Many adults are really bad learners.
Although we are born with an innate tendency towards curiosity, we lose a lot of it along the way. Instead of our learning being about creating real knowledge, it turns into rote and regurgitation.
When we are very small, we investigate and experiment. We ask a lot of questions and we move the things in our world around to see how they work alone and together. And we’ll keep investigating and experimenting as we find new features or angles.
But as we get older, we come to understand that every time we write “2 + 2 = 4” on a sheet of paper, we get a little gold star. So, we learn to memorize information instead of manipulating it.
Action – Here is one simple technique for improving your learning:-
Next time you are about to begin a learning event, whether that’s an actual training session or reading a book or even just a chapter, ask yourself these 3 questions before embarking on the learning…
- What is 1 thing I already do that is related to this?
- What are 2 things I didn’t know before that I find interesting?
- What is 1 new thing I can commit to doing from this?
It is important to ask yourself the questions BEFORE the learning begins. They prime your brain in advance to investigate and experiment and this will magnify your learning opportunity several fold.