Baroque music and its effect on learning

During the 1970's Dr George Lozanov of Bulgaria conducted some experiments to determine the effect of music in the learning process. His research shows that listening to Baroque music in the largo format from composers such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Telemann and Corelli enables people to learn substantially faster. Baroque refers to the period in time from 1600 to 1750. Largo format in music means music with 60 beats per minute. One of the best CD's on the market that I use for my students is 'Pachelbel Canon and other Baroque favourites'. The music should be played softly in the background while you are studying.

Research also suggests that listening to Mozart in the allegro (120 beats per minute) format for 30 minutes before taking a test helps students to think faster and accurately and hence attain higher scores. I use the CD's 'Mozart makes you smarter' volumes I, II and III. A great book to read on the subject is 'The Mozrt Effect for Children' by Don Campbell.  

Dendrites - how do they affect our intelligence?

A typical human brain contains about 100 billion brain cells. So why are some of us geniuses and the rest of the people just average. Researchers have found that each neuron (brain cell) can grow up to 20,000 dendrites. It is now acknowledged that the number of connections in our brain affects our level of intelligence. People who have more dendrites and hence more possible connections between them tend to be more intelligent. That brings us to the question 'how do we grow more dendrites'? The brain is divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere is associated with logic, science, linguistics and is interested in the details. The right hemisphere is associated with creative activities such as art, music, song and dance, drama and is concerned with the global picture. When we perform left brain activities which most schools cater for, we find that the neural network (growth of dendrites) develops only in the left hemisphere. This is why many of us are half-brained! On the other hand we find that performing right brain activities develops the neural network in both hemispheres. We have also found that playing Chess helps to grow the neural network rapidly. So play music, sing, dance, act, solve puzzles and play chess regularly to grow more dendrites and become more intelligent!

Genius - How do we release the genius within us

Words and their effect on your intelligence.

Research shows that people who are smarter generally have a larger Wernicke's area. Wernicke's area is a part of the brain that is associated with the number of words that a person knows. So, the more words you learn the smarter you will become. As a rule I encourage my students to learn 20 new words daily. If you do this regularly you will increase your vocabulary by more than 7,000 words a year. In just 7 years you will know almost 50,000 words - that is the size of many good dictionaries. Consider this for a moment, William Shakespeare used a total of approximately 17,500 words in his collective works.

So where do we find these 20 new words? I try to read a book every week, solve the word and crossword puzzles in the daily newspapers and make a point of reading the newspapers. I check the meanings of each of these words and then make sure that I use the words when I talk to people (sometimes explaining the meaning if the people don't understand). When you are selecting books ensure that there is at least one word on each page that you don't know. This is called selection of books above your current reading level. After you have read just 30 pages you should have learned at 20 new words. Always select books that you have an interest in. This will keep you reading page after page.