10 Ways of Effective Learning

We agree that lifelong learning needs to occur and in all facets of life. The problem and the person's ability to absorb new knowledge is limited. Especially in an era of information overload as it is now, where the amount of knowledge that can be studied is beyond human capacity to reach it. It means with limited time, energy, memory and other capabilities, we should give priority to learning strategies that can give us the maximum results in time limited. The following article which I took from About.com: Psychology discusses some steps that we can do to maximize our learning.

   1. Learn the basics of memory upgrades - there are certain techniques that can help us to improve the ability to remember, which of course will depend on memory and learning one's way. Some things we can learn techniques such as mind maps, mnemonics, etc..

   2. Learn and apply new things. One way to become effective learners is to keep learning. With repeated learning new things and practicing, we are building pathways in the brain tissue that will strengthen our connection with the new information

   3. Learn in different ways. Obviously everyone has different ways of learning. But if we want to learn how to learn another (visual, audio, movement) or other learning methods, the brain will be able to put that information in several different places, which will facilitate the calling information.

   4. Teach what we have learned to others - one of the best ways to learn something is by teaching it to others. Of course, after going through the process of internalization and translation, where we will teach in the manner and method that matches our own way and not just copied. Writing blogs is one way to teach something in a different way to others.

   5. Use the previous lesson to learn new things. This is called relational learning, in which we will include new information on things we already know.

   6. Practice - looking for experience. One of the best ways to improve the effectiveness of learning is to practice - and not simply learn or write something about the new knowledge. Practice information regularly!

   7. Look for answers and not just remember - as much as possible if we're trying to remember some information, we better do some research to get the answer. If we are accustomed to recall some information, there is a trend we will forget the information in the future. This happens because by repeating the experiment remember, we're recording the activity in a negative rather than positive in our memories.

   8. Understand how the best way to learn - everyone is unique, including in the way and learning strategies. The more we understand the uniqueness, strengths and our weaknesses, the more we can learn effectively

   9. Use the test to improve learning - exams help us to be able to recall information that was tested in a longer period of time

  10. Stop multitasking - research has shown that multitasking actually makes learning becomes less effective.

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