Train the brain

Training the brain for learning is what we are all about in the community college instructional world. We all have our unique approaches, of course, but training the brain is definitely what we are after. It seems to me that our jobs would be easier if those brains were happy brains to begin with, as attitude has a lot to do with accomplishment.

Consider this recent article from the wonderful Pick the Brain blog entitled "The Psychology of Happiness" [Link to full post]. The thrust of the post is simple. We choose what we pay attention to and what we choose determines whether we have happy brains. As the comments to the post pointed out, we probably can't teach our students to "think themselves happy", but there are skill sets we can help them acquire that might impact their outlook towards learning.

The "Train Your Brain" article that is linked in the Pick the Brain article includes a bit of information about the power of the word "can", which is probably what I would focus on in trying to help students take responsibility for their attitudes about their learning. There is a quote there, "The question should not be whether you are happy but what you can do to become happier" (Dr. Ben-Shahar) reminds me of my own favorite quotes on what CAN be done (warning, these come from my mom days, so the sources don't exactly have rigor, but the concept is relevant):

Do or do not, there is no try (Yoda)
and
I don't say, no .. I don't say can't, I don't say I won't try. All I say is 'yes I can' and I get there bye and bye (Eeore)