Valuable Lessons in Learning

This article found in the New York TImes, October 7, 2014 show how a detailed exploration of the brain can review exactly how we learn and how we can maximize that potential.  Tara Parker-Pope explains how study sessions and cramming does not leave the brain much energy for learning.

So, as a parent, making your child study at one place in the house may not be the best way to actually learn all the material.  When a child is young I do feel they should be doing their homework in a location near an adult for supervision and quick help.

Below is the list Benedict Carey and science reporter for the New York Times wrote about in his book "How We Learn:  The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens".

Study sessions seem logical where we focus and study for a long period of time but in reality are not the best use of time as the brain is using  a lot of effort to maintain concentration.

1.  Change your environment. Move to different parts of the house. Try studying in a coffee house.  Use the library and change locations through out.  The new locations create new associations in your brain and can actually make it easier to recall information later.   The quote is for all those who feel somewhat ADD at times.  "The brain wants variation.  It wants to move, it wants to take periodic breaks." said Mr. Carey.

2. Talk about it.  When you cram material in your head all at once, you aren't telling the brain it is really important to remember all of it.  So read you notes out loud.  Type them and say the words out loud.  This is giving the brain two ways for information to be retained.  Writing flashcards and testing yourself is another great method of helping you remember facts.

3.  Spacing out the time learning the new materials.  Only looking at material once might help for a quick test but you have to review very hard to remember it for the final.  But if you review the material one or two days after learning or first studying it, it is a signal to the brain that you really want to learn it.

If your test is one week away study in two sessions at least one or two days apart.  It would mean study on Monday, review on Thursday to take the test on Friday.  If the test is a month away begin studying in one week segments. (For a hard class in college, I took notes every day.  Then I went home and highlighted what I thought was really important.  I talked out loud about what the graphs meant.  I reviewed after each class session.  By the end of the class, I did not need to study for the final because I remembered everything.  I always review each test that was returned to me and made sure I knew all the correct answers.)

4. Another important aspect to studying is sleep.  Who would have thought of that?  There are two sleep scycles.  "The first half of the sleep  cycle helps with retaining facts; the second half is important for math skills.  So a student with a foreign language test should go to bed early to get the most retention from sleep, and then review in the mroning.  For math students, the second half of the sleep cycle is most important -- better to review before going to bed and the sleep in to let the brain process the information."

So as parents, think about this article and how you can help your child study better for test and to really learn the material.