Methods For Study

Over the years I have come to learn something extremely useful in the course of my own studies regarding learning itself; it is largely method, and not simply outright intelligence that makes a good student. If you are lucky enough to be naturally gifted and breezes through life, you may not think a particular method of learning is necessary. I knew people over the years whose natural ability or way of thinking suited academia, and they found school and college easy. At the time I found this frustrating to say the least, as my intelligence would only take me so far, before other tactics were necessary..

There are many theories of learning, from the "pyramid of learning", to "learning through doing", and classical conditioning. Where would one start? I have only recently started looking into these various methods after years of my own experiences, and now see the truths they all hold, from the perspective of my own simplified experiences. I believe each and every one of us have similar experiences of learning going through life, and can, on reflection, realise independently the best way to learn. It is the reflection on these truths that is the topic of this article.

ADHD attention span.. If ever there was a process by which methods were distilled by natural forces of evolution into their purest most efficient form, then commerce and business is it. In the business world, if it works, keep it, if it doesn`t, find something new. As much as you may dislike this truth, it works, and is everywhere. It is the "teaching" methods of trade that are of interest to me, as they highlight something companies realised long ago; that we all naturally have a given attention span, and trying to hold our attention beyond that limit bears no fruit, and in adverts would be a waste of company money. Instead, if they can get their message across within that attention span window, they have a chance of planting whatever nefarious seed they intend. We are all subject to this, no matter how much we consider ourselves different. From the point of view of learning, this is an important truth. How long can we each take in new complex information without pausing? For most people this is limited to only around 5 minutes without pause. This has huge implications, as many teaching programs are based around an hours lecture, and an hours practical. That can mean a lot of missed information for many of us, or at a minimum frantic note taking to be read later. Employers are coming to realise this too, allowing more frequent but shorter break periods during work hours to improve productivity. With the conventional eight hour working day with a single one hour break, it is estimated that only two of the seven possible hours of work is productive. When we learn, we can only absorb totally new information for a set amount of time, at which point we need to move on to the next stage of the process; retention.

Making it stick.. I will never forget in a particular karate club I was a member of as a kid the instructor drumming into us the principle of copy, master, adapt. This was the idea that no matter how good you naturally were, how good you wanted to be, you always needed to follow the same path to get there, namely first copying the particular techniques exactly as they were taught, even if you found it unnatural or awkward. This was the initial process of creating new pathways in your muscle memory and mind, and was a process that was almost always uncomfortable and tiring mentally as well as physically. After suitable practice the mental effort became noticeably easier, and the new skill became ingrained. This was the mastering part. It is the mastering part that relates to making it stick. I always thought when I was younger that the secret to learning something new was to delve as deep into a new concept as I could and understand it once and for all completely. I would then be able to move on to something new and challenging, safe in the knowledge that this new topic was stored in my head, ready to be recalled at will. I got away with it mostly, but looking back, I could have done so much more. How many times do you need to recite a phone number or email before it sticks? Many I imagine for it to be "permanent". There is no escaping this often tedious part of the process. But as with all types of training, if you can learn to love this part, and see the results of your ongoing effort, you can still derive enjoyment from the process.

"The Knowledge".. A famous examples of people retaining information is the London black cabbies. "The Knowledge" is the test they must take to show they know the quickest route to any place in central London. It takes years of study, and is considered one of the hardest tests of memory around. To understand how someone can learn every back alley and street in one of the worlds largest most confusing cities, it`s important to understand their process of learning them. When learning the location of a new street, they will work out several different ways of getting there. Instead of the new street sitting in isolation in their mental picture of the streets of London, it becomes connected to many others, some of which they will already know. Many mnemonic devices work on this principle of linking memories to others in ones mind. If you need to remember a new strange name for example, it can help to think of something it resembles, and link it to that. That way, you are taking something new, and linking it to something familiar. Now if you can remember the thing the new name resembles, you have a better chance of triggering the memory of the new name.

Memory itself is the creation of a new pathway in your brain. The ease with which that memory can be accessed is related to the number of pathways that lead to it, which in turn are created by the processes mentioned above.

When all of these aspects of learning are taken together, they show a picture both obvious and familiar to our own experience. When we know what method is required, we can employ it to maximise our learning for whatever purpose, in whatever field of study.