Stamatia Mukherjee
Curriculum manager, German
"Improving students’ learning through visualisation"
Background
· To establish whether visualisation can improve students’ learning in the framework of NLP by changing their emotional state
· To test whether guided meditation in form of visualisation can improve concentration and enhance memory
· To see whether visualisation can reduce stress
· To develop ‘switched-on’ students with improved self-discipline
· To analyse whether there is any indication of improved achievement through visualisation
Key actions
· One A2 class was randomly chosen to be the visualising group with another acting as a control group
· In the beginning of each class we would visualise for two to three minutes on themes like promoting self-awareness and self-esteem, to stimulate visual imagery, for inner control and self-discipline, relaxation, and generally feeling happy.
· After each of the weekly themes there was an informal discussion with the students on how they felt about this specific visualisation.
· Qualitative data was collected from discussions. Quantitative data from mock exams was compared with peer group data of students with the same GCSE score.
· Final open-ended written comments from the students were analysed
Key findings
· The quantitative data of the mock exams, due to the limited number of students with the same GCSE score, is inconclusive.
· Overall, there is a tendency that the visualising group achieved slightly higher.
· All written comments of the students contained some positive comments.
· Some students didn’t like all themes of meditation or the suggested way of posture and breathing.
· Visualisation improved classroom management as students seemed less chatty and distracted but this didn’t always last for the duration of our 90minute lesson.
· In conclusion, it was a positive experience for almost everyone, with only one student refusing to do the visualization exercises
To find out about this project please contact:
SMukherjee@farnboroughsfc.ac.uk