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Learning Skills

We have so far discussed about the underlying philosophy and principles in education but little about skills in learning. By this I mean certain approaches and methods that will make learning easier, faster and more efficient.

For example, in many schools there are things to memorize. This type of work is often resented by students, and they often develop a distaste for the subject when what they disliked is the memorization. But there are times when memorization cannot be avoided, such as the multiplication table. In such a case, the school must teach students how to minimize the agony of memorizing and maximize the capacity for retention.

Another example is effective and efficient reading, that is, reading intelligently and speedily with comprehension. From secondary school onwards, students are often asked to read so much, and yet they are often not taught how to read books speedily.

Another aspect is the learning of effective study techniques and habits. I have seen students trying to memorize their lessons by verbally repeating sentences, and spending miserable hours doing so until they drop to sleep with their poor heads lying on top of the study table.

Effective education must incorporate time-tested approaches to learning skills. Below are some skills that should be taught in schools.

Efficient and Fun Memorization

I grew up with an educational system that required so much memorization that I used to flunk not only examinations but also grade levels because I disliked memorizing without understanding. The real tragedy was that many of my teachers knew that we did not understand what we were memorizing. What they wanted was for us to simply pass the test by memorizing set answers to set questions. The best memorizers were the ones who always get the highest honors at the end of the year. It did not make sense at all. And yet the teachers were taking all these things very seriously.

Schools should minimize rote learning and memorization, and instead spend time letting students understand and appreciate what they are learning. Still,  there are things which need to be memorized, such as the multiplication tables, the symbols of chemical elements and their valences, the axioms of geometry, etc. Students must learn how to do so with a minimum of suffering.

There are many known methods that will take out the pain in memory work. The teachers should be familiar with them and try them, and then teach the students how to use them. Here are examples:

• Use songs and rhymes. This is very helpful in preschool and elementary levels. We notice how easily children learn to sing songs, even if they don’t understand the words yet. This insight can be used for many basic things to memorize. The multiplication table can be repeatedly recited with a sing-song rhythm, and later it will come back like a song in the head when we repeat the numbers to be multiplied. The alphabet is similarly learned when we recite it to the tune of “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.” Even languages can be learned first by listening to foreign songs and singing them. Besides, it’s fun to do it this way.
•  Make it into a game. Teachers can devise creative games that will put fun into memory work. Suppose the students need to memorize the symbols of the chemical elements (Pb for lead, Ag for silver, Na for sodium, etc.). The teacher can suggest a card game patterned after the Memory Game that are sold commercially. Every chemical element will have two cards, one containing the symbol, and the other is the full name of the element. Fifty cards, for example, will therefore have the symbols and names of 25 elements. Then they are laid out on a table faced down, and each student will have the chance to turn up and look at two cards each time, which will also be seen by everybody. If the cards match (symbol and name), he keeps the cards and opens two again. If there are no matching cards, they will be put back on the table faced down again and it will be the turn of another student. The other students will need to remember these cards because the moment they find a card whose corresponding symbol or name has been seen, then they have to remember where it was.  But they first have to recognize which symbol matches which name. The one who has the most cards wins the game.
• Use story sequences. When my children were in elementary and high school, they were asked by their teachers to memorize many things which they felt bored about, such as the economic products of a certain region in the Philippines. I did not know why kids had to memorize them, but anyway they had to. So we made it into a learning game by using story sequences. Suppose the products of the central provinces of the Philippines (Region 3) are rice, coconut, fish, and iron. What we did was to create a story such as the following: In Region 3, there are only three coconut trees. When they bore fruit, it was not coconut that came out but hugh fishes with scales that have the color of metal. In time they harden and turn to iron, and they become so heavy that when they fall, they sink deep into the ground and become seeds that eventually sprout as rice stalks. While inventing these stories, we have a lot of fun. By the end of just one such story, the products are perfectly remembered without effort.

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• Memory pegs. Students can be taught ingenious systems of remembering numbers that will help them for the rest of their lives. One such method is memory pegs, developed by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas.
• Association. Another is to associate a fact to be memorized with something familiar and graphic. For example, who was the leader of the Mongolian conquerors who invaded Europe? Genghis Khan. Think of him as a genius with a can on his head to fill his overflowing knowledge. Eventually these associative stories will no longer be need if we remember the name easily.
• Mnemonics. When one needs to remember a sequence of names or items, then link their initial letters to something familiar, or make the first words into a story.

The above are but some of the many known ways of taking the agony out of memorizing. Let the teacher or the school systematize the teaching of memory in a fun way.

Speed Reading

Another skill that students should be taught is to speed read. The average rate of reading of an ordinary adult is about 300 words per minute. This can be increased to three times or more by teaching the students certain methods of reading and comprehending. President John kennedy is said to read at 5,000 words per minute. The fastest readers in the world are said to be able to read 30-50,000 words a minute.

Speedreading is not simply about reading faster. It actually helps the reader to attain better comprehension of the material. The reader is able to see the larger picture of the chapter or paragraph, and hence in fact be able to recognize which details to just skim through and which ones to focus on. It is intelligent reading.

Vocabulary building

The extent of one’s vocabulary also determines how fast one can learn in that language. Poor vocabulary limits or slows down learning. Vocabulary levels also have been found to have correspondences with intelligence and capability. It is therefore helpful for the school to have a continuing program of increasing the vocabulary of all the students. Encourage them too to have a good dictionary as their bosom friend.

Explore and Experiment

Explore and experiment with various other known insights about efficient learning. For example, it has been known that when students are learning a language, they are able to learn and remember more new words when they are doing it with largo type of music at the background. Largo music have one beat per second and do not have the rhythm similar to a ¾ beat of a waltz. There is a monotony to it that appears to occupy or pacify a part of our brain or mind, and which prevents that part from chattering and causing distraction.