Most people take learning for granted. Children learn 'naturally' when little and then learn at play school and later in the big school. Parents get little education or support in what to do the bring out the most in their children, and we trust schools to do a good job using traditional classroom methods. It is only when learning and development do not go according to expectations, that parents start to investigate how they can help their children more.
Key steps in this process are to understand your child better, observe more keenly how he or she reacts to the world around them and what they are good at and which areas may need extra support. It is also important to understand better how learning takes place, what happens in the brain when all goes well and thus be in a better position to identify areas that may need to be strengthened.
In this short article I will highlight seven key steps that the brain has to accomplish in order for effective learning, and thus development, to take place.
1. Attention - it all starts here, as without attention little enters the brain, and there is little chance of learning. You'll find a lot about attention on this blog - see this selection. Not all attention has to be conscious focussed attention, however. We take in a lot of useful information subconsciously, so what we need is both conscious and subconscious attention to get the learning process started.
2. Concentration - once we have attention, it's no good if it only lasts for a few seconds. We need longer periods of concentration. This is age dependent, as for instance four year olds do well to concentrate for five minutes, while we expect much longer periods of concentration for older children. Most people, including adults, however, find it difficult to stay fully attentive for longer than about twenty minutes. It is good practise to provide short breaks or a change in focus every twenty minutes to obtain maximum concentration.
3. Connections - assuming we have both attention and concentration, we now have to make connections between the information we have just taken in and what we already know. Unless we can make connections with existing knowledge or experience, it will be very difficult to understand and memorise the new input. Our brain will need to search for similarities rapidly and make connections before the next bit of new information comes along.
4. Understanding - having found similarities, we can now start to understand the differences in the information we have paid attention to. This comparison between what we already know and what is new is the process of understanding. Please not that we're already halfway down the list of essential ingredients for learning before we reach understanding. If there is a difficulty with understanding, strengthen the first three steps.
5. Remembering - understanding something new is one thing, but if this new experience is not retained, all is lost in a short period of time. The new learning needs to stick in the brain for it to be useful later on. Memory depends very much on the connections made in step 3. If we add to that vivid mental pictures and sounds too, then we create a memory which will last for a long time. Lasting memory may also require frequent repetition over a period of a few days to a few weeks, to become a new 'habit' in the brain.
6. Recalling - we remember much more than what we can recall on demand. Especially under stressful situations such as school tests or exams, the recall may freeze and all the memorised facts and understanding can not be brought out. It is possible to strengthen recall, but only if the first five steps in this process of learning have been fully completed.
7. Expression - being wise, intelligent or clever are of no use unless we can convince others that we are so. We have to do this by expressing ourselves through speech, actions or writing. The execution of all our knowledge is the final important step to success, at school, at work and in our social lives.In following articles I will say more about each individual component in this seven-step learning process and what we can do, very practically, to strengthen each and every component, in order to achieve that success in life. This is why the SAS motto reads: Change your Mind - Live your Life.
