Week+4+–+Renaissance+Learning+and+Unlocking+Your+Potential

=Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects= [|Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects]

=by Dr. Barbara Oakley, Dr. Terrence Sejnowski =

1. How to Become a Better Learner
 * the best gift you can give your brain is **physical exercise** - new neurons are born every day - hippocampus
 * new neurons help you learn new things, but they will die if you don't use them -> new experiences and exercise help to rescue them
 * ** critical periods of learning ** - first language learning - seeing stereopsis requires depth perception - practice can retain and train the brain
 * prefrontal cortex - learning, planing, language - complex analysis in social behaviors, decision making and planing
 * 2 ****Create a lively visual metaphor or analogy**
 * a metaphor = realizing that one thing is somehow similar to another, important to the scientific and engineering progress
 * metaphors and models are vitally important in giving a physical understanding of the central idea behind the process or concept you are trying to understand
 * they are also useful to get people out of einstellung (= blocked by a thinking about the problem in the wrong way)
 * **stories** can help more easily to retain what you are trying to learn
 * metaphors are as the qlue = make the connections to neural structures that are already there
 * metaphors are as the qlue = make the connections to neural structures that are already there

**3. No need for genius envy**

 * once you understand **why** you are doing something in math and science, you do not have to keep re-explaining the how to yourself every time you do it
 * if you use the procedure a lot, by doing many different types of problems, you'll find that you understand both the why and the how behind the procedure
 * people learn **by trying to make sense out of the information** they perceive
 * making complex decisions rapidly -> shut down the conscious system and rely the well trained intuition (if you are an expert)
 * **einstellung**
 * **big** working memory - being creative is more difficult?
 * small working memory - can more easily generalize learning into new, creative combinations, because you can more easily get input from other parts of the brain, like sensory cortex
 * source of dreams and creative ideas
 * deliberately practice of the toughest part of the material can lift average brains into the realm of those with more natural gifts
 * imposter syndrom = feelings of inadequacy, feeling that you are cheating other people when you are doing well in the test

**4. Change your thoughts, change your life**

 * Santiago Ramon y Cajal - biography - the virtue of less brilliant = perseverance + flexible ability to change his mind and admit errors
 * Myelin - using neuronal circuits help build myelin sheet over ? - practice strengthen and reinforce connections between different brain regions creating high ways between the brains control centers and the center that store knowledge
 * we can make significant changes in our brain by changing how we think
 * taking responsibility of own learning is one of the most important thing you can do
 * empathy is not universally beneficial - **it is not -** it is important to learn to switch an occasional cool dispassion -> helps you concentrate on what you are learning and turn people out if their interest lie in undercutting you.

**5. A value of the teamwork**

 * differences between two hemispheres:
 * **right hemisphere** helps us put our work into big picture perspective, reality checks, serves like a devils advocate to question the status quo and look for qlobal inconsistencies
 * **left hemisphere:** tries to cling to the way things were, interprets the world force and **tries to keep those interpretations unchanged ->** potential for rigidity, dogmatism and egocentricity
 * focus mode of analysis - left side dominance?
 * checking makes possible to take account both hemispheres
 * studying with friends helps to put things in the right perspective and perceive blind spots - studying together is effective **IF** the group is studying

**6. A test checklist**

 * testing is a learning experience - you learn much more by taking a hours test than reading a hour, because testing has a wonderful way of concentrating the mind
 * checklist by Richard Felder
 * 1) Make a serious effort to understand the text
 * 2) Work with classmates on homework problems
 * 3) Outline every homework solution
 * 4) Participate actively in homework group discussions
 * 5) Consult with the instructor
 * 6) Try to understand all the homework problem solutions
 * 7) Try to outline lots of problem solutions quickly

7. Hard start - jump to easy
Tips for tests:
 * start with the tough problems - but quickly jump to the easy ones
 * starting hard loads the first most difficult problem in mind and then switches attention away from it -> the diffuse mode begins to work.
 * always change to something easier when you feel yourself getting bogged
 * in this way you use your brain more efficiently by using different parts of it work simultaneously on different thoughts.
 * requires the self discipline to pull yourself of the problem once you find yourself stuck

8. Final helpful hints for tests

 * panicking in the test situation: the interpretation of the panic symptoms = think that this test is making me exited rather that this test makes me afraid
 * turn your attention to the breathing -> deep breathing
 * multiple choice questions: cover up the answers and try to recall the information
 * face your fears: if you fear you do not good enough grades for you career have a plan B, other career
 * good worry = helps provide motivation and focus
 * bad worry = wastes energy
 * day before test => have a quick look at the material
 * in the test = shift your attention and double check the answers using a big picture and ask yourself does this really make sense
 * start checking from front to back = you can get a fresher perspective

9. Summing up the week 4

 * create a metaphor or analogy to things you want to learn
 * changing thoughts can change the life
 * if you do not check your work you are acting as a person who refuses to use the whole brain
 * too much overconfidence can mean you use only part of your brain - talk with your study friends can give you more insight
 * stress and chemicals -
 * the importance of the sleep

Book: McGilchrist Iain: The master and his emissary


 * Sanastoa **
 * Bogged = ** juuttunut
 * Contingency = ** valmiussuunnitelma
 * Contrariness = **vastustushalu
 * Delinquency **
 * demean = **halventaa
 * Imposter ** = huijari
 * outline =** luonnostele
 * perseverance** = sinnikkyys
 * subside** = laantua