THREE TECHNIQUES TO BE A

BETTER LEARNER

Abdelkrim Berkous

28/01/2015

WelcomeWilkommenBienvenue

Click on the video ….

Agenda

• Who am I and what are my goals

• Goal of this presentation

• Technique 1 : Kill the serial procrastinator that resides in you

• Technique 2 : Interleaved Practice

• Technique 3 : Sport and Rest !!!

• Example of study plan

Who am I

• I was born a long time ago, in the beautiful spring 1974 in a town…euh I’ll sum up it’s not a bio !! Well I’m 40(guess you could have guessed by calculating but you’re definitely too lazy), a devoted father of two daughters, and a good guitar player oscillating between reggae, trash metal and classical music!

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• My job is to sell donuts …no I’m currently a network architect. In fact I’m building networks for a frenchmajor company and my job had recently a lot of evolution I must cope with. So I don’t want to miss that train and be left behind !

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• So a I must learn a lot of new things and consolidate the basis, and play guitar and running, I must plan my duty accordingly and be a better and more efficient learner. So that’s why i’m sharing three techniques I find efficient to fulfill my requirements !

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Who am I and what are my goals

Goal of this presentation

• In a first time, we will talk about procrastination. What is the procrastination, what are the related feelings about it, and how to avoid it

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• In a second time, we will talk about interleaved practice. The idea is to present the technique , which I find is the more efficient when you are studying things in parallel you want to retain later.

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• Finally, we will have a word on why sport and sleep are very good for memory and health, and provide a study plan.

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Goal of this presentation

PROCRASTINATOR : I’LL BE NEVER BACK

What is procrastination

• Procrastination is when you say « ok, this taski’ll do it on tomorrow », and you repeat itevery day…For instance, ok i’ll pay the taxes…and you’re waiting till the last day on when you’re forced to do it

• Procrastination is linked to a kind of pain, and you always find a distraction to avoid doingthis task

Unpleasant Task

Short

hapiness (but

you haven’t done the task!)

Procrastination Funnel

Distraction

And then again and again…Don’t wake the Sisyphe whichsleeps in you !!

How To tackle procrastination(1/2)

• The main method is Pomodoro !!!– Method created by M. Cirillo. The legend told that his wife was upset with

him because she was always burning the food when he was cooking beacause he didn’t know how to manage the time, and her wife has boughthim a timer which was a tomato(a pomodoro in italiano si !!)…

– The method will be described in the next slide

• The other method is stay positive and adopt the lucky attitude !!!– Non procrastinor people are always positive when they’re dealing with

unpleasant tasks– When you adopt the luck attitude, lady’s luck favors the one who tries !!– Always begin by the most unpleasant tasks…eat your froggies in the

morning…Except in France for sure where maybe drink your californian winewill be more adapted(okay …guess where i’m living …)

How To tackle procrastination(2/2)

• Pomodoro(tomato in italiano si!)is a measure of time. The technique consist in alternating 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of rest and repeat it 4 times. After the 4th repetition take a longer break (lunch for instance or the 5th coffee if you’re working in France)!!

• On top of that and to make it efficient, you :– Check the schedule. Make sure to assess correctly the time it will take to finish a task

– Set the time. You can use for that Clear Focus on your smartphone (i assume you have one or check on google, you’ll find one). You must commit on the time and never get bothered during thistime

– Only work on the planned task !! You can keep a notepad near if something goes through yourhead(oh dear you will not forget to buy the bread for the dinner…).

– Respect the break !! Respect the break !! RESPECT THE BREAK(repetition is important for the memory expecially if we want to recall the positive stuff). You can do anything else, looking at youmail, web surfing etc.

– Always begin by the worst task. Give this task one pomodoro or two so that you progress on it !!!

• Discipline and Rewarding. Make sure to respect this and to reward yourself so that you trick your brain so that everything is natural.

INTERLEAVED PRACTICE ABC…123…DO RE

MI…

What is interleaved learning and what is blocking learning(1/2)

• A simple image to describe the difference :

What is interleaved learning and what is blocking learning(2/2)• Block practicing is when you focus on learning one skill at

a time. You practice a skill repetitively for a period of time and then you move onto another skill and repeat the process.

• Interleaving practice on the other hand involves working on multiple skills in parallel.

• If you want to learn skills A, B and C then a block practice session would look something like this AAABBBCCC

• An interleaved practice session would look like this ABCABCABC (in series) or ACBABCBAC (randomized). The only constraint is that you can’t work on the same type of problem back to back.

Why and how interleaved practice can be efficient

• A lot of studies has shown in many domains that interleaved practice give to the learners a better memory retention(see the references)

• When you want to learn many topics in parallel, this is the method to use

• If you consider passing a test in a few month, interleaved practice will provide you the better results

How to use interleave practice

• Study the material – Before you can begin practicing you need to seek out instruction on what you are trying to learn. You have to figure out what is the big picture. For instance if you want to learn how to play a song , hear it first !

• Practice deliberately – This is a supplement to deliberate practice, not a replacement. Whenever you are practicing you should be practicing the tenets of deliberate practice.

• Avoid flow – Block practice allows you to get in a groove which gives a false impression that you know the material. You need to actively avoid that sensation and shift to a different exercise once you feel it occurring.

• Mix in old material – It is important that you mix up your practice material. This can be accomplished by cycling in practice exercises you have already completed. This also has the advantage of leveraging the spacing effect.

• Track your progress - This technique has the potential to frustrate and discourage even the most persistent student. By keeping track of your progress you will have confirmation that you are making progress even though it may feel like you are constantly struggling.

How to use interleave practice

• Study the material – Before you can begin practicing you need to seek out instruction on what you are trying to learn. You have to figure out what is the big picture. For instance if you want to learn how to play a song , hear it first !

• Practice deliberately – This is a supplement to deliberate practice, not a replacement. Whenever you are practicing you should be practicing the tenets of deliberate practice.

• Avoid flow – Block practice allows you to get in a groove which gives a false impression that you know the material. You need to actively avoid that sensation and shift to a different exercise once you feel it occurring.

• Mix in old material – It is important that you mix up your practice material. This can be accomplished by cycling in practice exercises you have already completed. This also has the advantage of leveraging the spacing effect.

• Track your progress - This technique has the potential to frustrate and discourage even the most persistent student. By keeping track of your progress you will have confirmation that you are making progress even though it may feel like you are constantly struggling.

• Couple it with POMODORO !!

Interleave practice – main caveats

• There are two main caveats to interleaved practice :

– Counterintuitive. We’ve been used to do blocking learning and are used to it. So we must our mindset

– Learning is a challenging process that places a strain on your brain and your will. Indeed, it’s hard to implement this and you may feel discouraged !!!

SPORT AND REST…BUT ALWAYS IN PEACE…

BENEFITS OF SPORT

• We will not recall the benefits of doingexercise(reasonably), good for health in so manydomains

• The more you’re doing exercise, the more yourbrain is generating dopamine, the better youfeel…why will you buy this weed you don’t reallyknow the long term effect..

• Exercise create news neurons !!! • It permits you thinking and creating new

connexions ….

BENEFITS OF REST/SLEEP

• Our brain is consuming a lot of energy, so resting/sleeping. Our brainis resting ..in a house party either you’re enjoying the party, eitheryou clean but you can’t do two things at the same time !

• The space between neurons is shrinking during sleep, and there is a cleanup of your toxic waste …so next time explain your wife to not think to much, she will be more happy ! More seriously, this is a good way to avoid Alzheimer from knocking at your heaven’s door

• Good for growth• Memory consolidation…• Next time, explain your boss that the more you sleep the more

efficient you are …if you don’t suceed in convincing him send me mypresentation !

EXAMPLE OF STUDY

PLAN…

An example of three days

Monday Tuesday Wenesday

1 pomodoroTechnical guitar stuff -tapping

Technical Guitar stuff - Fast picking Technical guitar stuff - sweeping

2 pomodoriLearn how to program in Python Revising routing concepts

Repeat first part of "Sultans of Swing" and learn first solo

1 pomodoroLearn first part of "Sultans of Swing"

Learn first part of "nothing else matters" Testing yourself on Python

Summary – The Ten commandements

• You will not kill except your procrastination• You will rest and sleep• You will do some exercise to avoid taking drugs• You will interleave your practice • You will try to positive and adopt the luckattitude• You will plan• You will do tomato..euh pomodoro !!• You will change your mindset• You will open yourself to new topics• You will count up to ten just to check that yeah there are

ten commandements !!!

Resources – References

• The fabulous coursera training

https://class.coursera.org/learning-003

• http://j2jenkins.com/2013/04/29/interleaved-practice-a-secret-enhanced-learning-technique/

• http://uweb.cas.usf.edu/~drohrer/pdfs/Rohrer&Taylor2007IS.pdf• http://www.salon.com/2014/04/20/ditch_the_10000_hour_rule_why_malcolm_

gladwells_famous_advice_falls_short/• https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/spacing-and-interleaving/• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23932577• http://www.maxisciences.com/sommeil/bienfaits-du-sommeil-dormir-est-

essentiel-pour-nettoyer-le-cerveau_art31111.html• http://www.doctissimo.fr/html/psychologie/bien_memoriser/ps_2051_uit.htm• http://www.doctissimo.fr/html/psychologie/stress_angoisse/articles/12393-

bienfaits-sieste.htm

THANKS TO BARBARA, TERENCE, ALL

THE SPEAKERS AND MY THE PEERS WHO

WILL READ THIS….ENJOY YOUR LIFE AND

KEEP ON LEARNING !!