Creating Engaged Learning Opportunities for Adults Learning to Move

Over the 30 years I have been working as an Exercise Physiologist I have been offered the privilege to work with all ages and cultures.

Some of my most fascinating work in health involved working with babies and their carers.

I was able to witness how small humans, new to this world, were able to move their bodies and also develop the use of language around their movements, gestures and their everyday needs.

The article below has been written for those who work in health and for community members wishing to improve their health management and to develop confidence in their exercise and movement.

The aim of this article is to encourage those who work in health to develop an understanding of the benefits of creating “low anxiety and engaged learning environments” for community members wishing to improve their health management, their movement and their confidence in learning about health.

The article aims to discuss the following points:

1. How do babies learn movements and language?
2. What are the environmental conditions that enable babies to learn how to move and speak without formal instruction?
3. What is Engaged Learning?
4. How can we encourage humans to become confident learners of health concepts and human movement?

1. How do babies learn movements and language?

For the first 20 years of my work in health, I was able to witness some of the most complex brain and body connections. All this amazing movement developed without formal instruction by their human carers, but through playful interaction and guidance by their carers. These complex movements and language all developed through the baby brain observing other humans move and talk. These observations made by babies are then transformed into powerful learning steps as carers and other humans offer support and encouragement.

New movements and words, created by babies, are met with praise and recognised as progress in the movement and language development of babies and young children.

2. What are the environmental conditions that enable babies to learn how to move and speak without formal instruction?

These fascinating learning progressions are a result of the combination of the confidence of the learner (the baby) to attempt new movements or tasks, and the support of carers or others.

One of the common environmental factors that contributes to this learning occurring is the creation of an environment that is low in anxiety and encourages “engaged learning.”

3. What is Engaged Learning?

Engaged learning is when learning occurs due to the learner seeing a purpose and value in learning the task. An example of this is babies learning to talk. By learning to talk, babies are able to see purpose as their efforts in speech development result in positive outcomes for the baby.

Associate Professor Brian Cambourne, my father, recognised that there were 4 principles that contribute to engaged learning. As a child, my mother and father applied these principles of learning to my own developing brain. During my early years coaching water polo whilst at university, I found myself naturally applying these principles to how I taught the children at water polo.

From that point on I went on to apply these Principles of Engagement to my Masters Honours Thesis, and developed the Fiteracy Education Framework using my father’s research as a foundation.

All the health programs I have developed over 30 years I have applied to learners of all ages, and currently my Brainfit Gym is a gym that encourages learners of all ages to become creative, self-directed learners of health and movement.

The Principles of Engagement are outlined below:

1. The task being demonstrated will need to be of purpose and have some meaning to each individual. Eg. learning to talk has purpose for a baby. Learning to move well will have purpose for those interested in maintaining gardening as a hobby.
2. The task or activity will be more engaging if the person demonstrating the task is a person the learner feels safe with, or has an attachment to, or is a role model for the learner. Eg. babies mimic their carers; health and movement learners may be more engaged in learning if the person demonstrating the task is also engaged in caring for their health and movement.
3. The task or activity will be more engaging to the learner if they feel capable of learning the task or movement. Eg. babies feel confident learning to speak as learning to talk is broken down into small segments learnt at a time. They are praised for each attempt. Learners of movement and health will be more engaged if movement is modified to suit each individual. Each attempt is met with praise and progressions chosen at the learner’s pace are encouraged.
4. Engaged learning is more likely to occur if the learning environment is “low anxiety.” Eg. babies learn language and movements in low anxiety, low pressure, creative and supportive environments. Adult learners will be more likely to become engaged learners of health concepts and movements in low anxiety, low pressure, creative and supportive environments.

4. How can we encourage humans to become confident learners of health concepts and human movement?

During the past 15 years working as an Exercise Physiologist, my area of interest has become encouraging humans not only to exercise, but to also engage in how they move during the day.

Day-to-day living has become busy and scheduled, and I have observed the changes in human posture and human movement.

Our busy, fast lives have resulted in exercise being squeezed in as a necessary component of health management. However, the daily grind of fast-paced, high-pressure living has resulted in exercise sessions becoming part of the grind. Exercise is “grinded” out of the body as part of a daily task.

Busy, fast-paced exercise sessions are often completed with the tight postural movements people carry throughout their day. The risk is that exercise sessions become less effective due to their one-size-fits-all approach, and humans become less creative with their movements and attempts to move as individuals.

If we look back at how human babies learned language and placed the baby brain in the adult learning environment, it would look something like this. As humans, if we were only encouraged to speak words that were prescribed or instructed to us, often in groups, with limited opportunities for creativity, then our development of language would have been very limited.

Over my past 15 years working in health, I have observed the adult brain becoming less self-directed in learning about health and movement, and shifting slowly away from human movement to health and exercise protocols and processes.

Adult learners appear to be waiting for instruction on how to move and how to learn, when in our human brains, we still have these concepts wired into our baby brain.

How then can we create learning environments for adults that encourage tapping back into our creative, excited and engaged learning brains we all used as babies?

By following the 4 Principles of Engagement mentioned above, we can help create learning environments for adults. Exercise and movement environments can become more effective and result in creating self-directed learners if the following principles are applied to health teaching environments:

1. Discuss the meaning and purpose of each exercise, movement or health task for each individual.
2. Provide opportunities to discuss exercise or movement stages and progressions so each individual feels capable of achieving each task and self-directed progression.
3. Discuss your own attempts at health, exercise and movement progressions and the benefits of creativity and choice in your movements. Your own role modelling and attempts at learning new tasks demonstrate that the one-size-fits-all approach may not have been a comfortable learning experience, and that creativity and modifications to movements assisted your own learning.
4. Establish low anxiety learning environments that create opportunities for discussion, creativity and attempts at learning new health concepts, individualised movements and attachment to healthy lifestyle concepts.