Learning How To Learn

Learning How To Learn | Summary From Course

Speed Read

This year we were my college Lovely Profesional University was giving Courcera sponsherships on application basis, thereby i applied and got free Coursera acess. Exploring through Courcera searching for my first course i stumbled upon the course "Learning How To Learn : Powerful Mind Techniques To Master Tough Subjects" and this course was offered by McMaster University. Then it came to my mind why not take this course, after all if i know how to learn, then rest will be easy.

So i took on that course and now i am presenting a detailed summary of what i learned in that course. It will be a bit long article but i would like you to go through the full length.

Procrastination, Memory, and Sleep

Although living brains are pretty complex, metaphors and analogies like zombies are used to help simplify matters. In essence, people have two fundamentally different modes of thinking that are focused and diffuse. We can use a simple pinball analogy to help us understand the differences between the modes. The focused mode has tight spacing for the rubber bumpers, which seems to, in some sense help keep your thoughts concentrated. The diffuse mode, on the other hand, has more widely spaced bumpers that allow for more broad-ranging ways of thinking. The focus mood is centred on the prefrontal cortex and it often seems to involve thinking about things we are somewhat familiar with. For example, if we’re familiar with multiplication and we're trying to solve a multiplication problem, or to find a word that rhymes with another word. We're stepping along the somewhat familiar pathways of the focused mode. But if we're trying to solve or figure out something new, it often cries out for the more broad-ranging perspectives of the diffuse mode. This mode, as it turns out, is representative of the brain's many neural resting states. Creative thinkers throughout history, whatever their discipline have found ways to access the diffuse mode often more directly and quickly. Be it Picasso or Ramanujan. But we all access this mode quite naturally when we do things like go for a walk or take a shower or even just drift off to sleep. When we find ourselves stuck on a problem, or even if we're unsure of a situation, the course of living our daily life. It's often a good idea once you've focused directly on the situation. To let things, settle back and take a bit more time. That way more neural processing can take place, often below conscious awareness in the diffuse mode. The thing is it often takes time for neural processing to take place, and time, as well, to build the new neural structures that allow us to learn something new. This is why tackling procrastination is so very important. The easiest way to tackle procrastination is to use the Pomodoro technique. That brief, 25-minute stretch of focuses concentration followed by a bit of mental relaxation. It's through practise and repetition that we can help enhance and strengthen the neural structures we're building as we're learning something new. Practice and repetition are particularly important for more abstract topics. The memory, of course, is an important aspect of learning. There are four slots in our working memory. Things can fall out of those slots unless we keep repeating them to hold them in mind. In that sense, working memory is like a not very good blackboard. Long term memory, on the other hand, is like a storage warehouse. If you practised and repeated something well enough to get it into long-term memory, you can usually call it up later if you need, although you may need an occasional bit of repetition to freshen the memory up. It's never a good idea to cram your learning by repeating things many times all in one day. Because that's like trying to build muscle by lifting weights all in one day there's no time for solid structures to grow. Sleep is very important in washing away the toxins that develop during our day's activities. We want to avoid taking tests or doing anything difficult with little sleep the night before cause it's like trying to think with poison on the brain. And just as importantly, exercise is surprisingly valuable in helping both improve our memory and our ability to learn.

My Take On some Questions About Learning

Describe your current learning career and potential trajectory (if known).

My learning trajectory has taken some quite interesting turns after middle school. During high school, I started trying many new things apart from academics, I started blogging with my friend and learners the fundamentals of WordPress, hosting, domain, digital marketing, affiliate marketing and so on. I made about 2-3 different blog sites. I tried freelancing, but it was of no use because I didn't have many skills at that time. After one year I tried selling on amazon India and learners a lot from that, although I didn't make money from that it was a worthy experience. Now I had to apply for colleges and besides that, I started or tried some businesses to build an online presence for them. It was either not very successful in terms of money but it was good. And now I am in college doing major in computer science and learning software development and web development. You can check my website if you want:- cutt.ly/ankitkumar

Briefly describe the learning aim that is of importance to you.

The learning aim that is important to you now is: -
# Being proficient in core computer science subjects.
# Learning new technologies in the market
# Doing some real-time projects

What is your biggest mental challenge in achieving your learning aim?

The biggest mental challenge that is hindering my growth is I am not able to mark my path and want on it. What I mean to say it there is not a very clear layout path to become a software engineer in a niche.

Outline existing research or learning techniques that are relevant to your challenges.

Well, some learning techniques are relevant to my problems: -
1. Getting sound sleep is going to be helpful because I often find myself working late at night and being sleep deprives.
2. Pomodoro technique will help me to focus for a long time and get the work finished.
3. Being a computer-science engineer I usually sit for long hours, which is deteriorating my health. Exercising daily will be very helpful.

Apply your knowledge of research findings or learning techniques to overcome your challenges.

Well, I am going to give them a try.

Your Turn Answer Some Questions.

Optional >

Chunking

Chunks are pieces of information, neuro-scientifically speaking, that are bound together through use and often through meaning. You can think of a chunk as a scintillating network of neurons that compactly synthesizes key ideas or actions. Chunks can get bigger and more complex. But at the same time, they're a single easy to access an item that you can fit like a ribbon into the slot on your working memory. Chunks are best built with focused, undivided attention, understanding of the basic idea. And practice to help deepen your patterns and to help you gain big picture context. Simple recall, trying to remember the key points without looking at the page, is one of the best ways to help the chunking process along. It seems to help build neural hooks. They help you better understand the material. Also try recalling material in places that are different from where you originally learned the material, so it becomes more deeply ingrained and accessible, regardless of what room you're in. This can be very helpful for tests.

Transfer

A transfer is an idea that a chunk you've mastered in one area can often help you much more easily learn chunks of information in different areas that can share surprising commonalities. Interleave your learning by practising your choice of different concepts, approach, and techniques all in one session. Chunks are very important, but they don't necessarily build flexibility, which is also important in becoming an expert with the material you're learning.

Illusion Of Competence In Learning

Learn to recognize when you're fooling yourself about whether you're learning the material. Test yourself frequently. Using little mini-tests to see whether you're learning the material, or whether you've been fooling yourself, thinking you're learning when you're not. The recall is a form of mini-testing. Try to avoid depending too much on highlighting, which can fool you into thinking that the material is going into your brain when it isn't. Mistakes are a good thing to make when you're learning. They allow you to catch illusions of competence. Avoid practising only the easy stuff, which can bring the illusion that you've mastered the material. Deliberately practice what you find more difficult to gain full mastery of the material.
Einstellung is when your initial thought, an idea you've already had in mind, or a neural the pattern you've already developed well and strengthened, prevents a better idea or solution from being found. Or keeps you from being flexible enough to accept new, better, or more appropriate solutions. The Law of Serendipity is helpful. Lady Luck favours the one who tries. Just pick one tiny thing out to learn, then another. Just keep trying and you'll be pleasantly surprised at the results.

Procrastination

Learning well often involves bit by bit, day by day building of solid neural scaffolds, rather like a weightlifter builds muscle with day to day exercise. This is why tackling procrastination is so incredibly important. You want to keep up with your learning and avoid last-minute cramming. So, with that, here's an overview of the key aspects of tackling procrastination. Keep a planner journal so you can easily track when you reach your goals and observe what does and doesn't work. Commit yourself to certain routines and tasks each day. Write your plan tasks out the night before so your brain has time to dwell on your goals and help ensure success. Arrange your work into a series of small challenges. Always make sure you end your zombies get lots of rewards. Take a few minutes to savour the feelings of happiness and triumph, which also gives your brain a chance to temporarily change modes. Deliberately delay rewards until you finish the task. Watch for procrastination cues. Try putting yourself in new surroundings with few procrastination cues such as the quiet section of the library. Gain trust in your new system. You want to work hard during times of focused concentration and also to trust your system enough so that when it comes time to relax, you relax without feelings of guilt or worry. Have backup plans for when you still procrastinate. No one is perfect after all. Eat your frogs first every day.

Memory

In this course, we discussed two main memory systems involved in your ability to chunk concepts.

• The first is long term memory which is like a storage warehouse. You need to practice and repeat to help store items in long-term memory so you can retrieve them more easily. Practising and repeating all in one day are a bad idea, you want to extend your practice to several days. This is why tackling procrastination is important, it helps you build better memories because you start earlier.
• The second is working memory which is like a whole blackboard they quickly fade. You can only hold about four items in your working memory. When you master a technique or concept in some sense, it compacts the ideas so they can occupy less space in your working memory when you do bring them to mind. This frees your mental thinking space so that they can more easily grapple with other ideas. We have outstanding visual and spatial memory systems. If you tap into those systems it will help improve your memory. To begin tapping into your visual memory system, try making a very memorable visual image representing one key item you want to remember. Beyond merely seeing, try to feel, to hear and even to smell something you're trying to remember. The funnier and more evocative the images the better. As always, repetition over several days is really helpful. Another key to memorization is to create meaningful groups that simplify the material. Try associating numbers with years or with systems you're familiar with like running times. Many disciplines use memorable sentences.

The memory palace technique, placing memorable images in a scene that's familiar to you allows you to deep into the strength of your visual memory system, providing a particularly powerful way of grouping things you want to remember. By making meaningful groups and abbreviations, you can simplify and chunk what you're trying to learn so you can more easily store it in memory. By memorizing material, you understand, you can profoundly internalize the material. you're reinforcing the mental library you need to become a genuine master of the material.

Summarising All

Metaphors and analogies aren't just for art and literature. One of the best things you can do to not only remember but more easily understand concepts in many different fields is to create a metaphor or analogy for them. Often the more visual, the better. We've learned from Nobel Prize Winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal that if you change your thoughts, you can truly change your life. It seems people can enhance the development of their neuronal circuits by practising thoughts that use those neurons. Like Santiago Ramon y Cajal, you can take pride in aiming for success because of the very things that make other people say you can't do it. Keep in mind that when you whiz through a homework or test question, and you don't go back to check your work, you're acting a little like a person who's refusing to use parts of your brain. You're not stopping to take a mental breath, and then revisit what you've done with the bigger picture in mind, to see whether it makes sense. Overconfidence in your results can result from using only one mode of thinking. By making it a point to do some of your studying with friends, you can more easily catch where your thinking has gone astray. Taking a test is serious business. Just as fighter pilots and doctors go through checklists before take-off and surgery, going through your test preparation checklist can vastly improve your chances of success. Counterintuitive strategies, such as the hard start jump to easy technique, can give your brain a chance to reflect on harder challenges, even as you are focusing on other, more straightforward problems. Here are some last test-taking pointers. The body puts out chemicals when it's under stress. How you interpret your body's reaction to those chemicals makes all the difference. If you shift your thinking from, this test has made me afraid, to, this test has got me excited to do my best, it helps improve your performance. If you're panicked on a test, momentarily turn your attention to your breathing. Relax your stomach. Place your hand on it, and slowly draw a deep breath. Your hand should move outward, and your whole chest should expand like a barrel. Your mind can trick you into thinking that what you've done is correct, even if it isn't. This means that, whenever possible, you should blink, shift your attention, and then double-check your answers using a big-picture perspective. Asking yourself, does this make sense? And finally, remember that not getting enough sleep the night before a test can negate any other preparation you've done.

*Credit Courcera