We all want to learn new things don't we? Learning Improves our lives and livelihood. But what is learning? And how do you get better at it?

Invariably our environments force us to learn new things. This blog post is a summary of what is offered on the Coursera laced with my own opinions and experiences.

Learning involves memorization, recollection, application and behavioral changes.

I have always wondered what it means to learn something. Is it just the ability to memorize something? Memory certainly has a big role to play in learning. But can you memorize addition? No, you can’t! you need to understand the concept of addition. So, does learning mean your understanding of a concept? Then does your dog understand gravity? Parabola? partial differential equations? Well, if you want to jump and catch flying ball mid-air, you need to understand all these. So, your dog understands all of these at some level. I don't think any one would accept that a dog has learnt about parabolas. Is learning then your ability to communicate your understanding?

A more practical definition from my B-school taught me that learning involves change. I strongly believe in that definition. My 6-year-old is learning mathematics, addition and subtraction specifically. Since the time he has learned addition and subtraction, he refuses bad barter deals with me. There is a change in behavior. He is still casual and does not care about collecting the change after his chocolate purchase. Which means he does not use his learning in all contexts. My personal definition of learning has the following components. Ability to acquire new knowledge, reproduce/communicate that knowledge and apply that knowledge in different contexts consequently changing your behavior. [1][2][3]

Doodling helps learning

Now that I have clarified my definition of learning, let’s understand how to get better at it. All of this content is borrowed from the Coursera course Learning how to learn by Prof. Barbara Oakley

1. Motivation

One of the biggest requirements of learning anything is motivation. I strongly believe if you are motivated enough then memory, intellect, creativity, everything falls in place for you to be able to learn it. I was very bad at chemistry during my college days. I was always frustrated reading chemistry. I hated it so much that on the day of my final exams I shoved my chemistry textbook inside a transformer insulator, hoping never to see it again. Years later, I started looking for solutions to preserving food/harvest. I needed chemistry to understand processes like sublimation and vapor absorption refrigeration. (I am still understanding it and trying to marry the two). I revisited the chemistry textbook started reading from scratch and it was such a smooth ride. I had motivation, I had a purpose, a reason to study chemistry which made it easy and not-frustrating.

Dopamine is a chemical that motivates us. It responds to rewards. When you are not motivated enough you could use techniques like Pomodoro which is 25 minutes of focused attention followed by the act of rewarding yourself. Dr. Terrence Sejnowski gives a good insight into the roles of different chemicals like Dopamine, Acetylcholine, and Serotonin in the Coursera course. A couple of other things he suggests when you are not motivated or you find the narrative boring.

1) Ask questions to make your learning interactive.

2) learning by doing. You increase your involvement when you do things yourselves. Dr. Terrence also notes how Passion and Persistence are more important than other attributes that you might think are important. Recent studies have shown Emotions to have a big role in memory and learning.[Emotions role].

Pomodoro Technique helps you to avoid procrastination. Be sure to reward yourself at the end

Another way to overcome initial lethargy is to think of your study as a Process vs Product. With this technique, you do not focus on the outcome. If you decide to learn something for 25 minutes dedicate yourself for those 25 minutes. Stay away from all distractions. Do not expect an outcome at the end of that period but go through the learning process and stop at the end of the period.

This process requires 4 things.

a. The Cue: A cue is something that triggers you to start your activity.

eg. you start this activity after you clean up your child every day or

"it's 5 o clock -I'll work on this"

A cue will have one of the 4 components. Place, Time, How you feel, or your Reactions.

b. A Routine: Have a plan in place. it may not work all the time but keep at it.

c. A Reward: Think of what you will get at the end of this task. if that is not tantalizing enough reward yourself with other things upon accomplishing the task.

d. The Belief: Believe that you can do it and establish a network of family, friends, classmates who can support your belief.

2. Memory

Memory is a strange process. I am pretty certain, if you and your partner narrate an event of a squabble between the two of you from a few years ago, both narrations will have its own variations. And both of you will firmly believe that your narrative is more accurate. The same thing can happen to what you have learned. So it is important that you remember things right. Because forgetting what you have already learnt can be difficult. This also has something to do with Einstellung. Our inability to find new solutions because of existing knowledge.

Most of us believe that more memory is better. But it not quite simple. Learning may also have to do with forgetting somethings (unlearning). Watch THIS very interesting video if you don't believe me. As new theories disprove old ones you will have to replace old knowledge with a new one. Unlearning is also important in the age of misinformation and opinion it is easy to stumble upon (and learn from) opinions expressed as facts.

Spaced repetition: Learning is like muscle building. Working out for 5 hours once a year won't help you. But a few minutes every day through the year will show results. Same thing with learning you need to repeat your learning a few times a week for better retention.

We have two types of memory short-term and long-term memory. Our short term memory is like a black board used to hold information for the moment. Our long term memory is improved by spaced repetition and recollection. We all have amazing memory we just don't harness it. Memory champions use techniques like memory palace, mnemonics and acronyms to remember things. I personally like the technique that creates vivid surreal stories to stitch together a sequence.

3. Validation

There are many reasons why one should validate what you have learnt. I'll give you 3 reasons.

A. Illusion of Competence: We often fool ourselves into thinking that we know something even when we don't. You may have understood your grade 8 geometry a decade ago and believe that you know geometry. If you test yourself you will know where you stand. According to me there are two dimensions to this illusion. One, you see a man hammering a nail and you think you can do it too although you have never done it your life. Two, you have seen a few carpenters hammer nails you know how to hammer nails (you have done it) and you think : that is all there is to carpentry and claim mastery at carpentry. We all must recognize that there are known-knowns, known-unknowns, known-unknowables and unknown-unknowns. Illusion of competence is common amongst a lot of us. I see a lot of mails with mistakes such as using "there" instead of "their" and I see this consistently. Because these guys are adults, educated in English from premier institutes I do not dare to correct them. Since no one has ever told them they don't even recognize it as a mistake. There may be many such blunders in my blog. Unfortunately no one ever tells me. My wife told me that my sense for punctuation is terrible. It is true! But I never realized that until she told me so.

B. Helps your confidence and memory: I lived in Mangalore through all my schooling life. Tulu is a beautiful regional language spoken widely in Mangalore. For almost 10 years I thought I could not speak the language. Although I had been hearing and understanding the language every day. During my college days I started speaking Tulu. As I spoke more I got more feedback both positive and negative. (Feedback can be passive, read in peoples body language, little grin, or a frown that flashed in your audience's face when made a mistake.). When my speech was acknowledged and validated by the natives I gained in confidence. Today I speak eloquent Tulu.(Or I think so :)) A formal college environment provides that opportunity to validate what you know among peer learners and professors. This should help your confidence. Another way of validation is testing yourself. Testing yourself frequently not only helps know what we know it also helps our memory. In the process of testing ourselves when we make mistakes. These mistakes are healthy and help our memory.

C. Allows you to implement your learning quickly: When you present your learning, discuss them with other experts it gets validated. This will give you the confidence to try and implement your learning sooner rather than later.

4. Get a life

If you are unable to understand something don't stretch it. Give your brain a break. Two very important things that helps your learning are.

Sleep: Sleep cleans up your mind and it organizes the information you have processed during the day. Your mind discards unwanted junk and moves the important things in to long term memory. Our Brain has two modes of thinking focused mode and diffused mode. In the focused mode your mind does not wander too much. It bounces off ideas very closely clustered together. When you are in focused mode you are looking for solutions in a narrow range. In the diffused mode one can make connections between seemingly disconnected ideas. It is seen that you can access either focused mode or diffused mode at a time. You can't access them both at the same time. Sleep, Among other things, helps us access the diffused mode of thinking

Exercise: Physical exercise is also a way to activate your diffused mode of thinking. In addition it is also found to be very effective in improving memory enhancing brain plasticity.[4] So, don't just fire away, study 14 hours a day. Give your mind a break. Engage in other activities. Get good sleep and exercise every day. Plan for your study before you go to sleep the previous day. Set hard deadlines to stop your studying for the day and stick to it. Don't stress yourself if you don't get something in the first go. Give your self time.

You will learn all this and more such as how to avoiding procrastination, chunking, interleaving, etc. in the Coursera course.

Happy learning!