No. 611, May 18, 2009

The review

A Great Dvd

seen by Jonas Himmelstrand

Power to Teach

Our favourite educationalist, Canadian psychologist Gordon Neufeld, is offering a four-hour lecture on dvd, Power to Teach, which discusses the basic issues behind the problems which many people experience working in schools today in the Western world.

The core issue, according to Neufeld, is that many students today do not have the maturity to learn through the three most common pedagogical principles, which Neufeld describes vividly based on developmental psychology and neurobiology.

But there is a fourth way to learn which is effective also with less mature students – attachment pedagogy. This requires, however, a focus on the teacher-student relationship rather than on the traditional teacher role and teaching methods.

Power to Teach is divided into four one-hour sessions. The first session describes the three mechanisms through which mature students learn. The second explains why these won’t work with many students today and what the symptoms are. The symptoms are easy to recognise – no difference here between North America and most of Europe. In the fourth session Neufeld presents attachment pedagogy and how immature students can learn – and mature – in this way. The last session offers three key practical tools of attachment based learning.

The clarity of the message in Power to Teach is astonishing – and makes perfect sense. Experienced teachers will be relieved to hear someone explain what so many have sensed intuitively. Neufeld’s knowledge and wisdom opens new doors on understanding learning in the knowledge society. Also here are practical tools which can be applied instantly in most any school setting.

Power to Teach – a four-session video course for educators on dvd. Gordon Neufeld 2009.
Can be ordered from www.gordonneufeld.com

© 2009 Strategies to Learn & Grow Newsletter • Printable version