Techniques For Learning

Now that I have someone to tutor, I'm spending more time thinking about how learning actually happens. I'm far from an expert on the topic, despite having read up on it a bit over the past several months. But it seems to me that there are a number of things that you can do to help someone learn without going to any great lengths or expense.

For example, I happen to think Math can be fun. But there's no doubt in my mind that there are all kinds of ways that you could choose to teach Math concepts which would be the very antithesis of "fun". So assuming that you believe that learning happens more effectively in an upbeat environment, how do you facilitate that? Obviously you should acknowledge and celebrate each accomplishment made by the student, which I think can be a challenge for some folks to whom giving praise doesn't come naturally. Sometimes it's as simple as the tone of the sessions themselves - do you treat everything as deadly serious, or do you make up some goofy examples so that the other person knows that it's OK to have a laugh or two? - or even whether or not you make an effort to personalize the concepts. If talking about a basketball player's stats at the free throw line can help a 13- or 14-year old NBA fan understand how percentages work, then you'd be a fool not to take advantage of the opportunity that's been presented to you.

I'm a big believer in repetition and reinforcement when it comes to learning, and so one of the techniques I employ is to make up Practice Sheets for the students to fill out, on their own, after we've spent some time together. This simple routine can actually serve a lot of purposes in the pursuit of better learning. It can:

• give the students more exposure to whatever type of material was just covered (immediate reinforcement, in other words);
• provide the students with confidence that they really did understand what was taught, or alternatively highlight to me where learning didn't occur;
• ensure that past lessons are being retained over time through the use of "legacy questions" that essentially build up and test a growing "body of knowledge" as the course proceeds; and
• allow me to sneak in "brain-straining" questions, under the guise of Bonus Questions that don't have as much pressure around them.

That final point is very appealing to me, because it takes learning beyond the regurgitation stage and into the discovery one. The bare minimum is always that the student understood and can apply the specifics of what was taught; but can he or she extrapolate from that material, even just a little? After all, as we all progress through the school system and hopefully on into post-secondary education, that becomes more and more the measure of our worth. And as an instructor, nothing quite says, "They get it!!" like seeing young minds apply something in a way that hasn't been spoon-fed to them already.

I've posted before of the high regard with which I hold members of the teaching profession (notwithstanding the fact that, like every other vocation, it has its fair share of duds), and that's as true now as ever.