25 Clues of University Brainpower

Looking for a college campus, where brainpower predominates, people are capital, and renewal is on-going?

Here are 25 newly discovered brain facts, that will invigorate your search, and offer clues to renewed higher education:

1. Faculty and students radiate enthusiasm for their work,  and express genuine interest in one another’s.   Brain Fact: Boredom is more a habit formed in brains, and shaped by your choices, than a reality.
2. Well lit, comfortable work areas abound.  Brain Fact: Environment counts, and a healthy setting helps people transform problems into solutions.
3. Communication appears warm, consistent and genuine. Brain Fact: Well being comes partially from and is fueled and extended by serotonin chemical hormones.
4. Calm predominates over conflicts. Brain Fact: Anger, fear, and frustration are fueled and extended by cortisol chemical hormones.
5. More solutions than problems seem evident. Brain Fact: Venting is bad for the brain and creates new neuron pathways to much more of the same.
6. Ongoing change is expected and valued. Brain Fact: Dendrite brain cells use the outside world and take shape, or grow based on what you do.
7. Music is conducive to innovation and growth. Brain Fact: Music changes brain wave speeds in ways that impact moods and alter productivity.
8. Knowledge actively engages learners, and is not delivered. Brain Fact: Lectures and talks work against listeners’ brains and benefit speakers’ intelligence mostly.
9. Tenure is no excuse to stop learning and or stomp on growth. Brain Fact: Hebbian workers rewire their brains to kill incentives, limit focus or even shrink their brains.
10. Different backgrounds and beliefs lead all campus areas. Brain Fact: Diversity training commonly works mentally against benefits because of its deficit model.
11. Activities vary between exercise and quiet reflection.  Brain Fact: Brain waves can bring either sleep or peak performance, based on how you activate them.
12. Knowledge remains relevant to all learners. Brain Fact: Hook even difficult facts onto one thing you know and learning increases in less time.
13. Ruts appear rare – while  invention abounds. Brain Fact: Basal ganglias store facts and create ruts, working memory holds few facts and leads change.
14. Many approaches are encouraged to reach shared high standards from many talents that exist on campus. Brain Fact: Multiple intelligences are common to all, used by few, and can be more developed daily.
15. Peer pressure motivates creativity,  innovation is rewarded and cynicism discouraged. Brain Fact: Cynical mindsets literally block creativity, impact talent, and stomp out innovation.
16. Learning approaches are taught and become lifelong. Brain Fact: Memory can be outsourced to help people remember, and to free the mind for focus.
17. Senior and novice faculty both teach and learn from one another. Brain Fact: Plasticity enables people to rewire the human brain in ways that keep it younger and smarter.
18. A spirit of encouragement supersedes back-biting competition.  Brain Fact: Encouragement can change the chemistry of a brain through raised serotonin.
19. Trust is evident through transparency in communications. Brain Fact: Meta messages destroy relationships through implications different from what is said.
20. Vibrant exchanges bridge traditional silos and departments work together. Brain Fact: It often takes an integration of  hard and soft skills to solve problems with the brain in mind.
21. Positive tone predominates so that faculty and students tend to take risks to achieve new heights. Brain Fact: Stress literally shrinks the brain, and tone in communication acts as a silent killer.
22. Leaders and learners  address people by name, frequently. Brain Fact: Greet a person through speaking that person’s name, for a spike in personal awareness.
23. Inspire creativity and invention through teaching others at the same time you also learn. You retain 90% when you teach others as you learn a thing.
24. Curiosity is cultivated by the entire campus community. Brain Fact: Create new neuron pathways each time you add a solution to any problem you encounter.
25. Value remains evident for both women and men at all levels.  Brain Fact: Women’s and men’s brain differ biologically and intellectually in ways that few optimize.

How could this checklist of brain facts,  increase your brainpower, or your university’s  in ways that improve both learning and leading? Check out what a 12 year can teach us all about learning, and you’ll likely agree that change is imminent, for those headed forward.

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Created by Ellen Weber, Brain Based Tasks for Growth Mindset