Learning
A basic overview
This is part of a personal learning exercise inspired by Feynman’s Technique for Learning, feel free to identify gaps or opportunities for improvement.
Learning is personal change. You develop a new ability. You make sense of a problem in a different way or remember something that you can use to reach your goals. Who you used to be changes into who you are now. Learning helps you grow into a new kind of person.
Learning happens when you practice something, receive feedback, and adjust for next time. Practice is guiding Mario in jumping along a level before falling into a pit. It is doing flashcards, making a decision, lifting weights, or taking a test. To practice a thing you must actually do it. Reading, talking, or thinking about Mario or lifting weights can be helpful but isn’t the best practice. If you already have experience with a thing you are learning, imagining yourself doing it well can help you learn it better. Feedback can come from the practice itself, or from an experienced person. Feedback is seeing Mario fall into the pit. Feedback is checking the back of the flashcard, watching what happened after your decision, getting tips on your weight lifting position, and reviewing your test score. Adjusting for next time means you practice again using the feedback to do better.
There are many different types of things you can learn. Most are either brain things, heart things, or full body things. Brain types of learning are what you spend lots of time doing at school. Reading or listening to facts, and then combining those facts to do harder things. Reading and remembering facts makes a process like selling lemonade easier. But to learn this kind of thing requires combining lots of skills with practice and feedback. A skill is a group of facts and experiences you use to reach a goal. To sell lemonade you need lots of skills. Convincing people to buy, deciding what price to set, making the lemonade, and choosing what days to sell on are all skills. You can get better at a skill the more you practice it and make changes based on feedback. Being around other people who are good at the skill can also help you learn it even better.
Heart things are how you feel about stuff. You can change your attitude about something. This change can make a difference for how you learn brain and full body things. Heart things are not usually learned in class or even on purpose. Telling stories and spending time with other people helps. Taking time to think about your decisions is also an important way to learn heart things. Full body things are when you develop skills you do with your body. Soccer, running, dancing, and swimming are activities you use your full body to do. Brain, heart, and full body learning can combine together. Trying to win a laser tag battle or performing in a play use all types of learning.
Being taught something doesn’t mean you have learned. Learning is up to you! Ask questions, practice, listen to feedback, and think about your decisions. As you stay open to learning you will never stop growing.
References
Brown, Peter C., et al. “Make It Stick.” The Science of Successful Learning, Belknap Press, 2014.
Barab, S., & Plucker, J. (2002). Smart People or Smart Contexts? Cognition, Ability, and Talent Development in an Age of Situated Approaches to Knowing and Learning. Educational Psychologist, 37(3), 165–182.
Christensen, L, et al. “The Most Fundamental Skill: Intentional Learning and the Career Advantage.” McKinsey & Company, 7 Aug. 2020, www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-most-fundamental-skill-intentional-learning-and-the-career-advantage.
Cooper G, Tindall-Ford S, Chandler P, Sweller J. Learning by imagining. J Exp Psychol Appl. 2001 Mar;7(1):68–82. doi: 10.1037//1076–898x.7.1.68. PMID: 11577621.
Driscoll, M. P., & Burner, K. J. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction.
Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41(4), 212–218.
