Effective learning: practical advice
Here I will gather a few practical tips (most of them are tested on personal experience), supported by scientific facts that will help make the learning process effective. It is possible to apply both to self-training, and training of someone. If you are studying somewhere, check how many of the listed items are actually used in the educational process - this will help you correctly evaluate the effectiveness of your educational process and change something in it so that it meets your needs.
These tips are:
1. Strive to ensure that the information fell into the long-term memory.
When a new information comes to us through certain sensors, it is first loaded into instant memory, in which data can be, if my memory serves me, up to the 1st minute. As an example, here can be the telephone number of the pizza order, which we memorize only at the time of dialing.
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Further, if the information is of any interest, it falls into short-term memory, which can be no more than a day. Here an example is the preparation of a typical Russian student for the exam - for the night he learns the material, passes the exam and then forgets most of the subject. Some, therefore, as a positive moment of studying in an institution of higher education say that it teaches us to absorb a large amount of information in a short time. In fact, this is not something to strive for. In order for information to be used and to build judgments and conclusions based on it, it is necessary for it to fall into long-term memory and acquire various neural connections (that is, be associated with other information learned earlier or later). By the way, the more such connections, the faster the brain finds the way to such information.
From this point it follows that various tests and tests of students should not be carried out the next day after the submission of new material. It is also not necessary to warn them about the preparation of the test, if you want to check the long-term memory (ie, you do not want the students to repeat the material before the test).
2. Try to find meaning and meaning for new information.
When the brain receives new information, it decides whether or not to store it in long-term memory, based on the number of existing neural connections that are related to this information. By meaning is meant previously acquired information, by meaning , that which may affect a person in the future. For example: the designer reads in LJ that Artemy Lebedev banned smoking in his studio. Because the designer is not a smoker, but he knows who Tyoma is, the new information contains meaning, but there is no meaning. If the designer was a smoker, then there would be a meaning and value for him, and the information would have a much better chance of getting into long-term memory.
3. The first third of the lesson is the most effective for learning new knowledge.
Any lesson, whether it be a lecture, a lesson or a seminar, has the so-called prime time and down time. At prime time, any information is best assimilated, so you shouldn’t check homework, ask questions, make false hypotheses, etc. at this time. - all information, even if it is incorrect, will be learned. The best option for prime time - to give new information clearly. If necessary, all questions can be discussed later.
Prime-time comes at the beginning and at the end of the lesson and is about 1/3 of the total time of the lesson. Moreover, the share of prime-time is inversely proportional to the duration of the session - the most optimal in duration is considered to be a session of 20-30 minutes. In the second prime time (at the end of the lesson) it is necessary to summarize and review the subject in order to consolidate the material.
In the down-time, when the brain practically does not assimilate information, it is necessary to change activities - to discuss what has been learned, to exchange views, to check homework, etc.
4. Sleep is an important part of the process of learning.
Regular and sufficient (at least 7.5 hours) sleep is required for the assimilation of new information and its further processing. When we sleep, the brain continues to refer to the same areas and neurons that were used when it first received information. According to one of the assumptions, this becomes possible due to the disabling (or desensitization) of the corresponding sensors (eyes closed, hearing disabled, etc.). Working with these sites, the brain reorganizes them and strengthens neural connections. Thus, not only is access to new information easier, but it is being processed; new solutions are found. In the experiments, it was confirmed that the people who had slept remembered the new material of the previous day much better and found new solutions more efficiently.
5. Learn new material only when necessary.
Most accurately, I defined this item for myself in English: learn on demand (I don’t know if anyone has used such a term). It means that for the most effective mastering of the material, a practical task is needed, which is interesting for you to solve. Moreover, not something like “solve a quadratic equation” that is usually offered at school, namely, the task that you need to solve in the real world. At first glance it may seem that such tasks are not always possible to pick up, since some knowledge is too “low-level” (such as knowledge of the alphabet), but this is actually not the case. Simply, lower-level knowledge requires less important tasks and the presence of fantasy, that's all.
If you are afraid that you are missing something by learning on this principle, ask yourself: how much time would you spend on studying material that you don’t need now and the desire to teach which you don’t have? And this, instead of having to solve, albeit not a big, but quite a specific task and, thus, motivate yourself to study further.
6. Change the environment and stimulate the appearance of emotions.
The brain responds most effectively to changes, so a new material is remembered successfully if something changes around. I bet most of you don’t remember where you were and what you did on September 10, 2001, but everyone remembers what they did on September 11 of the same year. Of course, the example should not be taken literally, but even small positive changes in the environment where you are being trained will contribute to increased efficiency.
If this is an audience with a certain number of students — sometimes invite other lecturers or interesting personalities to hold all or part of the lecture, appear at a lecture in shorts or a striped bathing suit — I can bet that your students will remember this lecture until the end of their lives. The idea, I think, is clear.
If you study on your own (for example, read a manual or a book) - when you get to the knowledge you need, put a pleasant song, eat a chocolate bar, press 20 times, call a friend and share your joy, watch porn, pinch yourself for something - all this can play to your advantage.
In addition, monitor the natural environment in the learning environment. Too high temperature, dehydration of the body and extraneous noise greatly weaken the ability of the brain to perceive information. Moderate sunshine and oxygen, on the contrary, add confidence to the brain.
7. Avoid carrots and sticks.
Too many gingerbread, as well as too big a stick, can completely negate the ability of the brain to learn something. Attempts to learn the material in order to pass the exam and not to get into the army are just an example of improper brain stimulation due to some kind of threat. For the learning process to be effective, teachers should use exams and tests not as a way to weed out people (this at best turns out to be - at worst they either do not care or try to assert themselves), but as a way to detect gaps and weaknesses and try to close them in future. It is especially important that the student also understands the meaning of such checks, is not afraid to make mistakes, and correctly prepare for such events (in particular, without resorting to the use of short-term memory).
8. Use the method of obtaining information that suits you best.
Not all people are the same and not all prefer to receive information in the same way. Someone better assimilates the material when he reads it himself, someone better remembers the speech, someone else - diagrams on the board and pictures. Determine what is most effective for you and try to resort to this method.
Remember that a lecture is one of the most inefficient ways of teaching because of its average duration, monotony and, often, the only way to present information (speech).
Brain Compatible Strategies by Eric P. Jensen
Sleep On It: How To Snooze Makes You Smarter by Robert Stickgold and Jeffrey M. Ellenbogen
These tips are:
1. Strive to ensure that the information fell into the long-term memory.
When a new information comes to us through certain sensors, it is first loaded into instant memory, in which data can be, if my memory serves me, up to the 1st minute. As an example, here can be the telephone number of the pizza order, which we memorize only at the time of dialing.
')
Further, if the information is of any interest, it falls into short-term memory, which can be no more than a day. Here an example is the preparation of a typical Russian student for the exam - for the night he learns the material, passes the exam and then forgets most of the subject. Some, therefore, as a positive moment of studying in an institution of higher education say that it teaches us to absorb a large amount of information in a short time. In fact, this is not something to strive for. In order for information to be used and to build judgments and conclusions based on it, it is necessary for it to fall into long-term memory and acquire various neural connections (that is, be associated with other information learned earlier or later). By the way, the more such connections, the faster the brain finds the way to such information.
From this point it follows that various tests and tests of students should not be carried out the next day after the submission of new material. It is also not necessary to warn them about the preparation of the test, if you want to check the long-term memory (ie, you do not want the students to repeat the material before the test).
2. Try to find meaning and meaning for new information.
When the brain receives new information, it decides whether or not to store it in long-term memory, based on the number of existing neural connections that are related to this information. By meaning is meant previously acquired information, by meaning , that which may affect a person in the future. For example: the designer reads in LJ that Artemy Lebedev banned smoking in his studio. Because the designer is not a smoker, but he knows who Tyoma is, the new information contains meaning, but there is no meaning. If the designer was a smoker, then there would be a meaning and value for him, and the information would have a much better chance of getting into long-term memory.
3. The first third of the lesson is the most effective for learning new knowledge.
Any lesson, whether it be a lecture, a lesson or a seminar, has the so-called prime time and down time. At prime time, any information is best assimilated, so you shouldn’t check homework, ask questions, make false hypotheses, etc. at this time. - all information, even if it is incorrect, will be learned. The best option for prime time - to give new information clearly. If necessary, all questions can be discussed later.
Prime-time comes at the beginning and at the end of the lesson and is about 1/3 of the total time of the lesson. Moreover, the share of prime-time is inversely proportional to the duration of the session - the most optimal in duration is considered to be a session of 20-30 minutes. In the second prime time (at the end of the lesson) it is necessary to summarize and review the subject in order to consolidate the material.
In the down-time, when the brain practically does not assimilate information, it is necessary to change activities - to discuss what has been learned, to exchange views, to check homework, etc.
4. Sleep is an important part of the process of learning.
Regular and sufficient (at least 7.5 hours) sleep is required for the assimilation of new information and its further processing. When we sleep, the brain continues to refer to the same areas and neurons that were used when it first received information. According to one of the assumptions, this becomes possible due to the disabling (or desensitization) of the corresponding sensors (eyes closed, hearing disabled, etc.). Working with these sites, the brain reorganizes them and strengthens neural connections. Thus, not only is access to new information easier, but it is being processed; new solutions are found. In the experiments, it was confirmed that the people who had slept remembered the new material of the previous day much better and found new solutions more efficiently.
5. Learn new material only when necessary.
Most accurately, I defined this item for myself in English: learn on demand (I don’t know if anyone has used such a term). It means that for the most effective mastering of the material, a practical task is needed, which is interesting for you to solve. Moreover, not something like “solve a quadratic equation” that is usually offered at school, namely, the task that you need to solve in the real world. At first glance it may seem that such tasks are not always possible to pick up, since some knowledge is too “low-level” (such as knowledge of the alphabet), but this is actually not the case. Simply, lower-level knowledge requires less important tasks and the presence of fantasy, that's all.
If you are afraid that you are missing something by learning on this principle, ask yourself: how much time would you spend on studying material that you don’t need now and the desire to teach which you don’t have? And this, instead of having to solve, albeit not a big, but quite a specific task and, thus, motivate yourself to study further.
6. Change the environment and stimulate the appearance of emotions.
The brain responds most effectively to changes, so a new material is remembered successfully if something changes around. I bet most of you don’t remember where you were and what you did on September 10, 2001, but everyone remembers what they did on September 11 of the same year. Of course, the example should not be taken literally, but even small positive changes in the environment where you are being trained will contribute to increased efficiency.
If this is an audience with a certain number of students — sometimes invite other lecturers or interesting personalities to hold all or part of the lecture, appear at a lecture in shorts or a striped bathing suit — I can bet that your students will remember this lecture until the end of their lives. The idea, I think, is clear.
If you study on your own (for example, read a manual or a book) - when you get to the knowledge you need, put a pleasant song, eat a chocolate bar, press 20 times, call a friend and share your joy, watch porn, pinch yourself for something - all this can play to your advantage.
In addition, monitor the natural environment in the learning environment. Too high temperature, dehydration of the body and extraneous noise greatly weaken the ability of the brain to perceive information. Moderate sunshine and oxygen, on the contrary, add confidence to the brain.
7. Avoid carrots and sticks.
Too many gingerbread, as well as too big a stick, can completely negate the ability of the brain to learn something. Attempts to learn the material in order to pass the exam and not to get into the army are just an example of improper brain stimulation due to some kind of threat. For the learning process to be effective, teachers should use exams and tests not as a way to weed out people (this at best turns out to be - at worst they either do not care or try to assert themselves), but as a way to detect gaps and weaknesses and try to close them in future. It is especially important that the student also understands the meaning of such checks, is not afraid to make mistakes, and correctly prepare for such events (in particular, without resorting to the use of short-term memory).
8. Use the method of obtaining information that suits you best.
Not all people are the same and not all prefer to receive information in the same way. Someone better assimilates the material when he reads it himself, someone better remembers the speech, someone else - diagrams on the board and pictures. Determine what is most effective for you and try to resort to this method.
Remember that a lecture is one of the most inefficient ways of teaching because of its average duration, monotony and, often, the only way to present information (speech).
That's it folks.
In fact, the points could be much more. I have now tried to list the ones that seemed to me the most important and practically applicable. In the comments I will try to answer your questions (if any), because I have some knowledge and experience in the field of learning.Sources:
How the Brain Learns by David A. SousaBrain Compatible Strategies by Eric P. Jensen
Sleep On It: How To Snooze Makes You Smarter by Robert Stickgold and Jeffrey M. Ellenbogen
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/38838/
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