Learning level:

You have an approximate level of ability for whatever you try to learn. When the materials, method, and learning partners can adjust to that approximate level, it's easier for you to learn. In a classroom, it's hard for one teacher to adjust to all the different levels at the same time. Pairs working with each other usually do a much better job than anyone teacher could do with 40 students. Advanced students working with less advanced can still learn new things and learn the old things even more deeply through teaching.

 

Steps:

There are steps, or simple chunks, that can help you learn. For some learners the steps and chunks need to be smaller. Other learners can jump steps and take bigger chunks. Time needed on certain steps will usually vary among students. Of course, in juggling, starting with one ball, then going to two, and then to three seem to

be self-evident.

 

However, sometimes fast works better, especially when the conscious mind can be diverted. I can get some novices to actually go twice around in less than two minutes of quick steps if I distract their mind with my banter and they don't consciously try to analyze what's going on. Its as if their bodies already do know how, or can learn really quick, but their mind thinks they can't unless they understand exactly what they are doing. And when the conscious mind demands to know, it draws attention to analysis and away from performance and can slow down what the body is already capable of.

 

There is also the possibility of going back to earlier steps when you need to be more sure of yourself. Chunking is often left to the teacher, when really you are a better judge of what size you can handle, how fast you can go, and when you need to go back to previous steps. Sometimes it pays to make a previous step automatic and then the subsequent ones fall into place more readily.

 

Self-confidence:

Thanks to today's juggle, I could have confidence for learning anything. So I think I will learn English with this confidence after this. - (Naoyuki)

 

Succeeding in juggling usually gives one a "Eureka!" effect. "I did it!" increases one's self-confidence immensely. This of course carries over to other things one is learning. Juggling also allows you to notice other learning phenomena, such as the roller coaster of progress, the inevitable ups and downs that we experi­ence in learning anything.

 

Reprogramming:

For my Japanese students who know how to toss and catch otedama, juggling is really interesting, because it demands a bit of reprogramming as there is some interference from a previous learning. It's very similar to learning a new language which also comes with some interference from your native language or previous languages.

 

JUGGLING MANGA

Accompanying this article are some juggling manga (comics) that I usually give my students. As you look them over, figure out for yourself what are the beliefs, states and strategies of the two stereotypical characters. In which learning environments do you tend to resemble the top person, and in which do you tend to resemble the bottom.

 

Being a good juggler, my bet is that you could use your own "automatic mapping over" capabilities to use your powerful beliefs, states and strategies in other areas of your lives - whether that be running your business or learning a new skill.

 

In the last frame the two boys do the exact same thing with the balls. But the boy on the top calls what he does "success" while the boy on the bottom calls what he does "failure." Words and events and results do not have meaning, we give them meaning. And the meaning we give them feed our future.

 

One of the greatest advancements in human awareness has been the idea that we are meaning-making and giving all the time and that we can decide what meaning would be most productive to give in any situation. We can self fulfill our prophecies.

 

I leave you with one last student quote:

 

We confirmed that BELIEFS are important for us to learn anything. Then we did juggling with each other actually. We missed again and again but kept trying. We are believers. We reached not perfect but "SUCCESS!" - (Mayu)

 

In my mind, if you are trying you are succeeding; you are. a juggler, a success, as soon as you dare to try. Or as my grandma was fond of saying, "A turtle trying to fly is more beautiful than a bird sitting in a tree."

 

Tim Murphey, Ph.D. is an associate professor at Nanzan University and is the author of language teaching resource books "Teaching One to One" (Longman 1991) and "Music and Song" (Oxford University Press 1992). He teaches Alternative Learning Forms, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and graduate courses in interactive learning. He can be contacted at Nanzan University, Japan. Thanks to Artist Kaori Miura for the use of the Juggling Manga. Copyright Kaori Miura.