Learning how to learn - Topics
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The document discusses two modes of thinking, focused and diffuse, highlighting their importance in effective learning and problem-solving. It emphasizes the need for daily practice, strategic breaks, and techniques like the Pomodoro method to enhance focus and prevent procrastination. Additionally, it provides ten rules for effective studying, including recall, self-testing, and maintaining a balanced study approach.
Learning how to learn - Topics
- 1. Learning how to Learn Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects Final Assignment - Course Summary Giuliano Sposito http://google.com/+GiulianoSposito
- 2. The Two Types of Thinking
- 4. Focused Mode The Focused Mode is what many people think learning "is" it's when you are intently focuses on a problem, trying to find the solution. When using the focused mode, your brain makes quick and similar attempts at solving the problem. As you can see in the image, It can be compared to a pinball machine with bumpers that are very close together. The focused mode is often used when your brain already had an ingrained mental path, on how to solve a particular problem; as can be seen by the black path on the focused mode image.
- 5. Diffuse Mode The Diffuse mode on the other hand, is useful when you are working on a problem you have never seen before, or are having trouble understanding. When you are using the diffuse mode of thinking your brain can jump from idea to idea, concept to concept. The diffuse mode of thinking is something that many people have trouble using effectively. The best way to use the diffuse mode of thinking to help you solve a difficult problem is to go do something else for a while that isn't to mentally taxing, such as going for a walk or a drive.
- 6. Effective Learning Another time your brain naturally falls into the diffuse mode of thinking is when you are sleeping. Because of this it can be helpful to look at the problem you are working on right before you go to bed for the night. You will often find that you will wake up with a whole new way to look at the problem. Effective learning takes advantage of both modes of learning, by going a far as you can in the focused mode, and when you get stuck, dropping into the diffuse mode to help you change the way you are looking at the problem, then back to the focused mode.
- 7. Practice makes permanent Practice makes permanent Learn is to create a neural pattern, so, to building a strong neural structure you have to pratice a little every day. Neurons become linked together through repeated use. The more abstract something is, the more important it is to practice in order to bring those ideas into reality for you. Study hard and take breaks between to help the neurons to connect each other Sleep is fundamental in the sedimentation process
- 8. During this time of seeming relaxation, your brain's diffuse mode has a chance to work away in the background and help you out with your conceptual understanding. Your neural mortar in some sense has a chance to dry. If you don't do this, if instead you learn by cramming, your knowledge base will look more like this, all in a jumble with everything confused, a poor foundation.
- 9. Procrastination is like an addiction
- 10. Procrastination shares features with addiction: It offers temporary excitement and relief from sometimes boring reality. It's easy to fool yourself for example into thinking that the best use of any given moment is. Surfing the web for information instead of actually reading the textbook or doing the assigned problems. You start to tell yourself stories. For example you might tell yourself that organic chemistry requires spacial reasoning, your weakness, so of course you're doing very poorly at it. You devise irrational excuses that sound superficially reasonable like if I study too far ahead of the test I'll forget the material. (1) We procrastinate about things that make us a little bit uncomfortable. You think about something you don't particularly like and the pain centers of your brain light up (2) So you shift and narrow your focus of attention to something more enjoyable. (3) This causes you to feel better. At least temporarily but sadly the long term effects of habitual avoidance can be nasty. When you put off your studies it can become even more painful to think about studying it.
- 11. infograph by: Mengdi Zhang http://www.mengdizhang.com/ http://www.mengdizhang.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/infographic_procrastination.png infograph by: Mengdi Zhang http://www.mengdizhang.com/ http://www.mengdizhang.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/infographic_procrastination.png
- 12. Pomodoro Technique It was invented by Francesco Cirillo, in the early 1980's. Pomodoro is Italian for tomato. The timer you use often looks like a tomato and really, a timer is all there is to this elegant little technique. All you need to do, is set a timer to 25 minutes, turn off all interruptions, and then focus. That's it! Most anybody can focus for 25 minutes. The only last important thing is to give yourself a little reward when you're done. A few minutes of web surfing, a cup of coffee, or a bite of chocolate, even just stretching or chatting mindlessly, allowing your brain to enjoyably change its focus for a while. You'll find that using the Pomodoro technique is very effective. It's a little like doing an intense 25 minute workout at a mental gym. Followed by some mental relaxation.
- 13. Change a Habit “Harnessing your zombies to help you” Harnessing your zombie powers of habit to help you avoid procrastination while minimizing your use of willpower.
- 14. flowchart source: Charles Duhigg - The Power of Habit http://charlesduhigg.com/flowchart-for-changing-habits/ 4 The trick to overriding a habit is to look to change your reaction to a cue. Your brain wants to automatically go into this routine when you've gotten your cue. So this, is the reaction clue where you must actively focus on rewiring your old habit. The key to rewiring is to have a plan. The most important part of changing your procrastination habit is the belief that you can do it. You may find that when the going gets stressful. You long to fall back into old, more comfortable habits. Belief that your new system works is what can get you through.
- 15. 10 Rules of Good Studying
- 16. 1. Use recall After you read a page, look away and recall the main ideas. Highlight very little, and never highlight anything you haven’t put in your mind first by recalling. Try recalling main ideas when you are walking to class or in a different room from where you originally learned it. An ability to recall—to generate the ideas from inside yourself—is one of the key indicators of good learning.
- 17. 2. Test yourself On everything. All the time. Flash cards are your friend.
- 18. 3. Chunk your problems Chunking is understanding and practicing with a problem solution so that it can all come to mind in a flash. After you solve a problem, rehearse it. Make sure you can solve it cold—every step. Pretend it’s a song and learn to play it over and over again in your mind, so the information combines into one smooth chunk you can pull up whenever you want.
- 19. 4. Space your repetition Spread out your learning in any subject a little every day, just like an athlete. Your brain is like a muscle—it can handle only a limited amount of exercise on one subject at a time.
- 20. 5. Alternate different problem-solving techniques during your practice Never practice too long at any one session using only one problem-solving technique—after a while, you are just mimicking what you did on the previous problem. Mix it up and work on different types of problems. This teaches you both how and when to use a technique. (Books generally are not set up this way, so you’ll need to do this on your own.) After every assignment and test, go over your errors, make sure you understand why you made them, and then rework your solutions. To study most effectively, handwrite (don’t type) a problem on one side of a flash card and the solution on the other. (Handwriting builds stronger neural structures in memory than typing.) You might also photograph the card if you want to load it into a study app on your smartphone. Quiz yourself randomly on different types of problems. Another way to do this is to randomly flip through your book, pick out a problem, and see whether you can solve it cold.
- 21. 6. Take breaks It is common to be unable to solve problems or figure out concepts in math or science the first time you encounter them. This is why a little study every day is much better than a lot of studying all at once. When you get frustrated with a math or science problem, take a break so that another part of your mind can take over and work in the background.
- 22. 7. Use explanatory questioning and simple analogies Whenever you are struggling with a concept, think to yourself, How can I explain this so that a ten-year-old could understand it? Using an analogy really helps, like saying that the flow of electricity is like the flow of water. Don’t just think your explanation—say it out loud or put it in writing. The additional effort of speaking and writing allows you to more deeply encode (that is, convert into neural memory structures) what you are learning.
- 23. 8. Focus Turn off all interrupting beeps and alarms on your phone and computer, and then turn on a timer for twenty-five minutes. Focus intently for those twenty- five minutes and try to work as diligently as you can. After the timer goes off, give yourself a small, fun reward. A few of these sessions in a day can really move your studies forward. Try to set up times and places where studying— not glancing at your computer or phone—is just something you naturally do.
- 24. 9. Eat your frogs first Do the hardest thing earliest in the day, when you are fresh.
- 25. 10. Make a mental contrast Imagine where you’ve come from and contrast that with the dream of where your studies will take you. Post a picture or words in your workspace to remind you of your dream. Look at that when you find your motivation lagging. This work will pay off both for you and those you love!
- 26. Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects Learning how to Learn Giuliano Sposito http://google.com/+GiulianoSposito
Editor's Notes
- #3: The first, and most important thing to understand about how you learn are the 2 different modes that you brain uses when learning.
- #8: When you're learning, what you want to do is study something. Study it hard by focusing intently. Then take a break or at least change your focus to something different for awhile.