Human Potential: The Science and Strategy of Effective Learning
Hello everyone 🥸,
The greatest talent of human beings is the ability to learn. No other living being has such a capacity for plasticity in their brain circuits; this talent is still unattainable even by artificial intelligence. However, it is impossible to be born "learned." But it is thanks to the ability and predisposition to learn that the human species has managed to adapt to various changes and transmit knowledge from generation to generation.
The transmission of knowledge is called teaching. The place where this happens is commonly the school, an institution often criticized but capable of concentrating centuries, or rather thousands of years rich in events, facts, discoveries, and much more into “few” years of education. Just think, with only basic education, one has the opportunity and the privilege to roughly know the history from the Big Bang to today. The School has immense power and is in all respects a knowledge accelerator.
But what does it mean to learn? Learning means transforming the information that reaches the senses into useful and usable knowledge, more specifically into ideas called by neuroscience: internal models. Our brain contains numerous models of the external world. Thus, learning means creating a new model of the world in our brain with the purpose of mastering a domain that was previously unknown.
Stanislas Dehaene, in his book “How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine... for Now”, outlines the four pillars of learning. They are:
- Attention;
- Active engagement;
- Error feedback;
- Consolidation.
These pillars are extremely significant, and every educator or teacher should keep them in mind when approaching a student.
Attention is placed first because teaching is possible if the teacher is attentive to the attention of the student. An educator must know the student's zone of proximal development to understand what and how to teach, especially how to capture attention. Only then can learning begin.
Active engagement is the second pillar because a passive person cannot learn. And that is why those who teach must know how to arouse curiosity and must know how to motivate.
DThe third pillar is error feedback. To err is human (and is useful), it helps us to revisit concepts taken for granted, thus testing ourselves. It is good to remember that errors should not be punished, the inevitable risk is that of discouraging the person or conveying the idea that an error is a failure. What might happen is that the person does not engage for fear of failing.
Consolidation is the last pillar, also essential because in order for what we have come to know to become learning, we must consolidate the notions. That is, make them become models that can be used automatically, that do not interfere with other operations that the brain performs. There are various methods (such as mnemonics).
Bibliography:
“How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine... for Now”, Stanislas Dehaene, 2018.
Other readings related to the theme:
A) “The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Child”, Tina Payne Bryson and Daniel J Siegel, 2018.
B) “The Brain at School: Educational Neuroscience in the Classroom”, John G Geake, 2009.
I hope this inspires some thoughts or questions! Feel free to share your experiences or opinions in the comments below. 💬