LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

Powerful Mental Tools to Help You Master Tough Subjects

COVERSHEET Hello! My name is Veronika. I tend to become a

professional lecturer in Economics and an expert of teaching economic subjects. So I have a desire to master and apply techniques of effective learning so as to be able to teach others efficiently. This Project will be definitely useful for my teaching career and as an assistance in learning for my family as well.

In the Project I am going to focus mainly on 3 topics:(1) Key techniques proven by research to help

students learn most efficiently.(2) Procrastination.(3) Memory.

The aim of this Project is to make my contribution in teaching others how to learn efficiently.

COVERSHEET I strongly believe that teaching back is

one of the best ways to learn something really well. Teaching students or immediate explanation of new information to your relatives or friends drives you to the zone where the magic happens!

PART 1KEY TECHNIQUES PROVEN BY

RESEARCH TO HELP STUDENTS LEARN MOST EFFICIENTLY

PART 1KEY TECHNIQUES PROVEN BY RESEARCH TO HELP STUDENTS LEARN MOST EFFICIENTLY

Preface

The real life shows the following facts: Students are very busy category of people having many subjects to

learn during relatively limited period of time. Additionally, they often have part-time jobs, daily routine and tend to spend time for fun as well. Self-organization and time optimization become important issues.

Students like postponing their studies to the last possible moment and then have problems with understanding and memorizing the material and, as a consequence, have panic during tests and exams.

Many students, in some extent, have low confidence in their abilities thinking that they are not at all remarkable. When they get high achievements they do not always consider it as a result of their own efforts and abilities but just as a luck (Imposter syndrome).

I strongly believe that each student has abilities to learn. That is why, in spite of the fact what a subject a lecturer teaches, it is always very important to help students in learning process and inspire them.

PART 1KEY TECHNIQUES PROVEN BY RESEARCH TO HELP

STUDENTS LEARN MOST EFFICIENTLY Firstly, lets get start from useful study

tips:

TO-DO-LISTIn order to organize efficiently your busy days create a planner journal and a weekly list of key tasks. Then each day on another page of your planner journal write the list of tasks that you can accomplish. It is better to write the daily task list the evening before. It has been proven that this helps your subconscious to grapple with the tasks on the list so that you can figure out how to accomplish them.

EAT YOUR FROGS FIRSTDo the hardest things earliest in the day, when you are fresh

CONCENTRATION

Start with the things which need your focused mode of thinking, i.e. high concentration

LEARN LITTLE BY LITTLEDo a little work every day, gradually allowing yourself to grow a neuro-scaffold to hang your thinking on

SLEEPHave enough sleep, 7-9 hours. When you sleep your brain cells shrink. It erases the less important parts of memory and simultaneously strengthens areas that you need or want to remember.

DREAMINGDreaming about what you are studying can substantially enhance your ability to understand. It consolidates your memories into easier to grasp chunks.

NO FEAR OF MISTAKES

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. They are valuable because they also teach us.

Following these basic rules will definitely help you to organize your day more efficiently and

be ready for studying.

LEARNING TECHNIQUES When you are learning something new, especially something that is a

little more difficult, your mind needs to be able to go back and forth between the two different learning modes – diffuse and focused.

In order to focus on your work use a “Pomodoro” technique. Most anybody can focus for 25 minutes. So set a timer for 25 minutes, turn off all interruptions and then focus. And last important things is to give yourself 5 minutes reward (cup of tea, web surfing, etc.). An intense 25 minute work is like your mental gym, followed by some mental relaxation. If the necessary work has not being done, so after working on 4 Pomodoras give yourself a reward for 20-30 minutes. Reward gives you motivation which is, in turn, controlled by a particular chemical substance Dopamine. It has very powerful effect on learning.

During bigger breaks you can move on to the diffuse mode of thinking which allows to look at things broadly from a very different, big-picture perspective. Have a walk, do jogging, make some exercises and or at least change your focus to something different which lets your mind run free. During this time you are able to catch nice ideas from the diffuse mode and then take them into the focus mode and build on them. That is what helps you to learn effectively.

LEARNING TECHNIQUES Use a lively visual metaphor and analogy to

help simplify matters. It helps to glue an idea into your mind because they make a connection to neural structures that are already there. At least it helps you get a sense of what is going on.

“Teaching back” technique. Talk to somebody and try to explain to them your ideas.

Draw concept maps so as to enrich the relationships in the material.

Make notes on the margin while reading a book. Writing out notes that synthesize main ideas is very useful. Do not highlight more than one sentence in a paragraph. Otherwise highlights will be too many and they might be misleading.

LEARNING TECHNIQUES Permanent practice and repetition. In order to

enhance and strengthen the neural connections you are making during the learning process it is important to practice with ideas you are learning. And the more abstract something is, the more important it is to practice in order to bring this ideas into reality for you.

Practice by recalling. After you’ve read the material , simply look away, and see what you can recall from the material you’ve just read.

Practice on ready solutions in order to knit those concepts into your own underlying neural circuitry. Merely glancing at a solution and thinking you truly know it is an illusion of competence in learning.

Recall material when you are outside your usual place of study. So you become independent on the queues from any one given location.

LEARNING TECHNIQUES Retrieval practice via self-testing. Repetition of

information improves learning and memory. If information is repeated in a distributed fashion or spaced over time, it is learned more slowly but is retained for much longer. Self-testing could be done, for example, with the help of flashcards, ANKI program.

A large number of experiments on retrieval practice have been done in the lab (Rawson & Dunlosky (2011) and Roediger & Butler (2011) for recent reviews) and in educational settings. In general, retrieval practice is a powerful means of improving retention in learning foreign language vocabulary, general knowledge facts, visual-spatial materials (such as maps), science or social science in middle school classrooms, statistics and biological basis of behavior at the university level.

LEARNING TECHNIQUES Distribution (spacing and interleaving) of practice in learning

facts and skills. ‘Spaced repetition’ technique involves extending the learning practice over several days instead of repeating something 20 times in one evening. This is like building the brick wall: if you don’t leave time for the mortar to dry, that is, time for the synoptic connections to form and strengthen, you won’t have a very good structure.

Both spacing and interleaving impose a time delay between practice trials with the same repeated material. The primary difference between the two is the type of information that is practiced in between presentations of the same information. For spacing paradigms, the target information to be repeated is simply spaced out in time (say a fact might be studied every 5min) with irrelevant activity during the 5-min periods. For interleaving of practice, students study completely different examples of a given concept or topic that are spaced across time (e.g., in math, students would solve various types of problems all mixed up, so that practice on any one type of problem is spaced but with other types of problems occurring between examples of the same type).

Both spacing and interleaving have positive effects and they are often used together. Although spaced and interleaved presentations of information (or practice on problems) results in slower initial learning, a large body of research shows that it leads to more durable learning and retention.

LEARNING TECHNIQUES Explanatory questioning (elaborative interrogation

and self-explanation) as a study strategy. Elaborative interrogation has strong positive effects when applied to education. Self-explanation involves students monitoring their learning and describing, either aloud or silently (i.e., to themselves), some features of their learning.

The elaborative interrogation and self explanation are related because both strategies encourage or even require students to be active learners, explaining the information to themselves (perhaps rephrasing in language they understand better) or asking themselves why the information is true.

Empirical evidence supports the effectiveness of elaborative interrogation (Pressley, McDaniel, Turnure, Wood, & Ahmad, 1987) and self-explanation (Berry, 1983) in measures of learning, relative to reasonable control conditions. Both strategies slow reading (relative to simply zipping through the text, as some students do), but they improve comprehension and learning.

LEARNING TECHNIQUES

As a summary, here I suggest to look at the results of the research of Dunlosky, J., et al. (2013) on 10 learning most used techniques and evaluations of their relative utility

1.ELABORATIVE INTERROGATION (MODERATE UTILITY):Generating an explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true

2. SELF-EXPLANATION (MODERATE UTILITY): Explaining how new information is related to known information, or explaining steps taken during problem solving

3.SUMMARIZATION (LOW UTILITY): Writing summaries (of various lengths) of to-be-learned texts

4.HIGHLIGHTING/UNDERLINING (LOW UTILITY): Marking potentially important portions of to-be-learned materials while reading

5.KEYWORD MNEMONIC (LOW UTILITY): Using keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal materials

6.IMAGERY FOR TEXT (LOW UTILITY): Attempting to form mental images of text materials while reading or listening

7.REREADING (LOW UTILITY): Restudying text material again after an initial reading

8.PRACTICE TESTING (HIGH UTILITY): Self-testing or taking practice tests over to-be-learned material

9.DISTRIBUTED PRACTICE (HIGH UTILITY): Implementing a schedule of practice that spreads out study activities over time

10.INTERLEAVED PRACTICE (MODERATE UTILITY): Implementing a schedule of practice that mixes different kinds of problems, or a schedule of study that mixes different kinds of material, within a single study session

PART 1 KEY TECHNIQUES PROVEN BY RESEARCH TO HELP STUDENTS LEARN MOST EFFICIENTLY

Note: There may be contexts in which the low utility techniques are useful.

PART 2PROCRASTINATION

PART 2PROCRASTINATION

Preface

Procrastination is a very common thing observed among students.

What procrastination is about? When you look at something that you really rather not do (ex., solving problem, reading a textbook, preparation to a test), it seems that you activate the areas of your brain associated with pain. Your brain looks for a way to stop that negative stimulation by switching your attention to something else (ex., chatting to a friend, surfing the net, eating). You feel easier and happier, but temporarily…

Procrastination is a bad habit which takes a lot of neural resources. It shares features with addiction. Remember, habits are powerful because they create neurological cravings.

There are some useful techniques and tips how to tackle procrastination:

“Pomodoro” technique is one of the most effective.

Set a timer for 25 minutes, turn off all interruptions and then focus.

And last important things is to give yourself 5 minutes reward (cup of tea, web surfing, etc.).

An intense 25 minute work is like your mental gym, followed by some mental relaxation.

If the necessary work has not being done, so after working on 4 Pomodoras give yourself a reward for 20-30 minutes. Reward gives you motivation which is, in turn, controlled by a particular chemical substance Dopamine. Naturally, it has very powerful effect on learning.

“Zombie responses” is the lazy person’s approach. Zombie responses are habitual responses the brain falls into as a result of specific cues. Habit is an energy saver for us. They could be good and bad. Tackling procrastination as a habit consists of 4 steps:

(1) Cue (this is a routine). What we do in response to that cue matters so change reaction to the cue (here and only here you need to apply your will power).

(2) Going into habitual zombie mode. In order to change reaction to the cue you need to have a plan so develop new ritual.

(3) Reward. Find ways to reward good study habits. It helps to create new habits.

(4) Belief in your habits, that you can do it. To change a habit you need to change your underlying belief.

Learn to focus on process not product.

Process means flow of time and the habits and actions associate with that flow of time. Focusing on process allow yourself to back away from judging yourself (ex., am I getting closer to finishing?).

Product is an outcome (ex., homework, finishing a test in time); it often what triggers the pain that causes you to procrastinate.

Create a planner journal and a weekly list of key tasks.

Each day on another page of your planner journal write the list of tasks that you can accomplish.

Think about process oriented tasks and product oriented tasks.

Don’t make the items on the list too big because you’ve got other things to do.

Be realistic of what you can reasonably oat any given time.

Make most important and dislike tasks earlier.

Maintain healthy leisure time along with the hard work. “Finish time” is important in a planner too.

It is better to write the daily task list the evening before. It has been proven that this helps your subconscious to grapple with the tasks on the list so that you can figure out how to accomplish them. It is important to admit that once you make a list it frees your working memory from problem solving.

Get used yourself to no procrastinators’ thinking:

“Quit wasting time and just get on with it, once you get going, you’ll feel better about it”.

Develop a new community.

Hangout with classmates or virtually hangout with book mates who can do philosophy that you too want to develop.

Developing and encouraging culture with like-minded friends can help us remember the values that, in moments of weakness, we tend to forget.

HAPPY EXPERIMENTING!

Make a procrastination test here: http://

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/science-and-sensibility/201006/procrastination-test-uncover-procrastination-patterns

PART 3MEMORY

PART 3MEMORY

Preface

Memory is only a part of learning and developing expertise but it is often an important part.

We have outstanding visual and spatial memory systems.

We have two major memory systems: working memory and long term memory.

Working memory is the part of memory that has to do with what you immediately and consciously processing in your mind. Your working memory is centered out of the prefrontal cortex, although there are also connections to other parts of your brain so you can access long-term memories.

Long term memory is like a storage warehouse where you store fundamental concepts and techniques that are often involved in whatever you are learning about. Long term memory is immense.

There are some useful techniques and advices to improve memory:

“SPACED REPETITION” TECHNIQUE Repetition is needed so your metabolic vampires—

natural dissipating processes—don’t suck the memories away. In order to enhance and strengthen the neural connections you are making during the learning process it is important to practice with ideas you are learning. And the more abstract something is, the more important it is to practice in order to bring this ideas into reality for you.

“Spaced repetition” technique helps with moving something into long term memory. This technique involves repeating what you are trying to retain, but what you want to do is to space this repetition out. Briefly repeat what you want to remember over several days. Perhaps for a few minutes each morning and each evening. Gradually extend time between the repetitions.

“MEMORY PALACE” TECHNIQUE Memory palaces are useful when you need to

relate unrelated items in your mind. This is a way of grouping things you want to remember. It involves calling to mind a familiar place (like the layout of your house) and using it as a sort of visual notepad where you can deposit the concept images that you want to remember.

The first few times you try these techniques it will be difficult and more time consuming, but the longer you use it the easier and quicker you will be able to employ these techniques.

Using these memory techniques allows you to more deeply internalize the information you are using, allowing you to use it much more effectively than if you were to simply try to memorize it by repeating it many times.

MNEMONICS. CARDS. HANDWRITING Create meaningful groups and

abbreviations.

Create Index cards. ANKI Program might be very useful too.

Handwriting helps you to more deeply encode that is convert into neuro memory structures what you are trying to learn.

HAPPY LEARNING!

Be passionate and persistent.

Don’t give up.

Remember, Lady Luck favors those who keeps trying.

THANK YOU FOR READING!

BIBLIOGRAPHY Lecture materials of “Learning how to learn: Powerful mental tools to help

you master tough subjects” by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski.

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K.A., Marsh, E.J., Nathan, & M.J., Willingham, D.T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58.

Rawson, K. A., & Dunlosky, J. (2011). Optimizing schedules of retrieval practice for durable and efficient learning: How much is enough? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140, 283–302.

Roediger, H. L., III, & Butler, A. C. (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15, 20–27.

Pressley, M., McDaniel, M. A., Turnure, J. E., Wood, E., & Ahmad, M. (1987). Generation and precision of elaboration: Effects on intentional and incidental learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 13, 291–300.

Berry, D. C. (1983). Metacognitive experience and transfer of logical reasoning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 35A, 39–49.

Roediger III H.L., Pyc M.A. (2012). Inexpensive techniques to improve education: Applying cognitive psychology to enhance educational practice . Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1, 242-248.