Can you remember what you had for lunch last week Tuesday? Probably not. Our brains are masters at forgetting information we don’t repeat regularly. But what can we do about it? I, like many others, had to painstakingly learn the art of learning as I went through college. Here are some of my tips for successful learning.
Whether you learn better as an individual or in a group? Active learning is more effective than passive! Repeating topics activates strong connections in the brain and ensures a particularly long retention. If you learn alone, explain a topic to yourself. Sounds strange? Try it anyway. It is much more effective than just reading. At the end of the learning unit, summarize what you have learned. Confucius already recognized that active learning is better than passive learning: “Tell me, and I forget; show me, and I remember; let me do, and I retain.” Or as I learned it in South Africa in the emergency department during my PJ: “See one, do one, teach one.”