10 Effective Ways to Learn
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Transcript of 10 Effective Ways to Learn
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Effective Ways to Learn
Author Benjamin Wright-Parkin
Date of Writing : 15th May 2011
Introduction
The skill of learning effectively can be very useful in modern life. Just how useful it
can be is demonstrated by the following list of seven possible reasons why learning
skills may be useful:
1) To pass exams which are a requirement for another personal goal.
2) To gain a skill for personal enjoyment (for example playing an instrument).
3) To build self esteem by mastering a skill or subject area.
4) To help your children in their schoolwork.
5) To improve your productivity at work.
6) To win a particular job.7) To gain an understanding of topics in a short time interval in order to better
understand the world we live in.
Methods of Learning
From the author’s personal experience there are ten methods to effectively learn.
Chapter 1 – Breaking a Subject Into Topics
Confidence is an important aspect in the ability to learn. Many subjects of study can
seem overwhelming at first glance. Take for example studying calculus in high school
or university. Calculus consists of many topics: derivatives, integrals, calculus for
physics, trigonometric functions in calculus. By attempting only one topic at a time
the subject can seem much easier.
Chapter 2 – Researching “Idiots Guide To…” Books
The Idiots Guide To… books are of course very popular because for many people
they do not have to time to delve in depth through the literature on a topic in a library
or on the internet. Also, much of the knowledge on certain topics is not published because the market for that topic is not large enough. Books on singing are one topic
that comes to mind. There are plenty of singing tutors available in different cities but
the knowledge they have is not written up in many books. This is a case where
reading the “Idiots Guide To Singing” could be useful for someone who would like to
know about singing but who does not want to pay for lessons.
Chapter 3 – Researching Original Sources
Just because a book is old does not mean it is useless or boring. Many textbooks in a
school or university bookshop are written by academics who have understood the
development of a subject or topic. This assists in their understanding of the area theyare writing about but their knowledge is not included in the textbook they have
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written. A modern theory of education – constructivism – asserts that students learn
by building on top of knowledge they already possess. One outcome of this is the fact
it is much easier to follow a line of reasoning in a subject if the student starts at the
beginning of the argument. One way to do this is to research old books. Two websites
are useful for this – Google Books and Archive.org. Once a student reads the writings
of the original authors who developed a subject they can gain understanding of themodern state of the subject.
Chapter 4 – Teaching Others
Studies have shown that teaching others a topic will actually help the teacher learn a
subject better than the person they are teaching – strange but true.
Chapter 5 – Completing a Project
Completing a working project on a topic can provide feedback on a learners learning.
If you were to simply complete an exam on a topic there is no real feedback (other than a grade). Having to apply knowledge to a real world problem provides feedback
on a students understanding. If they don’t understand a topic they will fail in building
something which uses that knowledge.
Chapter 6 – Asking “Dumb” Questions
Many so called experts do not understand the topic they assert they understand. Being
able to complete a degree in a subject may cause a person to believe they understand a
set of topics. However it is sometimes only when a student asks a different question to
the ones they have encountered that they realise they cannot use their knowledge to
answer it. So ask those dumb questions, many times the teacher will realise their own
short comings in learning!
Chapter 7 – Notetaking
This might sound boring but taking notes as you read or listen to someone teach can
slow down your thinking (through the act of writing) and lead to better cognition and
memory retainment.
Chapter 8 – Use a Planner
Who really likes to use a diary or wall planner? Not many from the author’s
experience. However, there is a limited amount to time to use for learning, and that
amount is probably a lot less than you think. If each subject in your university course
has one textbook associated with it, then as a rule of thumb you will need to complete
the study of each chapter in two hours. That means one hour of reading and one hour
of answering end-of-chapter questions. It really is not much time, so writing in
milestones for reading, questions, tutorials, assignments and exam revisions is vital
unless you have the genius brainpower of Stephen Hawking, which not many of us
do.
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Chapter 9 – Look after Your Physical and Mental Health
This may seem another boring method. However, if your body or brain is struggling
to cope with everyday life then there will not be many resources for learning topics
which are unrelated to everyday life.
Chapter 10 – Using a Whiteboard
Writing on a large surface such as a whiteboard can aid in pictorial learning for
students. With arrows, diagrams and pictures they can organise the learning material
logically and better recall facts from their brain.
Chapter 11 – Gaining Confidence
Completing a small section of work to a very high standard and demonstrating
aptitude in this one area can be useful to gaining confidence. For example, the student
may be learning the piano. Both melody and chords constitute the playing of onesong. The student may focus on learning only the melodic notes of the song. After
mastering this they may perform just the melody of the song for their famliy/friends
and receive positive feedback. They can then learn the chords for the song and master
these. Finally, they may combine the melodic and chord components of the song to
produce the final song. If the student attempted to play with both hands initially (the
melody and the chord components) they may have become disheartened because there
was a long period of practice before receiving positive feedback from their
family/friends.
Chapter 12 – Being “Put on the Spot”
One difference between operating in a workplace compared with a study environment
is the emphasis put on the efficiency of a workers use of time compared with a
student's. A student is using their own time to understand a concept in their studies.
Understanding a complex idea, such as Einstein's theory of relativity may require
large amounts of time. Once the student has spent this time their knowledge will
enable them to apply their knowledge to many problems (developing satellite
positioning systems for example). They are not being paid to learn so no one is on
their back to show results from their learning. The students will likely sit an exam to
test their knowledge but this in a case where they are not being asked to develop a
unique solution to a problem. In an assignment they may be asked to develop a uniquesolution to a new problem but they can spend as much of their own time on the
assignment as they wish. They will receive a grade based on the quality of their work,
not the quality of their work and the time taken to produce the work. Because of this a
student may feel they have a solid grasp of concepts when they actually do not. Once
they graduate into a paid position they will often be shocked by how little they
actually know. Their boss will be now paying them to work to a strict timeframe. If
they cannot produce in the timeframe which the industry in which they are working
expects then of course they will be out of a job soon. Some may argue that the former
student's problems may be partly due to not “knowing how to learn” and blame the
learning institution. However, the student must know how to learn well if they have
passed their course. What they are lacking is the ability to learn effectively with
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respect to their time spent. You as the reader may come up with ideas to be “put on
the spot” to learn material in a set time period.
Chapter 13 – Keep at Things
Think of the glacial movement of the world's continents over geological time. It hastaken hundreds of millions of years for the world to take its present shape. In a similar
way, remaining on task with an area of study will yield results in the end. Just keep at
it!
Chapter 14 – See the Point in what you are Studying
There is nothing as disheartening as performing a task for countless hours with no
meaningful result, just ask sweatshop workers! If the subject you are studying appears
to have no point to your career path then attempt to generalise the courses utility. For
example, a student may be required to study a mathematics subject in their final year
of high school. They may wish to work as a chef when they graduate and so see little point in mastering the subject. However, if they rationalise that they can learn how to
master a complex and abstract subject area they may be more motiviated. They may
gain skills to assist with the complex subject of writing a business plan when they
wish to open a new restaurant.
Chapter 15 – Emulate Famous Students
Often as children we like looking up to famous people. Maybe we want to be a soccer
star or a famous author. As teenagers and adults we realise the limits in life. However,
who says we must be the best at something? If you simply aim to be slightly worse
than a famous person in your studies then you will likely earn money from the subject
area you are studying and find enjoyment from it. For example, if your subject is
physics and you want a career in this area, you may emulate Einstein and set a goal to
understand as much physics as he did. With the internet and modern libraries this is
quite possible to do throughout a science degree majoring in physics. You may not be
good enough to become famous as Einstein was, but you can probably still go into
teaching or academia and earn money for your family. And, anyway, chances are you
will have a better famlily life than Einstein did anyway, as his was not ideal. And isn't
that more important?
Chapter 16 – Ignore Distractions
Let us be honest, there are always going to be distractions. If you want to learn
something do not give into the thinking of “I'll just do _______, then I'll get around to
studying some more”. This is not to say that you should not reward yourself with a
break, but just be aware that this thinking will inevitably lead to no study being done.