Hi all
As many of you know, Kate Benson (Int Dir of Ed for the Soc of NLP), have set up a small scale research project with around 30 teachers, support staff, head teachers and advisory staff.

The purpose is to gather evidence about the effectiveness of the utilisation of NLP in schools and professional development of teachers, support staff etc.

We recently held the first very successful two-day session, and now everyone is engaged in their own small-scale research within their own establishment. They will be reporting back to the whole group when we next meet on the 15th and 16th June. After that Kate and I will share the results with everyone who is interested.

I'll keep the forum up to date and if you'd like to read about some of the progress already reported - within the first week! - let me know through this forum and I'll share what we have so far.

Love from a, now, cloudy Newcastle upon Tyne

John

hi John,

Thanks so much for taking the time to inform us about this research and to let us know how it's going. I think that it's quite exciting to see the sort of work being done and I suspect the kids that benefit from it will also be quite glad they were in the project.

If you have the time, could you answer a few quick questions for me? Is the study using a control group? Are the results just for internal use or do you plan on publishing them to a journal? Are you planning to use a peer review process?

thanks again for your post and I look forward to hearing your results.

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Hi Michael
Thanks for your interest.
There is no control group. The project is about people experimenting with a variety of approaches and reporting back on their relative effectiveness. There's all sorts of ethical issues surrounding the use of control groups in educational settings. For this first stage we are more interested in encouraging the teachers to take some risks with the attitudes and techniques of NLP and seeing what happens.
Results will be shred far and wide - no matter what turns up!
Hmmm, interesting idea the peer review process - how would you see that working under these circumstances Michael?

You too
John

Hi John

Would be very interested to hear how it goes. Both my husband and I work in education - Andrew works in a sixth form college and I work in a further education college. My particular interest is in helping students prepare effectively for exams. Also involved in some individual coaching of students who become anxious around exam time. We have both had opportunities to be involved in some in-service training.

Gill

Hi John,

Thanks so much for your response.

In this case, the control group I referred to would be a demographically similar class or classes of students receiving 'normal' teaching as opposed to no teaching, which I agree would be ethically difficult. However, in my opinion, some particularly under-performing educational experiences could be referred to as 'placebo'...

By peer review, I meant publishing to a journal in the field with a peer review process. Normally it means a detailed description of protocols and procedures used to allow the experiment to be reproducible. The reviewers, normally other professionals, could then review the protocols and results and, if needed, test for themselves any aspects of the findings that may seem to be outside of their experience.

Sorting for difference for a moment, the only problem I might see is that many people in established fields tend to automatically reject anything outside of their comfort zone, so finding a rigorous and progressive journal might prove difficult.

I know that there are universities in the UK, the US and Australia that have NLP departments and are doing research, they might be able to provide more guidance on that possibility.

Again, thanks so much for your work.

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Hi John,

I'm really interested in your findings.

Over the weekend a group of us were talking about NLP in schools and also about the work you guys were doing, I think it's a great step forward.

Did the teachers involved volunteer themselves? Trying to teach people who want to learn will be much more successful.

John, this sounds fantastic. I am fascinated by this area and will be keep a very close eye out for further news. thank you!

Thanks Michael, now I know we are talking about the same thing re peer review process! Given the personal (on the part of the participants) experimental nature of the project I'm not sure that replicability is an issue, although now you mention it I've a number of thoughts forming - later.

Universities with NLP departments: please tell!

You are so right about established fields and comfort zones, so let's dis-establish and make things uncomfortable shall we :-)

Related to this and picking up {aul's question: I approached the 5 schools because I'd done my research to find those who would be likely to be interested in trying out some new stuff and being involved in work that could be seen as 'on the edge' of school experience. A major part of my discussion with the Heads and staff involved me telling them not to get involved if they wanted to play safe: no Milton model language patterns involved at all, no honestly... Everyone involved is a volunteer and so is at the very least interested. At this stage it is important that we have people who are willing to experiment, take a few risks and enjoy doing that. We'll deal with the rest later!

Gill, Kate Benson has done loads of very successful work in FE. You can get hold of her at kate@meta-nlp.co.uk to know more.

Given the level of interest here's a sample of some of the early - within a week - resonses: enjoy :-)

Some samples from each group of people:

Foundation stage (Nursery/Reception)
Changed language used when talking with children (Milton Model) noticed is a lot more patient with them and that the children are taking more notice.
Uses mini circle of excellence on self when stressed - very positive
Introducing music to anchor specific states/events

Primary
Lunchtime supervisors taught about anchoring positive states during lunchtimes in the hall - combination of Milton Model patterns and spacial anchoring - instantaneous response from pupils,, lunchtimes now much quieter

Secondary
combining Milton model language patterns and music to create positive states at the start of lessons

Advisory Teacher
Using a combination of language patterns and rapport building as part of initial contact with new clients. very noticable and positive responses

In addition there have been two reported utilisations outside of the school context:
- a climbing buddy who was prone to negative talk and self-talk was taken through the circle of excellence and had the best climb of his life, this he attributed to 'that thing you did with me'

- (different person) use of same technique with very nervous daughter preparing for GCSE exams, again very successful

We were very keen for there to be instant changes, hence the short timescale of the research projects. These early responses are great convincers for everyone involved.

Thanks to you all for your interest and enthusiasm.

All the best
john

Hi, this sounds really interesting. I work in education too ( 6th form learning coach) at a high school in Cramlington, Northumberland. If you have room for anymore on your project, I'd love to be involved. The school has adopted an accelerated learning style, yet when i told my Headteacher I was doing the practitioner training he thought people might be suspicious of NLP... a chance to put him right would be good :-)

Getting NLP into schools? In some ways I think that this is the most exciting thing that could possibly happen. In other ways, I'm profoundly disturbed by it.

Why on Earth should I be disturbed?

It's because schools unintentionally turn most people off learning. Take for example maths. In my map of the world it is the most fascinating area of study and opens up many of the secrets of the universe. If you ask a school student what they think of maths, the answer is most likely to be quite different.

My fear is that because school turns off more youngsters than it turns on, then most youngsters will most likely be turned off NLP. And this is hardly the result that we want, is it?

A much more fruitful early intervention would be to show teachers how to set positive anchors and positive language rather than the negative anchors and language more commonly used.

Only once this is done and schools turn youngsters on should we even consider intoducing NLP to them.

Michael

This looks like a great project - please do keep me informed!

Michael - unless I've missed something this is about teachers using some bits of NLP rather than explicitly teaching NLP (and identifying it as such) to the students?

Hi Penny
That wouldn't be Cramlington by any chance would it?

Hi Michael
Lessons in NLP - Oh my God No!! Imagine a national strategy for NLP - how to kill it stone dead. Your talk of positive anchors and language is the line we are taking at the moment.

Andy
Will do. You are correct in your interpretation of the work.

All the best
john

Yes, sorry. I responded to what I thought it was and not what it really was! Shows the danger of not having an accurate map.

I teach quite a few NLP techniques on my maths INSET courses and I've found the teachers very receptive. The bits that teachers find most useful are:

* how to make a feedback sandwich. Most have never considered the idea of telling youngsters what's right and good. Rather, they go for the jugular straight away.

* to avoid saying ''it would be better,'' (which means that it's not very good) and instead saying, ''it would be EVEN better.''

For a real expert on NLP in education, get in touch with Paul Jacobs of New Oceans. (paul_jacobs@new-oceans.co.uk) He is probably the country's leading expert. I trained with him and he was fantastic.

Best wishes

Michael

Hi. We are experiencing quite an increase in interest for NLP in schools here in Perth, Australia. The educational sytem over here is hurting quite a bit. Already there are some people who have attended our trainings taking it into the classroom. However there is a bit of resistance from the decision-makers. More evidence would mean I don't have to use all my mind-lines to overcome that resistance thus making the task easier. How can I be kept abreast of the findings resulting from this study (not only for business but also as a Father of my children).

Regards

Craig Jenkins

Hey John,

Yep Cramlington Community High School, I think the school is quite popular for training as we hold a lot of the TEEP courses here. Alistair Smith helped to sort out the accelerated learning programme originally I believe and guess what he is an NLP practitioner hmmmm eh... I really don't understand the Heads suspicions... :-)

Hi Michael
Glad we're now sharing some of the same map at least! Will pursue your contact with new-oceans. Some interesting stuff on the website. Thanks

Craig
V.interesting indeed. Re keeping up - I'll be posting stuff here but if you'd like to engage in a bit more discussion away from the forum so we don't clog it up just send me a private message and off we'll go!

Hi Penny
Yeah...Alistair Smith, interesting guy. Does use bits of NLP with a lot of emphasis, sometime unhelpful, on VAK. Others have taken this and severely deleted, distorted and generalised so it's almost unrecognisable! You know ''oh he's a visual learner'' AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH
OK I've calmed down again now.
John

Wow I am really impressed by the amount of interest in John's post. I have just got back from more NLP education training and this is the first opportunity I have had to read the posts. For those people who have involvement in 16+ education especially coaching, exams etc. You might be interested in looking at the range of courses available at www.matrix-training.co.uk they are not all NLP based but are all run by really good communicators!
Humm John mentioned the VAK model -- yes I am likely to get on my soap box at this point! My latest programme is Teaching Learning - beyong the learning styles questionaire! I hope the title says it all. Oh I get so mad about condemning children to a 'learning style'
I am pleased that at least some schools are at last adopting accelerated learning. It just good teaching really! Look in any nursery school and you might see it in operation.
Thaks for all the interest -we will keep you informed
Kate

What a fantastic idea and what a positive way for NLP Connections to be used! I don't have anything I can contribute myyself but I really salute you guys who are doing excellent work!

Wow … absolutely great …. I have been thinking about the very same thing for some time … if there is anything I can do to help be sure to ask …

Would love to know how it goes, many thanks for the info

Tony Nutley

The level of enthusiasm and encouragement from NLPers is fantastic. Will keep the forum up to date with progress

Have a great day
John