So you want to learn?
Greetings everyone,
Today’s steemit piece will be about bringing out how you can learn in your own possible best way!
We are going in depth about the importance of this and what kind of difference it can make.
But before we start!
What do you like more, grab something? Look at something? Or listen to something?
Styles
Everyone learns in their own way and it is quite important to know what style works best for yourself!
I mean your family or friends can say that they have their superior styles and why they came so far bla bla bla. But in the end everyone has their way and it is a goal to find yours.
The question i gave you before, had the goal to give you a sense or feeling towards knowing yourself in terms of what works better for you and helping you dive into it.
I will give you a couple of examples:
What do you do when asking for directions?
When cooking a new dish?
How do you teach others things that you know?
The answers of these questions gives you quite a direction how you work in terms of strategy of learning.
You have 3 styles, visual, Kinesthetic and audio.
Audio = sounds, words, listening, using your voice to think your thoughts etc.
Visual = images, movies, looking etc.
Kinesthetic = touching, feeling, sensing etc.
You now get a good image of your basic strategy, next is how to put it to use?
Lets use our power!
Let us start Audio:
So you are more focused towards the audio way of learning and bringing information.
Then good!
I have some great tips for you how to increase your performance and trust me, you will enjoy not only studying more, but get a better understanding for people around you as well.
Talk with your friend about the topic!
Read explanations and important facts out loud, people may look weird at you, but hey it is how you work!
Record and listen to lectures and sessions
Start rapping what you learn!
Use audio CDs etc
Simple yet satisfying examples that will help you on your path!
Now for the people that are more visual:
Use colour-coded highlighting, this will help improve your memory, because of the colours.
Having charts and diagrams to give explanations.
Use visual puns (you all know me by now) to associate information
Write explanations down, by writing you see it again!
Use pictures, they always say a picture says more than a 1000 words!
Watch videos/programmes specific to the course you are studying
Techniques like the mind palace are things you will enjoy!
Last but not least Kinesthetic:
Holding onto the book or any other item while studying that has to do with it.
Sit near the front of the classroom to keep focused
Write lists more often than others do.
Be not ashamed to be practical!
If possible stand when giving explanations (like public speakers do)
Make and use flashcards (keep them in order)
Take on a role to explain something or to learn and understand about something
Associate what you feel with information
So, this the basic part of understanding how you study!
Now we go into even more detail!
Strategies
Now we go a bit more detailed and deeper, there are many ways how to have different ways of processing different forms of information in our life!
So to start off, these strategies can be indicated with letters. So V stands for Visual, Auditory an A and kinaesthetic with a K.
Then we also add the letters and options, i for internal (what goes on in your mind), e for external (what goes on the outside) , r for remembered, you have the c for constructed which means making something in your mind.
Then you have something aside which is the internal dialog, which is Aid or Auditory and internal.
You also have how you feel, which is represented as Ki or internal Kinaesthetic and can be indicated with + or - or better said feeling well or feeling bad.
(the table that i use for it does not work so i try to make it as clear as possible.
Sense
Internal - Ai, Ki, Vi
External - Ae, Ve
Remembered Ar, Vr
Constructed - Ac, Vc
Internal Dialog - Aid
Positive K+
Negative K-
So to give this more explanation how it works,
Internal in all cases means what goes on inside, so think about inner music or sounds, feelings and a mental image.
External is on the outside, which is something you can see and hear.
Then you have memory lane, which is also something that you can see and hear, but it can also give you a positive or negative feeling. Which is aside from neutrally feeling the memory, the emotion attached to it is not feeling the event itself.
Constructed is comparable to constructing an image and sound in your mind without the use of memories, think of a fantasy world.
Up to you is to find out, which way as well in this case works!
In studying put yourself in a situation where you are starting to notice what works and what not.
Let’s say if you are good at memorizing and you use sounds, Ar is your way to go and finding routes with it to get both working for you, will optimize your study!
Every situation is different though, so do not be surprised that there are things that you work in complete opposite.
Feeling rewarded
I am more of a practical guy though and i will not go into depth about how our reward system works in the mind.
But i can say one thing for sure and that is your feeling for reward and your way of studying gives off a hint of the route as well that you should be walking in how you study!
The reason behind it as well has to do with the fact that a big part of studying well is motivation! And how do you keep yourself motivated, while the material can be very very boring or underwhelming.
Well the answer can be quite simple using the style that you have found out, will make your way of studying smoother easier and feeling more rewarded, your mind makes more connections to the point of that studying = rewarding, which means that it ends up feeling great doing it.
No matter how boring the material, this will keep your enthusiasm, no special methods, no special issues. Just creating new paths in your mind by simply your own Will.
Questions
Ok, to finish off. I hope you are able to grasp a bit about how you may work and how you think as well.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer them.
Also, this was never meant to be history class or a big description about dopamine levels or endorphins etc, but more of a practical in depth guide that you can use to improve your studying and even get higher grades or if you want to pick something quicker than normal.
Good luck and I hope to see more knowledge shared!