Learn better in 7 simple steps
“The capacity to learn is a gift;
The ability to learn is a skill;
The willingness to learn is a choice.”
— Brian Herbert, an American author
We will focus on the ability to learn. Before we do that, let me share a popular anecdote that illustrates why the capacity and the willingness to learn can be very valuable in life.
Knowing where to tap
There is a great story that illustrates how learning can be valuable. Literally so in dollars. Once there was a shipowner. He had one large ship which generated a lot of wealth. One day, the ship’s engine failed. Many mechanics tried to fix the engine, but couldn’t succeed. Finally, the shipowner decided to call in a well-known expert.
The expert arrived with a large bag of tools with him. He immediately went to work and inspected the engine from top to bottom.
After examining many things over, the expert pulled out a hammer from his tool kit. He tapped on some metal parts. Then he asked the ship’s captain to start the ship. The engine came alive. It was fixed!
The shipowner asked the expert for his fee. The expert replied, “That would be ten thousand dollars.” The shipowner was taken aback. He exclaimed, “What? You hardly did anything! Please provide me with an itemized bill.”
The expert pulled out his bill book and pen, wrote some things on it and handed it to the shipowner. The shipowner saw that the bill read:
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
Tapping with a hammer ……………………………. $ 1
Knowing where to tap …………………………. $ 9,999
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
Indeed, learning can prove to be valuable!
How to develop the skill to learn?
Now the question is how can we develop the skill? Let me share with you seven steps to learning effectively and efficiently, which I have gradually picked up and have been practicing for a number of years. In fact, now I have also been instructing my daughters to use these steps. Since they too have found them useful, I am sharing them with all of you.
Here we go.
1. Take a picture walk
When you want to learn some new study material, begin with taking a picture walk of that material. Our visual memory is among the strongest. So, a picture walk creates hooks in our visual memory where we can later “hang” the material that we learn.
To do this, look through the table of contents, objectives of a chapter, headings and pictures in that chapter, key terms defined along the margins or in boxes and the summary at the end. Finally, skim through the questions at end of the chapter. Of course, use what is provided and not spend time creating it. For example, if there are no objectives at the beginning or a summary at the end, don’t worry. Move on.
2. Read with speed
After you take a picture walk, read the material with speed. One mistake that I often made through my school and college years, was to read too slowly. Later in my life, as I was preparing for my MBA entrance tests, I learnt techniques to more than double my average reading speed. It is usually measured in words per minute (wpm) and varies at various stages of educational development. Since then, I have further increased my reading speed by learning some more techniques. Now, I read at speed, except when enjoying some beautiful language in a piece of fiction or reflecting on some deep thoughts in a piece of spiritual literature.
How to read with speed merits a separate article, so let me point to one here. It begins with getting rid of subvocalization (speaking the words in our head) and reading multiple words at once, just like in our initial literacy journey, we had moved from reading each alphabet to a bunch of them together as a word.
3. Chunk the information
A chunk is a collection of basic units that have been grouped together and stored in a person’s memory. These chunks can be retrieved easily due to their coherent grouping. The items are more easily remembered as a group than as the individual items themselves.
Chunking can be applied in a number of ways, including 1) by categorizing — for example, by dividing learning kinematics in physics into categories such as motion in one dimension, motion in two dimensions, circular motion, etc., and 2) by sequencing — for example learning design thinking as a sequence of steps such as empathize, define, ideate, etc., among others. One important point to keep in mind is that you should understand both chunking down, i.e. how a particular topic is divided into sub-topics and chunking up, i.e. how the different sub-topics relate to each other for the overall topic, for effective learning.
4. Recall the material
You took up some material to learn and applied the first three steps of taking a picture walk, reading with speed and chunking the information. After you have done that, how do you know how much have you learnt? This is where it is important to recall the material as the next step.
After learning a topic, close the book or whatever material you are using, and try to recall all the chunks of information learnt. You don’t need to memorize the material verbatim. Rather it is important to recall all the chunks of information and the relationship among them. You might feel strained and uncomfortable, but this process stimulates your mind, and organizes the new learning into your long-term memory. Do keep in mind that it is not a one-time effort, but something that you will need to return to in step 6.
5. Apply the learning
“Use it or lose it,” is a popular adage which well applies to learning. Whether it is a motor skill such as swimming or cycling or a mental skill such as solving equations or thinking of new design ideas, it is important to apply what you have learnt to practice.
In a formal course of study, you could apply the learning first of all to solve questions and problems given with a chapter. In other places, where you are not provided with questions to solve, you must still pick up exercises where you can apply your learning. That way you can learn more effectively and the learning will stay with you for longer.
6. Revise at intervals
Have you ever had the experience where while you were reading some material, it all made sense, but days later when you had to explain it to someone else, you struggled to recall it? I certainly have. Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve describes the decrease in ability of the brain to retain memory over time. We forget new material learnt at a very fast rate as shown in the Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve.
To overcome our natural process of quickly forgetting what we learn, we need to engage in regular revision at intervals. Recall the material just as we discussed in step 4. Like exercising your body, this is something that you will need to keep doing at regular internals for as long as you want to retain the material.
7. Teach someone else
Richard Feynman was an American theoretical physicist, well known for his contributions to quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics and particle physics. He is also known as the “Great Explainer” for his innovative methods of teaching physics to his students. Derived from his methods is the so-called “Feynman Technique.” The gist of the technique is to make notes on a subject in such a manner that you can teach that subject to a child or a layman using simple language. When you teach someone else and do so devoid of jargon, you can assess your true understanding of the subject and your knowledge gaps. Once you realize your knowledge gaps, go back and plug those gaps using the first six steps described above till you are ready to teach the subject to a child.
When the student is ready …
For those of you who would like to go further in enhancing your skill to learn, there are many good books and courses that I could recommend. The best that I have taken is “Learning How to Learn” by Barbara Oakley and
Dr. Terrence Sejnowski. Happy learning!
