Related Questions
- From evolution, do humans still retain the (now probably unconscious) ability to detect pheremones and learn things
- we reasently learnt that pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word in the english language and
- have you ever went overseas to learn and do experiments on the human body?
- why did you travel overseas to learn a subject that you could've studied here?
I’d really like to know the answer to that question too. Like the other scientists here, I do a lot of teaching. Being able to understand how different people learn would make our jobs as teachers a lot easier.
Scientists are working hard, but there is still a lot about the human brain that is not known. Finding out how the brain works and how we learn is made harder by the fact that this can change during a person’s life time too. E.g. if someone has a stroke and a part of their brain is damaged, the brain can sometimes heal and rewire itself to compensate for the region that doesn’t work anymore.
0
How well you learn something is totally related to how interested you are in that thing. If you’re bored, you won’t take much in. If you’re really interested, it’ll sink right in. Say I offered you $1000 to remember the number 4.5 for a year. In one year I will come back to you and say “what was that number again?” I bet that $1000 helps.
As you get older, you’ll start to develop things that naturally interest you. What those things are will start to determine what you learn easiest or best, and that will, in turn, help you work out what interests you. So how you learn is quite related to what interests you. It’s also related to whether you want to learn something. Then there are just the basic differences between people, and that’s really tricky to understand. Some of it’s genetics, some of its upbringing. So my Dad was a scientist, but my mum was more interested in the arts. My three sisters are all artsy people. I’m a scientist. Is that genetics – me and my dad are both male. Or is it upbringing, that my dad was a role model and I followed that? Difficult to know.
It’s great we learn in different ways. Makes things a lot more interesting. Stick with what you find interesting and pursue your passions.
0
Different people are different. The educational psychologists talk about learning preferences or learning styles. Without going into the details here are some learning preferences or styles.
Some people are visual learners — they learn best by seeing a picture or watching someone. How often have you heard someone say SEE you later on the phone?
Some people learn best through discussion. How often have you heard someone say TALK to you tomorrow — even when they have been meeting face-to-face?
Some people learn best by doing. No, just let me DO IT!
Why are we different? We just are. So we learn best in different ways.
0
I don’t know the answer to this on and I’m not sure if anyone really knows why. I would love to know why because the way I learn things is really complicated.
For learning facts, I’m a visual learner. I need to read the facts and write them out and I’m okay.
For learning how to do things, I learn best by watching someone do it in front of me. I could try learning by doing but it nearly always ends in disaster.
When it came to learning how to play the clarinet and saxophone, my best learning came by doing. Of course this wasn’t so great for anyone near by while I worked things out.
A few years ago I had a serious back injury and it affected how I walked. I had to see a few doctors and physiotherapists to learn to walk all over again. My body needed to train to walk in the right way to not cause any problems in the future. I never thought walking could be so hard. For a few hours a week I would arrive at appointments to concentrate on walking and it wasn’t just training my body, it was also teaching my brain what walking was. I found it really hard because I had to learn by doing.
0
Here’s a quiz that gives you an idea of which of the three learning styles – visual (see), auditory (hear) or kinaestehtic (do) – may suit you best:
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/homeworkhelp/a/lstyleqz.htm
It told me that I am a ‘very visual learner’ which is probably about right as I tend to remember things best by writing notes and reading them back, and memorizing diagrams. It gives you a couple of ideas about how you might improve your learning/studying too.
That’s just the first thing I found, but I’m sure there is heaps of information out there about how to study more effectively which might be helpful when you get to exam time!
0