Learning

 Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching

What is Learning?

Learning is a complicated practice. Several thousand years ago, the primary obligation of the human brain was to figure out how to find food, avoid getting eaten by a predator (including finding a safe place to sleep), and find a mate. Now, in addition to those basic human functions, our brains are inundated with other facts and tasks that need to be learned.

New insights into how the human brain learns make it clear that many of the learning practices that faculty used in the past, and that students continue to use, are highly inefficient, ineffective, or just plain wrong. Better learning does not always require more effort or more time; rather one need only effectively align how the brain naturally learns with the demands of the college classroom.

A NEW LOOK AT LEARNING

We all learn throughout our lives. We learn how to tie our shoes, the best route to get to the mall, which friends we can trust, how to find the area of a circle, and how to write a research paper. Surprisingly, very few people are taught how to learn. Even college professors, who spend 20 years in the educational system and obtain a PhD, learn by doing what seems best, but rarely by consulting the vast literature on how people learn. If you are in college, or will be heading off to college shortly, you certainly are good at learning, but knowing (a) how your brain learns, (b) which strategies bring about the most learning, and (c) under which circumstances optimal learning occurs is something that can benefit anyone. Helping you to understand and then apply to your own life the research on these three crucial aspects of learning is the purpose of this blog.

A new look at Learning - John Crace

Definition of Learning

What does it mean to say you have learned something?

Someone says that taking a new ideas by making the effort to understand what you read and hear. And other one says that working on new ideas by fitting them in alongside what you already know, drawing connections with what you already know and expressing new ideas by using them to say things in your own.

Neuroscience researchers have shown that when you learn something new, there is a physical change in your brain. You have approximately 86 billion brain cells (Randerson, 2012), and when you learn something new, some of your brain cells establish connections with other brain cells to form new networks of cells, which represent the new learning that has taken place. When frequently activated, these new networks have the potential to become long-term memories. In fact, every time you use or practice the newly learned information or skill, the connections between the brain cells get stronger and recalling the information becomes easier.

Establishing connections is like blazing a trail, which is a great deal of work. But every time the trail is used, it becomes more established and easier to follow.

10 Definitions of Learning

Preparing to Learn

Nutrition

One of the most important new insights into how the human brain learns is that it needs to be prepped for learning if it is to work at its best. Showing up to class without proper sleep and exercise and without eating or hydrating your brain will cause your brain to operate inefficiently and make learning much more difficult.

Hydration

In addition to food, your brain needs a great deal of water. Neurons (brain cells) store water in tiny balloon-like structures called vacuoles. Water is essential for optimal brain health and function. Water is needed for the brain’s production of hormones and neurotransmitters. These are the key players in the brain’s communication system, which is at the heart of learning. 

Sleep

Brain research has produced overwhelming evidence of the important role exercise and sleep play in the brain’s ability to learn and remember.  “Sleep, Naps, and Breaks,” covers a wide range of vital information about the relationship of a good night’s rest to effective learning and the making of long-term memories, which are the key to college success.

Exercise

Preparing the brain to learn is a new idea for most students, but it is crucial to your ability to learn. A tired, hungry, and thirsty brain deprived of the essential benefits exercise brings to it is a brain not ready to learn.

Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. ... Some learning is immediate, induced by a single event, but much skill and knowledge accumulate from repeated experiences.

Dinesh Shiwantha Wanigathunga

dineshshiwantha@gmail.com