Education

In applying Upstream Thinking to Education, Fingerprint Learning combines the identity of the learner as a soul with a brain and body. Education is about nurturing the soul of a child or young person as well as informing the brain and developing mental skills.

It is about inspiring and empowering an individual to become the best version of themselves,
in which formal education and cognitive development play an important role.

In formal education, an indispensable key to successful learning and outstanding teaching is understanding how the brain learns and the individuality of how different brains are ‘wired’ to learn. Using cutting-edge discoveries from neuroscience and psychology we have developed Whole Brain strategies for teaching and learning.

Fingerprint Learning offers training and resources to equip all educators including parents, teachers, trainers and learning support assistants for outstanding teaching at home, school, college and in the community.

Through a user-friendly approach to understanding the creation neuronal networks and the role of neurotransmitters we train you to understand how motivation is linked to learning, why learners fail to engage in learning or fail to learn, how and when to intervene
and how formal education can be biased against certain kinds of learners.

Fingerprint Learning also enables learners to discover their unique learning ’fingerprint’ – the ‘grain of the brain’ – for successful learning.
They discover HOW they are smart, how to match this to career aspiration and how to motivate themselves for learning.

Neurodiversity is common to everyone due to the individual variation in the ways our brains are ‘wired’ for receiving, transmitting, storing and retrieving information. Although certain types of neurodiversity require specialised approaches, lack of awareness of the wide spectrum of diversity by parents and teachers can lead to more learners being classified as SEN than is warranted.

In Fingerprint Learning we refer to this diversity as the ‘Grain of the Brain’. Teaching WITH the grain is teaching according to the way they are wired to learn. Teaching AGAINST the brain is doing the opposite.
Failure to learn is not due to the learners but the restricted way in which they are being expected to learn.

A ‘one size fits all’ approach to teaching, learning and assessment is seriously outdated and out of touch with the neuroscience of learning.

When teachers and parents do not know the ‘grain’ of their own brains this will have a detrimental effect on their ability to engage children and students with learning.

This is at the heart of the Fingerprint Learning approach to education.

Our 4A Model

Our 4A Model for progression through formal education provides resources and tools for teachers and learning support assistants to engage with learners at every stage of the process towards Access to employment and training.

Our material and training are designed to address

Attitudes – to counteract resistance when a learner says
‘I won’t’ or ‘I can’t’ engage in learning.
Aspiration – by raising the learner’s belief of what he or she could be or do.
Attainment – tools and resources for gaining the educational qualifications necessary for Access to employment or training.

Smartnesses

We take an ASSET- based approach to motivating learners to engage with learning i.e. what is the learner already able to do and capable of. Central to this is ‘flipping’ the idea in a learner’s mind from ‘How smart am I?’ – usually based in his or her mind on scores for literacy and numeracy or examination success in selective subjects – to ‘How am I smart?’. Using the Eight Smartness approach and our individual workbooks we train teachers and parents to leverage the learner’s Smartnesses to raise confidence and aspiration for potential career options.

Whole Brain Learning

Our Whole Brain approach to teaching and learning includes the role of

Brain Hemisphere Dominance – based on our own EntreBRAINeur research studies
Motivation in learning – applying the role of neurotransmitters Acetyl choline, Serotonin and Dopamine in focus and motivation for learning
Memory – working memory, short term and long term memory.
Personality – The Five Factor Personality model of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Emotional stability, Openness and Extraversion

The Learning Journey

At the heart of the Fingerprint Learning approach is the conviction that education includes inspiring the soul of the learner to reach higher for meaning and purpose in life that provides the internal motivation to become the best version of themselves. This provides an internal drive for educational attainment.

This begins with early years education and should extend throughout the learner’s journey with each stage of education leading not merely towards qualifications but lifelong meaning, purpose and aspiration.

From this journey an adult emerges who finds fulfilment through an innate sense of vocation to reach higher as an individual. In addition to this they may become people who inspire and assist others to become better versions of themselves – in family, work and society.

Find out about our Fingerprint Learning workshops
for Parents and how to arrange an individual learning profile
for YOUR child.

Parents Workshops

FPL Individual Learning and Career Inventory

Feedback

What Parents and Learners Say

“Our daughter has changed so much. She has grown in confidence and self-esteem and in her enthusiasm for education.”

“Knowing my learning style has helped me because I have been able to tell my teacher which way I find it easiest to learn. I have learned techniques that show me the best way to record and learn my work.”

“..knowing that my son’s learning style was different to my own helped me avoid conflict and tension between us during his studies.”

“When I had my own learning style profiled, I discovered that many of the areas I found difficult to cope with as a pupil in my own schooldays were so because of my natural learning style. For example, to learn efficiently I need to understand the bigger picture, but rarely did my teachers place a lesson in any larger environment than the thirty minute session on the timetable.