Monday, May 3, 2010

Learning Techniques

A lot of work has been done over the past few decades about how people learn. This document suggests a list of techniques that may make learning more effective.

Principles
  1. You can learn anything if you have a goal that requires it.
  2. Learning how to learn is the core skill.
  3. Anyone can learn faster by structuring the information.
  4. Intelligence is not fixed.
  5. Knowledge and skills overcome obstacles.
  6. Everything to which you were paying attention, either consciously or unconsciously , will be remembered permanently.

There are a number of stages to learn:

The Right States of Mind

There are six aspects for this:

  1. Find a personal reason to want to learn this materials.
  2. Translate these reasons into motivation
  3. Find a way to make the materials relevant to you
  4. Have positive expectation
  5. Have a calm mind

A Variety of Ways of Inputs

  • Play to your strengths in term of how you process information.
  • Make a general outline of what you are learning.
  • Ask what do I already know about this.
  • Break the materials into small chucks.
  • Summarise the material out loud

Exploring from different Angles

There are 7 type of intelligences:

  1. Linguistic intelligence-Describe the materials out lout.
  2. Logical-mathematical intelligence-Use a flowchart or diagram.
  3. Spatial intelligence-Make an image of the material.
  4. Musicale intelligence-Play background intelligence as you learn.
  5. Interpersonal intelligence-Teach someone else.
  6. Intrapersonal intelligence-ruminate on the material.
  7. Bodily intelligence-Use index cards.

Memorising

Decide to remember, take regular breaks, Review notes regularly, etc.

Showing you Know

Demonstrating to yourself that you really do understand and remember increases your learning.

Reviewing and Reflecting in the Process

After every learning session, review the process you follow.

4 comments:

  1. Even though there wasn't much to this post, I enjoyed it. Simple and to the point. I found the principle "Everything to which you were paying attention, either consciously or unconsciously , will be remembered permanently." very interesting- but would like to know how valid this is. Were there scientific studies done on this type of memory? This certainly would speak volumes to the idea accountability if it were true...!

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  2. I don't know if scientific studies have been done on this or not. The article claims that everything can be remembered, but the problem is to find a way to access these memories. I also don't understand, how one can pay attention unconsciously. For me paying attention is directing the mind toward something. How can a person direct the mind unconsciously?

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  3. I enjoyed the listing of the different types of intelligence . It made me realize just how many of them I use on a daily basis.

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  4. Memorization is the usual method used by students in exams that are objective in nature. The same goes for calculation-heavy exams, only the students memorize the basic formulas needed.

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