Can Your Thoughts Physically Impact Others?

I can teach you how to change the behavior of others. You can actually change how they act. No, it doesn't require a weekend retreat with Yoda trying to move boxes or lift your star-fighter out of a bog (Star Wars fans, I'm sure it's not really called a star-fighter, please don't send hate mail.)

Researcher Bob Rosenthal scientifically demonstrated this, first with rats. He labeled some as smart and some as dumb without telling anyone. When they were put in a Skinner Box, the "smart" ones completed the task twice as fast as the "dumb" ones. Problem is, they were the exact same ordinary white lab rats. 

So, the question then is: Why did they perform better?

Answer: because of the perceptions of the people handling the rats. Researchers touched the "smart" rats more, treated them more warmly, even talked to them differently. The Pygmalion Effect: A type of self-fulfilling prophecy where if you think something will happen, you may unconsciously make it happen through your actions or inaction. 

Carol Dweck, (psychology researcher at Stanford, Author, Growth Mindset), in this recent podcast said when we have negative expectations or perceptions we usually stand further away from people, we touch them less, make less eye contact. And we are COMPLETELY UNAWARE of how our expectations impact the way we engage people.

Our perceptions and expectations (our thoughts) literally move people.

• Teacher expectations can increase student IQ scores. John Hattie's research found that this teacher belief has the highest impact on student achievement. 
• Mothers' expectations can impact drinking levels of middle school students
• Military leaders expectations can impact how fast soldiers run

There are many studies showing the impact of how people perform in relation to how they are expected to perform. Even the very labels placed on them impact their performance. Read about "Brown Eyes vs. Blue Eyes" experiment or watch this documentary. This obviously takes the thinking concept and brings it to a whole new level, but it still applies to my Jedi-way of thinking. Read this article/watch videos (Warning: 2nd video has a swear word) on how thoughts impacted rice in water. 

Rosenthal did an experiment similar to the rats but with teachers. They were told they could expect X from this group of students and Y from the other. Rosenthal found that "teachers appear to teach more and to teach it more warmly to students for whom they have more favorable expectations." 

-How are you using your powers? 

-Are your students performing better because you

 have positive perceptions and expectations for them? 

-Or are you, without even knowing it, 

actually causing them to perform worse?

-DO YOUR STUDENTS BELIEVE 

THAT YOU BELIEVE IN THEM??

March 6 morning announcement -Buddy Benches

March 6 morning announcement from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Sharks will either make you better....or eat you. (a repost)

Fishing boats will often travel for days and days to find that prize catch. The problem they encountered was, when traveling 3-4 days back to unload their catch, their prize fish were no longer valuable. They spent so much time floating around in their little container, swimming in the same waters, they lost their muscle tone. Stagnant. Complacent. In a rut. This is how we have always done things.

So fisherman started adding sharks to the tanks in the boats. Sure, a few fish were eaten, but the rest stayed active and alive. Adding sharks improved their success.

Admin: Hire sharks. Anyone can join the pack, follow in line, do what the others do. But NO ONE IMPROVES. We need to hire employees that will challenge and extend our teams.

Teachers: change things up, for you and your students. Routines are valuable, but are they routine because it's easy for you, or are they routines that still challenge students. How many times during the school day do you make your students uncomfortable by challenging their thinking? How many times a day are you challenged, chased by a shark?

Parents: there are good "sharks" you can throw into the mix: engaging and fun summer learning programs; academic rewards for students making academic gains (ex. if they read a book, their reward is you buy them a new book, or check out a new book from the library); find ways to challenge your child to get them outside of their comfort zones. It's good for them.

I'm both a stick and a carrot guy. Sharks would work great for me. But I also like having that reward dangling for me to work towards. Find what your team needs, what your students need, what your child needs. But whatever it is they need to be motivated, you need to motivate them.