Learn by Starting With a Challenge: A Med Student’s Guide to Generation
A guide to help medical students accelerate their learning by leveraging the principle of Generation.
What is learning?
We have mental models (cognitive frameworks) to explain how the world works. The process of forming and changing these mental models is called learning.
Learning occurs through refining raw data into abstract ideas that can be reused in new contexts, allowing the brain to grasp fragments of reality previously missed and build a new model of the world.¹
A common mistake we make when learning or teaching
As someone who has gone through medical school and participated in and led multiple teaching activities over many years, I have experienced some fundamental mistakes that educators make. I have also made these mistakes myself.
We’ve all experienced it: a lecturer walks into the classroom, talks about a subject for 1–2 hours, then stops talking and… that’s it. That’s the teaching! Unless the lecturer is one of the top 1% of speakers (say, Stephen Hawking), chances are the teaching was a waste of time.
On the other hand, some teachers, even when addressing an audience of more than 100 students, attempt to inspire engagement from their students. One common strategy is to introduce a topic by asking a question. This would often spark a discussion between the students and the teacher, and the presentation would follow as a result of that interactive discussion.
You may have realised that practising questions is more effective for learning than simply reading and rereading, similar to how when a teacher asks questions to spark student engagement and discussion, their teaching is more effective.
The learning principle of Generation
Imagine you are in high school and presented with the following chemistry problem:
What happens when we throw sodium (Na) metal into water (H2O)?
Will the resulting liquid turn purple? Green maybe? Maybe the colour won’t change, but the liquid will become cold? Or hot?
Spoiler alert: this is an exothermic reaction (produces heat) where the sodium metal is heated and may ignite and burn. If you throw large amounts of sodium, it WILL go kaboom! (don’t do this at home, in case you had metal sodium lying around…)
Look at the demonstration yourself:
Imagine two groups of high-school students trying to learn this experiment in class:
The first group is simply shown the demonstration. The teacher goes, “Look what will happen now, guys…” and throws a small piece of sodium metal in water.
The second group is asked to predict what will happen before being shown the demonstration. The teacher asks the students questions similar to those mentioned above, like “What will happen when I throw the metal sodium in the water?”. Students attempt to predict what will happen using their current mental models. Then they observe the demonstration, and most react with an “Ooohh… So THIS happens!” Except for some geeks who already knew what would happen and ruin the experiment for everyone else…
Which group of students do you think would learn more effectively?
The second one, where students were allowed to make predictions first. This result is supported by a fascinating study where researchers explored the effectiveness of different modes of presenting classroom demonstrations in enhancing student learning. The key takeaway from this study is that learners remember information better when they actively participate in its creation or Generation.²
The researchers compared three modes of presenting classroom demonstrations: traditional observation, prediction, and discussion. They found that students who merely observed the demonstrations didn’t understand the underlying concepts better than those who didn’t see the demonstration (the control group). However, when students predicted the outcome of the demonstration before seeing it, their understanding significantly improved.
This is the power of the learning principle of Generation!
Generation is how we learn in real life
This principle mirrors how we learn in real-life situations. Consider a scenario where you, a medical student, have become a practising doctor. You are asked to prescribe maintenance fluids for a patient who is nil-by-mouth (NBM) awaiting surgery. You realise you’re unsure about the exact calculations for their daily glucose and electrolyte needs. This problem prompts you to research, ask for help, and eventually learn the correct procedure. The process of struggling with a problem and seeking a solution is a practical example of Generation.
How you can use Generation to learn anything faster
This is how you could leverage the principle of Generation to learn anything faster:
- Seek out challenges: This is very important! Don’t be afraid to deal with unknown problems! This is how I learnt ECG interpretation. The struggle to understand and solve a problem will make new knowledge stick.
- Embrace active learning: Instead of passively receiving information, engage actively with the material. This could involve predicting outcomes, asking questions, or discussing concepts with your peers.
- Reflect on your learning: After learning something new, take a moment to reflect on what you’ve learned and how you’ve learned it. This metacognitive process can reinforce learning through Generation.
- Apply what you learn: Try to apply new knowledge in practical scenarios. For a medical student, this could involve role-playing clinical scenarios or using new concepts in problem-solving exercises.
Summary
The learning principle of Generation suggests that learners remember information better when actively participating in its creation or Generation.
You can leverage this principle and learn anything faster by:
- seeking out challenges
- engaging actively with the material
- reflecting on your learning
- applying what you learn
Thanks for reading!
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References
- Dehaene, S. (2021) How we learn: The new science of education and the brain. UK: Penguin Books.
- Catherine Crouch, Adam P. Fagen, J. Paul Callan, Eric Mazur; Classroom demonstrations: Learning tools or entertainment? American Journal of Physics 1 June 2004; 72 (6): 835–838. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.1707018
