How to Learn Effectively : Understanding Learning Process
A while ago, a friend of mine ask my advice on how to improve his learning process. He watch video tutorial on a topic that he want to learn, but he struggles to understand the topic deeper.
That conversation reminds me of a topic that I want to talk about a long time ago. The topic is about Learning Process and How to Learn Effectively. It was based on my understanding of my own learning process.
I consider myself a fast learner who can understand a totally new thing quickly. This ability does not come naturally, instead it is the result of my personal method to learn things quickly and effectively.
I want to share my method, hopefully it can help you learn things quicker and more effective. I am not an expert on learning, so I welcome any criticism and feedback for this article.
An Intriguing Phenomenon
There are interesting phenomenons in education process. It intrigues me because these phenomenon is very counter-productive and should be a rare case, yet these phenomenon is very common.
- Some people spent several years studying at school, only to forget most of it when they graduate.
- Some others still understand what they learned after graduate, but struggles to apply that knowledge into real world scenario.
- Others try to learn quickly from training course or tutorial, only to be clueless when the actual problem is slightly different.
These scenario is very counter intuitive and counter productive.
Why bother spending a lot of effort to study, if you forget most of it anyway ?
Why attend a training course if you cannot apply it to real case scenario ?
To understand why those phenomenon happened, we have to understand the process of learning.
Understanding Learning Process
What is Learning ?
What is the indicator that we have learnt something ?
To understand learning process, we have to understand knowledge type first. There are 3 type of knowledge :
- Base Theory : The foundation of knowledge.
- Thought Process : The logical step when applying theory in practice.
- Practical Application : The actual real world implementation.
Learning Process is a process that translate Base Theory into Thought Process into Practical Application.
Learning Process is complete when you can apply a Base Theory into a Practical Application with a clear Thought Process.
By understanding this, we can understand why the phenomenon happened. All three phenomenon happened because they are missing certain part of knowledge in learning process.
For people who study at school but cannot apply their knowledge, they understand base theory, but missing thought process or practical application.
For people who learn from training course or tutorial but cannot solve slightly different problem, they understand practical application, but missing thought process or base theory.
Interestingly, there are people who understand base theory and practical application, yet still struggles to apply that knowledge into a more complex problem. This is because they still does not understand the thought process.
Improving Learning Process
Now that we understand learning process and those phenomenon, how can we use it to help us improve our learning?
A problem defined is half-solved.
You can improve your learning process by identifying which knowledge is currently missing or need to be improved.
If you are missing Base Theory, then you can improve it by reading more Academic Source or learn more Advanced Concept. Base theory is more established and rarely changed, thus this knowledge will remain useful in the future.
If you are missing Practical Application, then you can improve it by learning Best Practice and actually practicing it. After all, having more experience is the key to learn practical application better. Because this knowledge evolved over time, you need to periodically update your knowledge in this area, otherwise it will became obsolete in the future.
If you are missing Thought Process, then you can improve it by Visualize your thought process. This can be done in several method such as creating a Mind Map or writing a Problem Solving document. Mind Map is a method to define a connection between an entity with other entity. Problem Solving document is a method to define problem statement, generate possible solution, and analyze pros and cons of each proposed solution.
From all three knowledge, Thought Process is the hardest to learn. The reason is because it is rarely taught in school and it is unique for every problem. That means your solution for a certain problem can be obsolete for another problem. By mastering thought process, you get deeper understanding of the topic and can apply it to totally different problem.
Learning Approach
There are two common approach for learning : Bottom Up and Top Down.
Bottom Up is when you start from Base Theory and then moves into Practical Application. This is usually done in School or University. This approach focuses more on strengthening Base Theory. The upside of this approach is that you are exposed to more advanced concept. The downside of this approach is, you have no practical context when learning the concept. This can cause the theory to be totally worthless, because you failed to make sense of how it is useful in real life scenario.
Top Down is when you start from Practical Application and then moves into Base Theory. This is usually done in Tutorial or Training Course. This approach focuses more on direct experience to Practical Application. The upside of this approach is that you can have ready-to-use knowledge. The downside of this approach is that you have weak foundation. This can make you clueless when the problem is changed, because you failed to synthesize it into a more generic and abstract concept.
But wait, both approach seems to be flawed and have huge downside.
Well, there is actually a third approach. This is my personal approach for learning. I called it Connect The Dots. The idea is that it combines the upside while avoiding the downside of both approach.
The Bottom Up have a downside of missing Practical Context.
The Top Down have a downside of missing Abstract Concept.
So the idea is we Start from Practical Context to understand the Actual Problem that we need to solve. After that, we find a Base Theory that can be used to solve the problem. Then we try to Connect The Dots by guessing the thought process how the Base Theory can be translated into Practical Application. This approach focuses more on understanding Actual Problem and Thought Process.
The idea is that by focusing on understanding the thought process, we can also understand the Base Theory and Practical Application, because understanding both of it is essential in understanding thought process.
Learning Material
Aside from using the better approach, you can improve your learning by choosing a more effective Learning Material. Different people have different preferences on learning media.
There are 4 kind of Learning Styles :
- Visual : Learn more effectively by looking at Visual Media
- Auditory : Learn more effectively by listening to Audio & Sound
- Read/Write : Learn more effectively by reading or writing
- Kinesthetic : Learn more effectively by having a concrete experience
In my case, I have Read/Write preferences, so using Written Text is more effective for me. If you have Auditory preferences, listening to lecture or podcast might be more effective for you.
Thank you for reading this far. Hopefully this article can help you understand learning process better, and help you learn more effectively.
