When learning new ideas or concepts, most of us learn as we did in high school and college.  We listen to a lecture or podcast, read a book or textbook, highlight the key ideas, and then re-read our highlights as we cram to review the material right before a test.

Continuing research in learning and how the brain works has proven (beyond a reasonable doubt) that this method of learning is ineffective and largely a waste of time!

So, how can we learn better…

Background

A key saying in brain and learning research is:

Neurons that fire together, wire together

When neurons fire together, the connection between the neurons gets stronger creating a long-lasting connection between the neurons.  This is called long-term potentiation and is required for memory and understanding.

To learn well we need to create this long-term potentiation.  But this cannot be done passively (by reading the material alone) nor can it be done within a short period of time.  Learning requires actively working with the material over time.  As Doug Larsen, a Professor of Neurology, writes:

Making the brain work is actually what seems to make a difference – bringing in more complex networks, then using those circuits repeatedly, which makes them more robust.

Ways to Learn Better

Test Ourselves on the Material Before We Learn It.  As counterintuitive as it sounds, by testing ourselves before we learn the material or by trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution, we get our mind primed to learn, we recognize what we already know, and we realize what we don’t know and must learn.  All of this makes us more engaged and interested in the upcoming learning.

Ignore the Idea of Our Unique Learning Style.  Research continues to show that learning style just reflects the way we like to learn; it does not reflect how we best learn.  In fact, learning in our preferred learning style is usually counter productive as we think that we know (the illusion of knowledge) because it appears to come easier to us.  The research shows that we learn better when we embrace difficulties in our learning.  As quoted in the book, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning:

Learning is deeper and more durable when it’s effortful.

Retrieval Practice – recalling facts or concepts from memory – is most effective.  The more we work with the facts or concepts the more that we create the robust connections between the neurons and long-term potentiation.  Retrieval practice comes in many forms:

• Self-testing
• Pausing periodically to ask ourselves questions about the material
• Summarizing in our own words
• Connecting the facts or concepts with our prior knowledge
• Creating a metaphor or visual image of the learning material
• Doing the homework
• Or (best of all) explaining the facts or concepts to someone else. 

As a one-time teacher, I can vouch for the truth of the saying:

You never fully learn a subject until you teach it.

Space Out and Mix Up Our Studying.  Cramming may have some benefit to passing a test on the next day; but it is entirely ineffective at creating long term memory and understanding.  With cramming, we are stuffing ideas into our short-term memory without creating the required long-term potentiation needed for full understanding.  To create the long-term potentiation, we should space out our retrieval practice over time and mix up, or interleave, our studying with other subjects or ideas.  Thus, our retrieval requires more cognitive effort and deepens the connections.  Importantly, as we gain more expertise in a subject, we should go back and re-test ourselves on the material (or work on problems) that we may have learned several weeks before to further strengthen the neural pathways on this material. 

Conclusion

The academic work on learning better is clear.  We need to:

• test ourselves on the material first;
• embrace and overcome learning difficulties;
• recall the facts or concepts from memory by testing and quizzing ourselves, or by doing our homework, or by summarizing and putting in our own words, or by teaching the facts or concepts to someone else;
• space out our learning over time; and
• interleave our learning with other subjects.

Now, close this blog.  Get a piece of paper.  And write down in your own words the five key strategies that we should use to learn better.