Learning how to learn
I just wanted to share some tips I’ve picked up from watching Elizabeth Filips’ video on learning how to learn. It’s been helping me so far in understanding some of the concepts around Linear Algebra. The stages of learning are as follows:
- Context broadening
- Dopamine priming
- Singular deep dive
- Challenge sandwich
- Getting broody
- False deadlines
Context broadening
Find real life scenarios where the topic you’re learning is applied for example, if you’re learning about a particular disease then read an article on a celebrity who has the disease. It will allow you to connect the information to your own memories (also known as anchoring).
Dopamine priming
Identify something that particularly appeals to your future self and you can relate with to get emotionally invested in the topic. By doing this you will be motivated to learn more.
Deep dive
Drill deeper into topics by asking the questions that pop into your head and finding the answers to the question, and then getting back to the original point. For example, in the article if it mentions that the celebrity suffered from muscle aches as a result of the disease then you might want to search for the signs and symptoms of the disease, if after reading the symptoms you find that muscle aches are not a symptom then you might search how can this disease causes muscle aches. This could result in another topic such as, damage to nerves which leads to another topic and so on. Note: the questions should fit within the boundaries of the original topic.
Challenge sandwich
Build projects and practice questions to reinforce the learnings. You will be really bad initially but it will give you an understanding of what topics you need to focus on.
Brooding stage
Having an understanding that some topics will take a long time to fully understand and that some space to contemplate ideas and practice questions from time to time will not only allow your brain to retain the information you but also avoid the trap of getting frustrated when you don’t understand something straight away and abandoning it all together.
False deadlines
These are targets that you should set yourself to try and focus yourself in the short term knowing full well that you may have underestimated and it will probably take longer, but that’s ok.
Finally, I would like to say by implementing these steps into your learning process will help you tremendously with retaining knowledge.
You can see the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz_brQBl8xk
