Learning is to Be Self-Help
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Learning is to Be Self-Help
This is a little introduction.
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| Learning is "from flowers to fruits and then to flowers and fruits again" and so on. |
Second, the designs that we use to help learning, are like flowers, whereas gist that enter the long-time memory (LTM) can be compared to fruits. To make bits of knowledge enter the LTM is time-consuming unless one is wide awake, interested, that is. Maybe ten things a minute is an avarage speed of such assimilation.
We may come to apply the best parts of the Gold Scales' section on learning (this one), and thereby help ourselves in the art of learning, whether it be formal lessons and informal study out of interest. "Impress the mind enough", and learning is wont to happen. Or better: "Impress deep enough" and/or "often enough", alternatively.
What is learnt at any time, is integrated with what we manage to recall from what we have learnt or got inklings of earlier. So fresh learning co-depends on prior knowledge and experiences. They differ, and mental associations tend to become increasingly individualised in time, Buzan and Buzan demonstrate in Mind Mapping [Mmb 64-69]. Besides, we learn by practicing things, apart from being keen observers.
Design Your Learning Sessions Well and You Can Prosper
There are many definitions of learning. Some of them include outward changes as results of inward changes, and other definitions do not. Here is an OK definition by Robert M Smith:Learning . . . is an activity of one who learns. It may be intentional or random; it may involve acquiring new information or skills, new attitudes, understandings or values. It usually is accompanied by change in behavior and goes on throughout life. It is often thought of as both processes and outcomes. Education can be defined as "the organized, systematic effort to foster learning, to establish the conditions and to provide the activites through which learning can occur. [Quoted in Plm 30.There is a difference between schooling and proper schooling. Proper schooling aims at fostering learning, by taking into account what we know in general about how it happens, and what hinders learning. Noam Chomsky spends some words on schooling:
I think about ninety percent of the problem in teaching, or maybe ninety-eight percent, is just to help the students get interested. [Noam Chomsky 30]You may not like Noam Chomsky, but I do. He is a clear-headed US intellectual, for one thing. [MORE CHOMSKY]Typically they [the students] come in interested, and the process of education is a way of driving that defect out of their minds. [Noam Chomsky, sarcastically]
If you've resisted the temptation to tell the teacher, You're an asshole, which maybe he or she is, and if you don't say, That's idiotic, when you get a stupid assignment, you will gradually pass through the required filters. You will end up at a good college and eventually with a good job. [Noam Chomsky 35]
The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it I'd be ashamed of myself. [Noam Chomsky]
As soon as you hear the word reform you can reach for your wallet and see who's lifting it. [Noam Chomsky]
Learning may occur in spite of what happens in schools, and in spite of homework assignments too. Alfie Kuhn has found from 300 studies that schoolwork assignments generally make no difference. Children get no better grades or study habits by homework.
Widespread assumptions about the benefits of homework - higher achievement and the promotion of such virtues as self-discipline and responsibility - aren't substantiated by the available evidence. [Kohn, p. 3]These are quite discomforting findings. Schooling consists of teaching and learning, at least ideally. However, many ground rules of effective learning are done away with in common schooling, for the sake of conform measures focused on teaching activities - and not individualised learning. It may be good to know about it. Much public education seems to apply mainly rote learning or cramming in front of examinations that make nervous, very nervous. But rote learning has its drawbacks, and learning does not have to be other-directed, or done for outer rewards.
In schools, the effects of the money spent and the efforts can be easily measured by how much is recalled after some time. If schooling is experienced as threatening interest andeagerness, the quality of attendence may suffer.
The learning climate should not be threatening for the best levels of learning to occur. Examinations are somehow artificial and unjust ways of motivation and assessment, and can be made into roadblocks on the way of success, and hamper the dear learning process too. It is much due to the stress that public examinations engender - they do indeed - and lead to nervousness and broken hearts. They can and should be replaced by other ways of "motivation" and assessments. It is indeed possible. It is a matter of choices. Cramming for examinations is too short-sighted, and may hurt and often derange the splendid learning process deep inside. If you cannot afford not to cram, do it. At the same time you can access well designed study methods designed to make hard work easier and the effects better. By using your study time better, you may even win spare time. It happens to some who learn mind mapping, Tony Buzan says.
Good learning in a cognitive perspective is what this long series is about. Many sorts of teachings mar the learning process, regrettably. It should not be that way.
- Learning is served by a good, lax learning climate. Good, congenial groups foster learning and is something to go for.
- Learning is served by expedite teachers that do not get overly sentimental, and refrain from faking.
- Learning is served by teaching aids.
- Learning is served by teaching artistry.
- Learning can be served by mastery of learning methods.
- Knowledge of how learning occurs can be implemented in self-help study methods, luckily.
Learning Follows Its Own Laws
It helps to know how learning takes place. At times conditions allow many small steps, at other times giant leaps. Mastery learning is a good thing to go for. But most public schools revert to cramming and extreme focus on grades. They teach for the coming exams, ignoring the grades of learning, ignoring implementation practice and time for implementations, many of them. It is shown that cramming for exams is neurotic, and knowledge gained by it, is too superficial to count, and is extremely fast forgotten.You can help yourself and get the most out of books if you learn excellent study methods and apply them aptly, adroitly.
A little encouragement is good as well. Where it it lacking, reward yourself by charting the time you spend on study each day, and give small "gifts" to yourself at intervals. Remember small steps are fit for memory-rooted sessions, and many small rewards for little gains. It may count as self-help reinforcment. As soon as you have earned it, enjoy your present.
Yoga training for learning
Yoga consists of postures (asanas), breathing exercises (prananyama), and meditation methods. Postures ease the study, and require little space. Breathing exercises may help you calm down a little. Meditation methods helps you to gather focus. There is a carry-over effect into study, research show. But not all meditation methods are alike, and beginners in yoga and meditation need to preserve their hard-won freedoms over and above learning secretive methods, in all likelihood.But the principles apply: Become better fit for the very hard work of learning, of assimilating ideas and connecting them to what you have experienced and learnt yourself. You can get markedly better fit if you combine yoga relaxation methods with your study. There are many other benefits. Yoga and meditation may fit self-help. Just ensure you are of healthy mind before you start on such things.
Repeat basic ideas at intervals to fasten their neural networks. Then you learn better
Decent study methods that are fit for self-help and study, have their point of departure in the process of learning applied to your capacity and level somehow. People are different, with widely different life experiences and expectations. First of all, bring interest with you or into the study. Second, organise your study into sessions with frequent pauses, to get the best results of the time spent. Try to get to the key points of the subject to study, and memorise at intervals, overlearning a bit the very important parts. In such ways you get handles - and can much easier grab the content in your "memory bank".Researchers show we have a working memory and a long-term memory (LTM). The latter is the most important. Some things do not need overlearning and repetitions to enter the LTM, you learn it once and it sticks for life. But much in a study may be tedious, even though rewarding in time. For such situations study methodology apply. Stay calm and relax if there is time. Mete out portions of the material and allot time to them. You have to calculate a little for it, but that will not be bad.
Study should devote much, much time for repetitions. That is the activity students may learn the most from, American research shows. And when you enter your study place, sit straight and devote yourself to the work. If you get eager, it is good. Some call that "being in the flow", but do not let jargon confuse you. Have good dictionary easily accessible. If you can buy one to have on your computer, it could be good help. An encyclopedia on the PC is great to have too.
Learn the Tricks of the "Trade": Learn how to Learn Well
There are many rewards of learning. Better grades and far better output could be among them. We are not against good grades and more efficient use of the brain power. Far from it. We hold that the delicate id-rooted associations that learning depends on, can better occor in an environment that is not tense and not gruesome. "Learn with pleasure" should be a good motto.So far we have talked for interest in what you are studying, personal eagerness, relaxation to help focus, study at short intervals with many, frequent breaks, and many repetitions that have to be spaced out over many weeks, just to be sure the knowledge in you may be stabilised. There is an "art" to that too. If you study till you get mental pegs (handles), when you gather focus on the pegs, the mental associations tend to get activated by it, and you may remember things - more and better than without pegs. There are many tricks of such a trade, as memory research has revealed. Assimilate the best items and pass them on, too. It could be great help for you - as teaching other reinforces your learning.
Besides, what is fored in a group of peers, may be far better reinforced and remain with us for very long. Group work in study is helpful if added to individual efforts alone.
Idea Maps and Expedite Study
Among the specialities we present here, mind maps (idea maps, cognitive maps, neuron-like charts) are worth mastering. There are very good reasons for it. Research shows that students get better grades from that approach, even if they spend only one third of the time on study than other students. So by all means, do what serves you. Learning idea maps is not hard; it is finding time to make them neat after the lecture that may get difficult, but just that step may be the most helpful one for your memory, judged by how forgetting works.From time to time learning material needs an overhaul. Books you studied may have become outdated. In such cases, get new editions of the former books, or replace the old curriculum books in line with your university or school does. That could help to stay updated, perhaps abreast too.
From time to time you need to refresh your study subjects too. This overhaul may be best done from your note-books. By looking at the key words and key phrases you have written down, memories and ideas start getting back to you, and content starts to get activated. Let it. It is hard work, so be as lax as you can during these overhauls and upkeeps.
If you stay true to yourself and stick to good learning methods, you may start to get eager in life and progress too. Integrated knowledge is a boon to go for. It equals "wisdom of Solomon" in more than one way. It helps you to think your own thoughts after time.
There are steps and stages of learning too. Accommodate to it. Buzan does not, Bloom shows how. Step on into mastery somehow. In that way education can serve you. Details of this and many other subjects mentioned here, are presented on the coming pages, one by one, as time permits.
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Literature
Kohn, Alfie. Why Our Children Get Too Much of a Bad Thing. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 2006.
Coe: Bruner, Jerome. The Culture of Education. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996.
Cpi: Anderson, John R. Cognitive Psychology and its Implications. 4th ed. New York: Freeman, 1995.
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2008.
Grt: Meyer, Adolphe. Grandmasters of Educational Thought. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975.
Lt: Schunk, Dale. Learning Theories. An Educational Perspective. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2008.
Lth: Ramsden, Paul. Learning to Teach in Higher Education. London: Routledge, 1992.
Mmb: Buzan, Tony, with Barry Buzan. The Mind Map Book. Rev. ed. London: BBC Books, 1995.
Mum: Buzan, Tony. Make the Most of Your Mind. Rev. ed. London: Pan, 1988.
Plm: Gross, Ronald. Peak Learning: A Master Course in Learning How to Learn. Rev ed. New York: J. Tarcher/Putnam, 1999.
Tece: Bloom, Benjamin, et al. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. New York: McKay, 1956.
Tor: Buzan, Tony. Speed Reading. Rev. ed. London: David and Charles, 1988.
Uy: Buzan, Tony. Use Your Head. New, rev. ed. London: BBC Books, 1989.
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