5 principles for learning better (or better learning)

What is this?

What is this?Here is a super-quick summary of 5 principles that can help you learn better.

They are taken from the MOOC:

Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjectsby Dr. Barbara Oakley, Dr. Terrence Sejnowski

and loosely described by my understanding of them.

1. Chunking

1. ChunkingChunking is breaking (new) informations into pieces to assimilate them better. It is like eating in a way. Putting in your mouth a too big piece of food makes it difficult, if not impossible, to digest it. On the other side small bites makes it easier, safer and healthier. Since our working memory is limited we can also absorb a limited amount of new informations in a given time. By chunking them we can start using new concepts in our mind until they become “part of our library” and then we can move onto the next one.

2. Diffuse mode

2. Diffuse modeThere are two states, or modes, your brain can process informations. The focused one is when we use almost all our attention on a given task to tackle it. For a tech person that would be a foreground process with priority.The other one is diffuse mode, when we are doing different things but our brain is also making connections in the background. The latter is very good for creative thinking and to face new challenges even in learning since we are more able to make new connections between informations and think out of the box. Relaxing activities and sport could be good activities to prosper diffuse mode.

3. Crosspollinating

3. CrosspollinatingCrosspollinating is about making connections between different topics, realms or chunks, to sediment informations in our memory. In a way is a learning practice that we already practiced (pun intended) at school. An example is we are taught how an atom works often by referring how a planet and its satellites do. The great thing about finding correlations between different realms is not only to make it easier to grasp concepts but also come up with strong innovative ideas. History proves that lots of amazing ideas come from picking a concept in a world and apply it to another one, at first sight maybe unrelated.

4. Procrastination

4. ProcrastinationProcrastination is bad. We know it. Good news, you are not the only one suffering and there's an explanation behind. Still you want to overcome it. A good technique is the “pomodoro” technique. There is nothing so terrible that you cannot do for 25 minutes in a row! So split your agenda in 30 minutes parts and assign a task to each one of them. In the first 25 minutes focus on process (doing what you are supposed to do) rather then product (the final outcome). And then reward yourself for 5 minutes. Then on to the next one!

5. Sleep

5. SleepSleep is good! For you and for learning. There are several reasons for it but I am to point two of them. When you sleep your brain goes over informations and works to stick them in your memory. The more you sleep the better is for your memory.Second if you try to learn something before going to sleep, and maybe you try to fall asleep thinking of it, there are good chances that you'll dream about it and your brain will review it during the night. Increasing your learning experience!

Conclusion: What are more concepts?

There is of course much more in the mooc, like deliberate practicing, the palace technique, long term memory, overlearning, Einstellung, teamwork, metaphors, ...

Where to find more?

https://class.coursera.org/learning-002