A User’s Manual to Our Minds: Self-Guided Courses to Support Learning and Work Performance

What would learning and performance look like if we had deep and actionable understanding of our embodied minds—the equivalent of a “user’s manual” to our minds? We invite you to consider how understanding the cognitive architecture of your mind as embodied in a social and emotional being can bring your learning and work to the next level.  In the past, learners were taught skills and strategies that high-level performers used. This is still a common approach to the teaching of thinking and workplace strategies. However, this approach is problematic for several reasons: 

1. We now have a wealth of information from research findings on neuroscience, cognitive science, and learning on how minds work and how the embodied nature of minds influences the ways in which they are effective. This invites a more informed approach to thinking than imitating what “good thinkers do.” 
   
2. While there are similarities in how our minds work, there are also differences. What works for some thinkers may not be the best for others. Helping learners to understand their minds and generate moves that work for them supports a greater diversity of learners. 
   
3. All skills and strategies must fit the nuance of the contexts in which they are deployed. Generic strategies can lose power, and highly nuanced ones don’t transfer easily. Understanding the rationale for certain strategies allows learners to revise their moves based upon the contexts in which they are working.  

We are developing sets of self-guided courses for learners in general, for those in the workforce, in workforce development, and in management, to learn about how our minds work and what it means for learning and work performance. These modules can be done individually, or they can provide the basis for group sessions and discussions. There will be four courses, each with a set of self-guided modules, to support learners in understanding their minds and developing generative, actionable moves towards their most effective learning and work performance. New modules will launch as they are ready. Each of these incorporates an “Agency in Leveraged Contexts” or “Fast Fish” framing, drawing upon an analogy in which fish are able to swim their fastest by creating vortices in the water to push off from—just as people can modify their environments in support of their best learning and work performance. 

Embodied Minds: Emotion, Cognition, and Body Knowledge Course