Issue 16 – Special Updated version
How to Encourage the Great Learner Instinct by Chris Giles
Intellectual Curiosity This makes the task easier. Naturally gifted great learners are interested in finding out about new things. Great learners do everything in their power to try to grasp a new concept when presented with the opportunity. An upbringing where every day is seen as an adventure helps to develop intellectual curiosity and great learning as rewarding habits. For a taste of what is needed, the Lone Pine series by Malcolm Saville provides inspiring examples of correct values, compassion for others and the need to focus on the future. Active Approach Because their intellectual curiosity is motivated by a desire to understand, great learners will take an active approach to learning. Memorising facts and information — while important — is only the beginning. For students who take an active approach to education, the key objective is to be aware of how things work in a given field and why. The benefits are clearly seen in the success of these students in examinations and in the challenges of life generally. Network Style of Thinking Another trait of great learners is they can place new information in a context. That is, they’re “big picture” thinkers who can take data bits and put them into a system. They also understand how the parts of these constructs interrelate, and they can dissect and reassemble them. They are employing an Aristotelian, network-centric way of thinking.
This is important for
comprehension because no information exists in isolation. It always relates to something else, which relates to something else, which relates to something else and so on. This is the Sherlock Factor, the ability to see the interconnectedness of things. Perseverance People succeed not necessarily because they are naturally gifted or the best in a given area, but because they do not give up. Perseverance is the key. Find your strength and give all to develop it. Don't Disappoint Yourself Learn from the leader of the free world: "I always try to make sure that my expectations are higher than those of the people around me," Barack Obama says. "The American people are having a tough time. And I never want people to feel as if I've overpromised to them. I try to explain in a real, honest way how difficult some of the changes will be. But I never want the effect to be that I'm not working as hard as I can on their behalf or that I'm not continually trying to improve. I'm actually glad for the high expectations. One of the interesting things about life is that it should push you to the limit and then some. And it turns out that you have more in your reservoir than you expected."
Mind Palaces By Chris Giles “It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work." Thomas Edison. “I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can
distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” Sherlock "A Study in Scarlet". One of my favourite concepts from the BBC's Sherlock is a mental location where the detective goes to collect his thoughts. Sherlock frequently needs time to think through all the disparate clues he collects on cases, and when he really needs to be able to think, he brusquely tells people to leave so he can go to his Mind Palace. In Sherlock’s world, it is the place where he compiles all the knowledge and information and intuition he has accrued while working as a consulting detective. He has a road map in his mind, a visual record of all the things he’s ever seen or heard, as do we all. Our problem is that we generally can’t access all of that information at well as Sherlock can. However, by following the techniques outlined in the above article we can go a long way down the road to out-Sherlock Sherlock. Within this construct, you can find something useful. We all have a compendium of knowledge and information too, bits of dialogue overheard in coffee shops, emotions experienced long ago, sense memories of lavender and rain or sea lions on Pier 39 in San Francisco. We have visuals of thousands of people, people passed on the street or sat next to in classes, or seen in movies or in that wonderful umbrella shop near the Tottenham Court Road. All of these are stored in the Mind Palace. As we write, we can work in such a way that we allow the writing to flow as it will, and try not to control it too much. Sometimes that leads us down unconstructive paths. However, often, by allowing ourselves to write from the vault of our Mind Palaces yields fantastic results, things that just pop up on their own and surprise.
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