WHY LEARNING HOW TO LEARN IS IMPORTANT TO ME

By Kharitonov Mikhail

What do you need to know to read this presentation

■ There are 2 modes of thinking – focused mode, when your concentrate all your attention on

material you are learning and diffused mode, when your are relaxed and didn’t focused on

anything. Researches shown that in diffused mode man can solve a problem with which he

stuck in focused mode, cause neurons can make new connections in diffused mode (1), i.e.

your brain connects your knowledge in a new way

■ Chunks are algorithms connected to one simple name in your mind – for example, you don’t

think how to walk or how to dress yourself, although it is difficult algorithms to a child.

http://psychology.about.com/ gives next definition to memory chunks: “A term referring to the

process of taking individual units of information (chunks) and grouping them into larger units.

Probably the most common example of chunking occurs in phone numbers. For example, a

phone number sequence of 4-7-1-1-3-2-4 would be chunked into 471-1324. Chunking is

often a useful tool when memorizing large amounts of information. By separating disparate

individual elements into larger blocks, information becomes easier to retain and recall”

■ Memory palace is a set of chunks connected together by a place or other analogy – learning

professionals use them to remember sets of numbers, cards or other information fast

■ Pomodoro techique requires you to avoid any distraction while focusing on your task in

current period of time – standardly 25 minutes

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Everybody read this course tips about 10 rules of good studying.

But what do they mean for you? On next slides I’ll try to answer

what do they mean for me

■ Use recall

■ Test yourself

■ Chunk your problems

■ Space your repetition

■ Alternate different problem-solving techniques during

your practice

■ Take breaks

■ Use explanatory questioning and simple analogies

■ Focus

■ Eat your frogs first

■ Make a mental contrast

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Recalling is useful practice which can train your mind to recall most

important things – everything you want to remember. Also it’s

harder to recall thing you don’t understand – so it helps you learn

■ Recalling technique requires you to recall in your mind material you’ve

just read. Researches (2) shown that recalling technique is much more

effective then re-reading or concept – mapping. Article summary tell us:

“Put down those science text books and work at recalling information

from memory. That's the shorthand take away message of new research

that says practicing memory retrieval boosts science learning far better

than elaborate study methods”

■ The best example of my instinctive practices of recalling was learning

texts for actors courses – I’ve tried to learn them 1st day and then

recalled them in memory everyday and re-learned if I’d forgot

something. Later I noticed that to relearn text I don’t need much time –

usually I had to read text only once to remember it

■ Now I’m trying to make recalling material to be a routine for me. To say

true, I think I should include this in daily plans

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The picture is taken from: http://www.ign.com/

I can truly say that I’m not fan of testing myself continuously. When

I learn something – I test myself. But it can be useful to test

yourself often to keep your mind in good working condition

■ “Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know, according to new

research. It actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques”

(3). Some criticism in this article is devoted to the fact that not all tests is good to learn – but it doesn't

look like a problem in our Internet era where you can find a tons of tests

■ Only thing where I like to test my skills is PC games. Once I learn something, which can be useful in

game – I test it in game.

■ Picture from IT sphere shows that any learning process can be divided into blocks where you can test

what you’ve got. If I like games – then I should create some kind of game with rewards to make myself

love tests. Or find some kind of organization like Khan Academy which provides many interesting sets of

tests (i.e. you can try it many times and you’ll see different questions and will bot be bored)

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The picture is taken from: http://computerbulk.wordpress.com/

Chunking is a thing which I still need to understand better. Although

I can name many chunks which I use in everyday life I should find

an efficient way for myself to create a new ones

■ Picture shows chunks which are usual to many people – work, food, shopping, parties, plans and so on.

There are many easier chunks like wash the hands, walk, wear clothes, etc.

■ My best chunks are coming from work – for example how to find necessary information in Internet or

from my leisure time – how to play in some PC game. Importance of chunks is not only in the fact that

you are doing things automatically and can free your working memory, but also in the fact that with

chunks you can gain a mastery in your skills. For example, you can find basics of web-search easily, but

professional will find information easier, faster and better then non-professional

■ I hope that slides of this presentation will work to make chunks for me – I want to use and improve this

presentation to remember myself how important is to learn how to learn and what techniques I already

know and using (or not using)

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The picture is taken from: http://blog.thinkbuzan.com/

Spaced repetition seems to be not very likeable practice from the

1st view – you need to get a habit of doing this continuously in order

to make it work. But in return you'll get a better memory

■ Spacing repetition is a technique when you first learn something and then re-learn it over growing periods of

time (first days, then weeks) until you’ll made a chunk in your memory. The picture above shows an example of

spaced repetition technique where approximate forgetting curves become more flat after each repetition.

■ Article (4) says: “gambler/financier Edward O. Thorp harnessed “spaced learning” when he was a physics grad

student “in order to be able to work longer and harder”8, and Robert Craig set multiple records on the quiz show

Jeopardy! 2010-2011 in part thanks to using Anki to memorize chunks of a collection of >200,000 past

questions9; a later Jeopardy winner, Arthur Chu, also used spaced repetition” - this may be the key to chunks

understanding and creating for me, cause that way all of my known chunks were formed

■ Spaced repetition is always a good thing for me, especially together with other practices – self-testing or

deliberate practice

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The picture is taken from: http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition

Alternating different problem-solving techniques during your

practice will help you to find a better way to learn for yourself and to

keep your mind in good shape

■ This technique means that you should change your approach to solving a problem after some time or after few tries – no

matter if previous approach was working or not. It will give you a fresh view on a problem as minimum, and better trained

mind and better decision as a max

■ Picture shows somebody’s vision on problem solving in corporate world. I have chosen this example cause it show that

you can challenge each method and find another one.

■ I understand this learning tip very well because I’m master of management. There are many theories of management, but

in reality, working in management consulting, I realized that you should put situation you are analyzing on the first place

and techniques and theories on 2nd – i.e. you shouldn’t have any theoretical solution before you end analysis

■ The alternating different problem-solving techniques during your practice is also important because of new neurons which

is born in your hippocampus while doing new, which will help you to remember the material

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The picture is taken from: http://vscet-cse.blogspot.ru/

Taking breaks is the practice which I love. Even after a short break

you can better analyze a new information. Also breaks helps us to

find a new way of solving a problem

■ This technique is so obvious for me that I’ll take a help from New York Times article (5):

■ “Taking regular breaks from mental tasks improves productivity and creativity — and that skipping breaks can

lead to stress and exhaustion”

■ “Try to take a break before reaching the absolute bottom of your mental barrel. Symptoms of needing time to

recharge include drifting and daydreaming”

■ “There is no need to take a break if you’re on a roll. Working over an extended period can be invigorating — if

it’s your choice. What drains your energy reserves most is forcing yourself to go on

■ All these rules are right for me. If after working more then for half an our I feel that I need a pause – I do a

pause. When you are creating a slides, while this pause you can find a great idea for slide you should do

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The picture is taken from: http://es.ninjagofanon.wikia.com/

Using of explanatory questioning and simple analogies are the

techniques which I never used before intentionally. But it is

necessary for creating ‘memory palaces’, as researches show (6)

■ Memory palace is a set of chunks connected together by a place or other analogy – learning professionals use them to

remember sets of numbers, cards or other information fast

■ There are many articles in Internet on this topic. For example this one (7) says:

■ “Although critically limited by the information included in the knowledge base, analogical reasoning can act as a

mechanism for enriching, modifying, and radically restructuring the knowledge base itself”

■ This mean we should use analogies to enrich our knowledge base and our knowledge base to enrich analogies

■ I should start with trying to create a ‘memory palaces’ from the places I like or the games or books I like – these are the

things I can forget easily. Also I had found useful links in future reading advices for people who were creating there own

“memory palaces” having no theory as help – I should learn their histories to help myself

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The picture is taken from: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/analogy//

For me eating my frogs first didn’t work. I’m from people who starts

with easiest problems while their brain starts to work. But that

doesn’t mean I leave hard problems t the last moment

■ This techniques mean you should read all questions you have to answer and choose the hardest one, then

trying to solve it until you get stuck – and then move to the easy one, making some part of your brain work on

the hardest question while you are solving easy one. After some time you should return to the hardest question

until you get stuck again – and so on.

■ This mean that knowing how your brain work on challenges is very important thing, cause you should solve the

hardest problems having a highest brain activity, before you get tired. And while your brain is resting you can

automatically solve easy problems

■ “Although critically limited by the information included in the knowledge base, analogical reasoning can act as a

mechanism for enriching, modifying, and radically restructuring the knowledge base itself”

■ This mean we should use analogies to enrich our knowledge base and our knowledge base to enrich analogies

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Making a mental contrast shouldn’t lead you to concentrate on

result while focusing on something. But you should have a dream

which will motivate you to learn

■ This technique means you should have and always remember your big dream – get a better work, change your

life and so on. It will motivate you to learn better and make learning process easier for you.

■ This article (8) shows us the importance of daydreaming. From it contests we can conclude that while dreaming

you go into relaxed diffuse mode of thinking, where new neuron connection and new concepts is born

■ For me, having a dream is switching on a global diffuse mode – i.e. when you know what do you want, you’ll

notice even slight possibilities. For men with dreams there are nothing impossible in the world

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The picture is taken from: http://ilquotidianoinclasse.quotidiano.net/

From course techniques I can name few other rules of learning for

myself, which I will describe on next slodes

■ Don’t forget to sleep enough

■ Use deliberate practice and interleaving

■ Use pomodoro technique and day

planning to avoid procrastination

■ Find a group to learn together

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Good sleep is necessary to your brain to get out toxins, which will

male your mind activity less productive

■ This technique tells that you must sleep enough before important challenge

■ This article (9) tells us:

■ “During sleep, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain increases dramatically, washing away harmful waste

proteins that build up between brain cells during waking hours”

■ And this article (10) tells us that although some research say that you have to sleep 7 or 8 hours, it depends on

your condition and best way to find your sleeping ours is to perform test on yourself

■ My experience shows that I should sleep 8-9 hours before some important challenge to get all my mind

recourses prepared

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The picture is taken from: http://funny-pictures.picphotos.net/

Analyzing my previous performance I found that I had best results

when I used deliberate practice and interleaving together

■ Practice is like testing yourself in real world, not on paper. It can bring you more problems,

but it will surely bring you more experience. Interleaving can help you to start each practice

session with fresh mind and new ideas

■ In my work, I usually used such technique to create slides – even when you have all

necessary information, you still need to find a best way to present it, and here interleaving

can help a lot, making part of your brain work in diffuse mode and other part to find a

decisions in new material you are reading

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Using pomodoro technique and day planning should help me to

avoid procrastination. I’m not sure, but I have to try

■ I am currently stuck with how can I avoid distraction working in Internet while learning, it’s the hardest

way of plan. Seems I have to write myself web-pages which I can visit and don’t visit others. Pomodoro

technique can also help to concentrate on task

■ Day planning is a thing which I hate the most – seems because of feeling myself not free with plans. But

I can’t undermine the usefulness of “mind zombies” – the fact that your mind starts to work on plan since

you’ve created it, and to actual moment of doing task you can already have a way to perform a task

better and faster

■ I hope that effective use of these techniques will minimize my procrastination times – or, for example, I

will plan some time for interleaving to make my procrastination work for my learning targets

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Finding a group for learning together is a task for future. My

socializing skills is not too high, but coursera and meetup gives

possibilities to everyone

■ This technique tells us that we can avoid many of illusions of learning and learn more effectively with

group of people because there will face fresh ideas, fresh and different views on problems and so on.

■ Course lection tells that group work can help you to perform many techniques better: test yourself,

create analogies, practice, chunk your problems and so on.

■ But you also should remember, that once your group become informal and creates a group psychology

– you should find a new learning group

■ Also, as I think, your learning group – both formal and informal - can help you with career path

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Why it is important to search for new learning techniques? To

answer this question, I can simply sum p previous slides

■ Alternating different problem-solving techniques during

your practice will help you to find a better way to learn

for yourself and to keep your mind in good shape –

this is true to learning techniques too

■ While searching for new techniques you’ll recall ones

you already know

■ New neurons is born in your hippocampus while doing

new, which will help you to remember the material

■ Interleaving can help you to start each practice

session with fresh mind and new ideas

■ While searching for technique you can remember your

dream which made you learn new

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(1) Brigid Schulte, (May 16, 2014). "For a more productive life, daydream." CNN

Opinion.

(2) National Science Foundation, (January 21, 2011). Learning science : Actively

recalling information from memory beats elaborate study methods

(3) Pam Belluck, (January 20, 2011). To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a

Test

(4) http://www.gwern.net/ . Spaced repetition

(5) Phyllis Korkki, (June 16, 2012). To Stay on Schedule, Take a Break

(6) Chloe Cornish, (January 27, 2014). How to 'Sherlock' your degree: The art of

building a memory palace

(7) Stella Vosniadou, (December 14, 1988). Analogical reasoning as a mechanism

in knowledge acquisition: a developmental perspective

(8) Brigid Schulte, (May 16, 2014). For a more productive life, daydream

(9) Jon Hamilton, (October 17, 2013). Brains Sweep Themselves Clean Of Toxins

During Sleep

(10) Sumathi Reddy, (July 21, 2014). Why Seven Hours of Sleep Might Be Better

Than Eight

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THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!