Neuroscience-informed Aerial Pedagogy
a 4-week continuing education online training to explore the neurological, cognitive, and psychological layers of teaching and learning aerial arts
receive a certificate of completion once all modules have been watched
With Sara Kaiser - Founder and CEO of Wakeful Ascent Aerial Arts
How does learning happen? Why do people learn differently? Why does my student feel so much pain? Why won't my other student ever do a drop? How can we use neuroscience and psychology to tailor our teaching to students' individual needs and tend to group dynamics?
Overwhelm, fear, distraction, hesitation, perfectionism, forgetting, and inconsistent skill acquisition are not mysteries but predictable nervous system and cognitive patterns. When aerial teachers understand those patterns, they can transform student outcomes.
This research-backed program draws from concepts in neuroscience and psychology as applied to teaching and learning aerial arts. We'll look at how the brain, body, and nervous system are involved in learning. We'll consider the neuroscience and psychology of learning, attention habits, proprioception, the nervous system, body maps, social dynamics, adaptive teaching, and more.
M O D U L E S
HOW LEARNING WORKS
Week 1. The Brain & Body in Skill Acquisition - motor learning, body maps & schemas, myelination & technique, attention style, memory encoding, somatic experiencing.
HOW TRAITS AND STATES AFFECT LEARNING
Week 2. The Nervous System in Aerial Learning - amygdala & prefrontal cortex, fear of drops, stress & reward hormones, sensory gating, proprioception, nociception (pain), mirror neurons, arousal curves, window of tolerance, cognitive load
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PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN TEACHING & LEARNING
Week 3. Psychology of Teaching & Learning Aerial Arts - self-perception, student-teacher relationship, emotional interpretation of feedback, personal narrative, context, meaning construction, identity, motivation, perfectionism, imposter syndrome
IN PRACTICE
Week 4: Pedagogy & Group Dynamics - tailored teaching strategies, cueing strategies (and not cueing), progressions, regressions, scaffolding, safety communication, leadership, co-regulation, culture, community​
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Translating Science to the Aerial Classroom
I’m an aerial educator with a background in education, science writing, and anthropology, applying research from neuroscience, psychology, and learning theories to aerial instruction. I am not a neuroscientist, and this class is not presented as clinical neuroscience or psychology.
This class is research-informed, cross-referenced, and grounded in established science, but distilled specifically for movement educators. I synthesize the most relevant, applicable pieces of the research and present them in a way that’s easy to understand and immediately usable in your teaching.