Learning how to learn Project.pptx

Learning how to learn Project.pptx

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  Learn how tolearn in 6 slides BY KOUROSH HASANZADEH
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  The two differentmodes of thinking Focused Mode Diffuse Mode • Intense concentration • Happens when you focus on a subject • Mind is focused on one problem and nothing else • Used for familiar ideas and concepts • Relaxed thinking • Happens when you take a break • Mind works on the problem in the background • Useful when new ideas and approaches are needed One can’t be in both modes at the same time. The mind needs to go back and forth between the two modes to learn something new. Example of focused mode is when you concentrate on a problem. Examples of diffuse mode is when you take a walk, or a shower etc.
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  Procrastination, Memory andSleep Why it happens: When you look at something that you rather not do, you activate the areas of your brain associated with pain, so your brain looks for a way to stop that negative stimulation by switching your attention to somewhere else. Why it’s important: Being awake creates toxic products in the brain, and sleeping helps washing the toxins out, and keeps the brain clean and healthy. The part of memory that has to do with what you’re immediately processing in your mind. Can only hold 4 chunks of information and you need to keep repeating things, so it stays in your working memory How to tackle: The Pomodoro technique: Set a timer to 25 minutes, turn off all interruptions, and then focus. Give yourself a reward when you’re done. (Web surfing, cup of coffee, etc.) Long-term Memory: Working Memory: Is like a storage warehouse. To lodge an item in long-term memory, you need to revisit it a few times so that you can find it later. You can move a new idea from working memory to long-term memory with spaced repetition. How it affects learning: During sleep, the brain tidies up ideas and concepts you’re thinking about and learning. It erases the less important parts of memories and strengthens areas you need or want to remember.
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  Chunking What is chunking? Chunkingis the mental leap that helps you unite bits of information together through meaning. The new logical whole makes the chunk easier to remember and makes it easier to fit the chunk into the larger picture of what you’re learning. Chunks are pieces of information, bound together through meaning or use, and one of the first steps towards gaining expertise in academic topics is to create conceptual chunk. Basically, a chunk means a network of neurons that are used to firing together so you can think a thought or perform an action smoothly and effectively. How to form a chunk? The first step on chunking is simply to focus your undivided attention on the information you want to chunk. The second step in chunking is to understand the basic idea you’re trying to chunk. The third step to chunking is gaining context, so you can see not just how but also when to use this chunk. In summary, chunks are best built with focused attention, understanding the basic idea, and practice to help you gain mastery and a sense of the big picture context. Those are the essential steps in making a chunk. Focused practice and repetition, the creation of strong memory traces, helps you to create chunks. The value of chunks: Basically, what people do to enhance their knowledge and gain expertise is to gradually build the number of chunks in their mind, valuable bits of information they can piece together in new and creative ways. Chunking helps your brain run more efficiently. Once you chunk an idea or concept, you don’t need to remember all the little underlying details. You’ve got the main idea, the chunk, and that’s enough. Chunks can also help you understand new concepts because when you grasp one chunk, it can be related to similar chunks.
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  The dos andthe don’ts • Reread: This approach is actually much less productive than another, very simple technique, called recall. • Recall: After reading the material, simply look away, and see what you can recall from the material. • Solve yourself: You must have the information persisting in your memory if you’re to master the material well enough. • Just look at solution: Glancing at a solution and thinking you know it is a common illusion of competence in learning. • Highlight and underline: Making lots of motions with your hand can fool you into thinking you grasped the concept. • Take notes in a margin: Words or notes in a margin that synthesize key concepts are a very good idea. • Interleave: Practice your choice of different concepts, approach and techniques all in one session. • Deliberate practice: Balance your studies by deliberately focusing on what you find more difficult. • Practice only easy stuff: It can bring the illusion that you’ve mastered the material. • Fall victim to Einstellung: Einstellung is when your initial thought, an idea you’ve already had in mind, or a neural pattern you’ve already developed well and strengthened, prevents a better idea or solution from being found. • Trust the Law of Serendipity: Lady luck favors the one who tries. Just pick one tiny thing out to learn, then another. Keep trying and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results. • Spaced repetition: Using a subsequent, spaced study session to repeat what you’re trying to learn is fine and valuable. It can strengthen and deepen your chunked neuron patterns. • Overlearn: Once you’ve got the basic idea, continuing to hammer away at it during the same session doesn’t strengthen the kinds of long-term memory connections you want. • Just jump into water: Don’t blindly start doing homework without reading the textbook, attending lectures, etc.
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  More on procrastination Habits& zombie mode: Chunking is related to habit. Habit is an energy saver for us. It allows us to free our mind for other types of activities, and you go into this habitual zombie mode. Habits can be good or bad. You can think of habits as having four parts. The first is the cue. This is the trigger that launches you into zombie mode. The second part is the routine. This is your zombie mode, the routine habitual response your brain is used to falling into when it receives the cue. The third is the reward. Every habit develops and continues because it rewards us. The fourth is the belief. Habits have power because of your belief in them. Building good habits: Procrastination is an easy, bad habit to develop because the reward, moving your mind’s focus to something more pleasant happens so quickly and easily. The trick to overriding a habit is to look to change your reaction to a cue. This is the only place where you need to apply willpower. Habits are powerful because they create neurological cravings. It helps to add a new reward of you want to overcome your previous cravings. Only once your brain starts expecting that reward will the important rewiring take place that will allow you to create new habits. A good way to keep perspective about what you’re trying to learn and accomplish is to write a weekly list of key tasks in a planner journal. Remember to eat you frogs first in the morning. Try to wok on the most important and most disliked task first. At least one Pomodoro as soon as you wake up. Process vs Product: It’s perfectly normal to start with a few negative feelings about beginning a learning session. If you find yourself avoiding certain tasks because they make you feel uncomfortable, you can learn to focus on process, not product. Process means the flow of time and the habits and actions associated with that flow of time. Product is an outcome, for example, a homework assignment that you need to finish. To prevent procrastination, you want to avoid concentrating on product, which is what triggers the pain that causes you to procrastinate. Instead, your attention should be on building processes. The small chunks of time you need over days or weeks to work on the problem.
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  More on memory Mnemonics Wehave outstanding visual and special memory systems that can help form part of our long-term memory. To tap into the visual memory system try making a very memorable visual image and representing one key item you want to remember. For something to move on from working memory to longterm memory two things should happen. The idea should be memorable, and it must be repeated. Consolidation is the process of storing new memories in the cortex that can take many years. Whenever you recall a memory, it changes, a process called reconsolidation. Memory palace technique The memory palace technique is a particularly powerful 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 visual notepad where you can deposit the concept images that you want to remember. The memory palace technique is useful for remembering unrelated items such as grocery list. Basically, you’d imagine yourself walking through a place you know well, coupled with shockingly memorable images of what you want to remember. Such memory tools speed up the acquisition of both chunks, and big picture templates helping to transform novices to semi experts much more quickly even in a matter of weeks. Creating groups Another key to memorization is to create meaningful groups that simplify the material. Let’s say you wanted to remember four plants that help ward off vampires; garlic, rose, hawthorn, and mustard. The first letters abbreviate to GRHM. So all you need to do to remember is to use the image of a Graham cracker. It’s much easier to remember numbers by associating them with memorable events. Many disciplines use memorable sentences to help students memorize concepts.
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  Pictures credit andattribution : Focused and diffuse thinking, image © Kevin Mendez, 2014 Procrastination funneling, image © 2014 Kevin Mendez The types of Memory, Metapreponline.com, March 11, 2021 Sleep On It, newsinhealth.nih.gov, April 2013 Chunking Information for Instructional Design, theelearningcoach.com, by Connie Malamed Page 1 Page 2 Page 2 Page 2 Page 3
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  Coursera’s learning howto learn final project assignment A COURSE BY BARBARA OAKLEY AND TERRENCE SEJNOWSKI Thank you for reading