Research

The application of neuro-linguistic programming in a learning context

Neuro-linguistic programming is seen by some as a highly motivational tool. A parting encounter with a student displaying low levels of self-belief led Voldis Kudliskis to investigate whether sixth-form students could benefit from such techniques.

Rationale

I distinctly remember the moment when Jake, a former student who had just finished his sixth-form study, came to say his farewells before leaving college. After a reflective review of his past two years in further education, Jake said: ‘I’m really sorry I failed the exam, and I am even sorrier that I failed you. You’re such a wonderful teacher, but I just can’t do exams.’ This saddening comment reinforced my belief that some students failed, not through a lack of ability (Jake was an articulate and insightful young man), but through a lack of belief in their ability to succeed. This poignant moment with Jake was one of a number of factors that led me to investigate individual perceptions about personal ability.

This paper discusses research and thinking on the importance of interpersonal and intrapersonal effectiveness  for teachers, school leaders and school improvement, and explores implications of the use of NLP in relation to personalisation and the children’s agenda. It outlines initial research carried out as part of the Fast Track Teaching programme (the UK government accelerated leadership development programme) and on the London Leadership Strategy and makes suggestions for further research.

This research paper reports on evidence from 24 teacher-led action research case studies and builds on the 2008 CfBT Education Trust

published paper by Richard Churches and John West-Burnham ‘Leading learning through relationships: the implications of Neurolinguistic programming for personalisation and the children’s agenda in England’.

The current research focused on two gaps in the research literature:

• The absence of any formal and systematic literature review of evidence in relation to the impact and use of NLP in education

• The lack of any substantive teacher-led and classroom-based action research in this area.

Teachers followed the Teacher Learning Academy framework in designing and implementing their research – a framework that CfBT Education Trust was closely involved in the development of. All of the case studies demonstrate significant impact in relation to teacher  development, with many demonstrating positive impacts on pupil learning outcomes.

The paper also contains the first systematic and comprehensive literature review of research evidence into the impact of NLP in education and discusses the content of 111 papers and references including quantitative and qualitative research evidence. The majority of published work was found to be supportive of the use of NLP in schools and education although, as the authors point out, this should only be considered as an interim finding because of the wide range of methods used and variations in the quality of some of the research.

To reference this research:

Carey, J., Churches, R., Hutchinson, G., Jones, J.

and Tosey, P. (2009) (foreword by John West-

Burnham) Neuro-linguistic programming and

learning: teacher case studies on the impact of

NLP in education, Reading: CfBT Education Trust.

During the summer of 2006, staff from four County Durham (UK) schools took part in a pilot project designed to explore the potential impact of a variety of NLP-based interventions on the development of teaching and learning.

The schools were asked to take part in this ground-breaking project  because of their previous commitment to developing new and innovative ways of enabling and facilitating their pupils’ learning.