need to hold that information in a way that I could use in the exams, to respond to very general questions and construct rich, creative answers on the spot.
So I used the whole of my brain, in a way that I had perfected and practised until it felt completely comfortable. In each exam, I explored information in my mind through pictures and stories, moving around colourful imaginative landscapes to find all the details I needed to know. I wasn’t just recalling information: I was using it to help me, weaving it into answers that showed the full range of my knowledge.
I achieved a First Class degree from Oxford University, and have gone on to publish eight books, for adults and children, about the secrets of powerful learning. I now work in schools to help train even the youngest children to develop the best approaches to using their brains. Starting early is so important, as is learning in a spirit of fun and happiness and in so many ways Neumind supports everything I have come to value in true learning success.
Neumind: the name reveals so much. For too long education worked on just one hemisphere of the brain, the half we call the Left, specialising in the Logical: words, numbers, decisions, structure, process, detail. Real learning can only happen when the Right side is brought in, incorporating colour, story, dreams, fun, play, feelings, and the bigger picture. The two hemispheres need to be connected, giving structure to creative thinking and shape and direction to imagination and invention.
It’s how history’s greatest brains have always worked. Leonardo da Vinci could draw detailed diagrams and sensible, logical designs, but he combined them with cartoons and flights of fancy. Albert Einstein understood the technical considerations at every stage of his thinking, but he could only make the huge leaps of understanding by bringing in the power and flexibility of his wonderful imagination. It is the combination that works the magic: using the whole brain to achieve the highest success.
The Neumind approach incorporates this level of connected thinking at every stage of its programs. It is a particularly powerful approach because it puts whole-brain techniques into the teaching itself. Children are not simply required to use their brains properly to succeed: the teaching exercises make it unavoidable, a natural aspect of learning and learning anything, be it English or mathematics, Chinese or art. Each programme, tailored to a specific subject and age-group, brings together a range of strategies that support the brain working at its best. Children are helped to form foundations on which knowledge can be built; mental frameworks to help them connect new information in the most comfortable ways. The learning process is fast and dynamic, asking intriguing questions that stimulate interest and quickly create familiarity with new material. The programs emphasize understanding, the ability to use knowledge sensibly, and the key techniques for organising and processing even the largest and most complex sets of information.
As well as having key aspects of learning that connect us all, human beings also show preferences towards different learning styles. Education has been slow to grasp this, tending to group all children together and to teach in ways that allow only some pupils to engage with the teaching at any one time. But Neumind counteracts this with the range of approaches woven into each program. Children will find techniques that suit them best; but, crucially, they will also be encouraged to move out of their comfort zone and improve the learning techniques that are not so well developed. Each key learning strategy is activated, used and developed throughout Neumind’s progressive programmes of study.
The latest brainwave technology allows Neumind to develop learning that matches not just the best current theories of learning, but also the physical evidence of brains working at their optimum level. It is teaching that produces results beyond those measured in test scores and professional success, because it boosts confidence, heightens creativity, and helps children develop a flexibility of thinking that can be turned to any challenge. A brain trained through the Neumind system does not need linear instructions like so many children do. It can make its own decisions, combine different areas of knowledge and skill, approach a problem from many different angles because these are exactly the strategies modelled throughout the Neumind programmes, embedded in its teaching techniques.
Children are always showing off their amazing creativity and imagination. They love pictures and stories, music, jokes; but before long these wonderful skills can be buried under an avalanche of right-brained information and purely rational thinking in a logical, adult world. Neumind encourages a child to make the most of their left and right hemispheres in combination, providing the structure and guidance needed to organise creativity and focus imagination. Planning, prioritising and time-management are all key strands, but only alongside the fun and freedom of imaginative association.
I have performed feats of memory on radio and television around the world, by using exactly the same techniques. I have a goal as clear as any exam, a time-limit to focus my strategies, the pressure to perform well. I organise my information, just as Neumind has organised the materials in each of its programs, to give myself the best chance of processing it. Then I unleash my creative imagination, using pictures, ‘peg’ associations, linked scenes and connected stories. I make abstract information memorable, adapting it to the ways in which my brain and everyone’s brain works best. In this way I can amaze audiences by remembering hundreds of numbers, names, words, images, playing cards all because I have taken control of the learning process, and used my brain in the way it was designed.
The Neumind system is particularly good for learning languages because it builds on understanding. Every word learnt is a foundation on which the next word can be set. Sessions on vocabulary, grammar, comprehension and composition are designed to combine into a holistic approach to the language; and, since the learning is being done according to the best brain principles, the child is not just learning a language but actually learning to think in that language. The confidence to speak and write the language comes quickly, and soon the child is moving past the mechanics and basic vocabulary to explore poems and idioms. The more children learn this way, the more able they are to learn what comes next: and, crucially, the more motivated they are to keep going. This is learning that makes children smile as they show themselves how much they can do, and it feeds back into families and communities as the good practice spreads.
Neumind brings to life a child’s whole brain, setting them on a journey to relaxed, enjoyable and powerful learning. It harnesses potential that could otherwise so easily go to waste.
I love learning and have made it my life’s work, but I wish I had been introduced to these techniques when I was young. They change the way you think, developing a creative, flexible and fun approach to learning that will serve you well in every challenge, inspire you to raise your targets, and be of priceless benefit for the rest of your life.
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The Neumind Approach™
by Jonathan Hancock
ABOUT JONATHAN HANCOCK
Jonathan Hancock is the winner of
two Guinness World Records.
For three years running, he was ranked as the best
in the World at remembering names and faces.
In 1994 he became the youngest ever
World Memory Champion.
First Class Honour awarded from
Oxford University,United Kingdom.
Internationally recognized
author of six books about memory and learning, including
Maximise Your Memory (Reader's Digest) and
Mindpower System (Hodder)
An outstanding presenter on BBC Radio Oxford,England
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