By: Eduardo Briceño | Learning and performance: how to help students get in the zone | Neuroscience | The Guardian
When students see school as a place to show off what they already know rather than to focus on what they don’t, it can hinder learning
Most parents, teachers, and schools encourage students to perform as best as they can, but it turns out that a focus on performance can hinder learning, improvement, and, ironically, performance.
Take Cirque du Soleil, a team that knows how to perform well. On stage, they exhibit beautiful acrobatic feats, often performed flawlessly. However, what we see is a brief slice of their day in which they focus on the skills they have already mastered and try to minimise mistakes – their performance zone.
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