What are the most effective learning methods? What is yours?

[Oaky]

There have been a lot of different ways to learn, and with technology new ways in learning are also being developed that were less possible before.

How much is memorisation over understanding important in how you learn something new? Do you require direct experience to help in understanding? Visual, auditory or feelings about something too?

 

[á´…eparted]

I am an auditory learner first, visual second.

Understanding >>>>>> memorizing

I am a conceptualizer. if I can't put together the concepts into some sort of larger framework or general idea, I struggle. I must understand the concepts first and foremost. It's also my strongest point of learning.

While I can memorize, if it is just blunt with little tied to it I struggle. I also despise doing so. I look for patterns to condense information down so I don't have to memorize, but instead know the concept and apply it to individual cases each time.

 

[Yama]

I'm very visual and auditory. I take notes in class but I never look at them or study them. Just by listening and paying attention I retain pretty much all of the information. When it comes to learning something more concrete and less abstract, I am very hands-on. Are you teaching me how to make something?? Then I need you to give me the materials and walk through it with me so I can build it for myself, rather than just telling me how to do so or giving me a paper with numbered directions on it.

 

[Smilephantomhive]

I memorize some of the basics by reading and listening, and writing it down. I'm much better at auditory learning, but the more methods the better. Then I try and see how it all fits together logically, and figure out why things are the way they are. I can definitely pass a test through pure memorization, but if I want to remember it after I take the class then the logic way is more effective. I guess you could say that memorization are the building blocks, but that alone doesn't allow me to understand it.

With hands on things I'm the opposite of 21lux. If you walk it through with me then it will take forever for me to learn. I prefer someone to give me instructions, and I'll figure out the rest.

Also if I feel like the thing I'm learning is important or interesting then I'll do better in it.

 

[Hawthorne]

outlining. if/then charts. mnemonic associations. the palace thing. orating/lecturing.

Strongly visual.

 

[DaftGuru]

my study method is to look at all of the powerpoints i have to know and then cry in a ball on the floor

 

[Qlip]

It's been such a long time since I feel like I've had to actively study a subject and it feel like a burden. I think I've been doing something right. I'm pretty sure I learn best by having it matter and by being hands on.

 

[miss fortune]

I actually avoid trying to just rotely study something to learn it, because my brain takes one look at an entire page full of super serious text and skitters off into the corner like some sort of nervous kitten

if I ever do get around to studying (not something that I often do, since I'm of the attitude of "if I haven't picked up on it yet in class, there's no use in trying to fit it into my head now") I just work through problems in the question section of the textbook... I learn a lot more by going through and figuring out how to get to the solution, even if that does require flipping back into the text with a purpose, than I ever do by just trying to flat out memorize things... learning HOW to get an answer is the most important thing to me, I guess

which probably translates somehow to learning by doing

 

[cascadeco]

Oh wow, school was so very very long ago.

I recall I did best just learning on my own. So with formal classes, I'd take notes. I relied on my notes pretty much exclusively when it came to studying for exams.

I don't feel this is very helpful, lol, but it's true. For 90% of my classes I'd just end up not super actively paying attention or listening to the teacher -- I mean I'd listen to the extent of being able to take notes but I wasn't trying to 'learn' in real time. And much of the time when they'd ramble on I'd just zone out, I think. Because I always ended up relying on notes/books for exams.

There was a very small % of my classes though that were not lecture-based, that were small-classroom based, and those required either active participation or much more of a focus on every single thing the professor was saying.

Outside of formal school, like with my watercolors/art, I am a learner-by-doer / practice / messing up / learning as I go. I am not a fan of online learning/ researching up on lots of things, mostly because in terms of art, watching a video or reading something might make everything seem super 'easy' in theory, but in practice all of that goes out the window.

 

[Null]

The best learning method for me would be a group-setting, which allowed me to talk to other people about it. It's easier collecting ideas together and asking questions directly that way. I'm way to easily distracted to read dry, theoretical books or listen to some audio for more then a few minutes.

If I just have to memorize stuff though, it's faster to write down all the important information by hand and read through it once or twice.

 

[Dreamer]

As long as I can visualize the concepts in my head, no matter how abstract, I'm good. I also need to know the "why?". It just doesn't compute no matter how hard I try, if someone just gives me a series of steps to perform, like for math equations. I need to know why I'm doing something, the big picture of it all.

 

[magpie]

To me, understanding is the key to memorization. The majority of what I do at school, on a surface level at least, is memorizing, since before I started studying acting I was a languages major. If you memorize something without understanding it you will soon forget.

I guess I come to understand things through a series of internal associations. They don't have to be "correct" to others, they just have to make sense to me.

 

[ceecee]

Visual and tactile.

 

[Redbone]

Visual/exploratory learning is best for me. Auditory learning is a no-no. I study by writing and taking notes. I don't consult the notes at a later date...writing notes creates engrams for me.

Oh look--they've got goats chomping on brush to clean up around the airport! That sounds like the coolest business ever...is it more fun to be the goat or the owner?

 

[Coriolis]

There have been a lot of different ways to learn, and with technology new ways in learning are also being developed that were less possible before.

How much is memorisation over understanding important in how you learn something new? Do you require direct experience to help in understanding? Visual, auditory or feelings about something too?

I find it very hard to memorize things by rote. Once I understand what they mean and how they fit together in some system or framework, though, it becomes much easier. When I do have to memorize by rote, I therefore have to find or even make a system to organize things, or it is hopeless. I will make flashcards and group them, first one way, then another, then keep going over and over them. But still, I won't remember it all for long after the "test" unless the facts hang together on their own. When I learn lanugages, then, it starts with rote memorization because I don't know the framework. As I learn more, it becomes easier to learn more because I start to see how it all fits together.

I can't point to a single preferred learning style. Standard school-type knowledge I learn best by reading. Lectures and videos help, but I still need to go back to the texts and read them, sometimes several times. Things that are skill based I have to do to really understand, whether that is how to conduct a certain kind of experiment, or how to code in a new language, or how to apply a new sewing technique. Auditory learning is especially important for things that are inherently auditory in nature: speaking and listening in a foreign language, and anything musical.

 

[Tellenbach]

It's easier to learn when you take an active interest in the topic; sometimes, it's difficult when the subject is boring, but you can increase your interest by asking questions whenever you don't understand a concept. Another way to develop interest is in a study group setting or when you have to explain a topic to someone. Hopefully someone in the study group came prepared and can answer your stupid questions and not be too annoyed.

 

[sonictard]

Learning through osmosis.

Spontaneous absorption, subtle adjustment of the filter of the conceptual, iceberg-like conscious mind.

 

[Lark]

There have been a lot of different ways to learn, and with technology new ways in learning are also being developed that were less possible before.

How much is memorisation over understanding important in how you learn something new? Do you require direct experience to help in understanding? Visual, auditory or feelings about something too?

For me learning takes motivation, most of my motivation is relationship based, although there is a question of the relationship with the self too which means I can be pretty highly self motivated and will learn from books were I can but there are important examples of when I think that things have to be visual, have you ever tried to learn origami from a book for instance? I have found that impossible, from a slowed down youtube video, sure, definitely but not a book.

There are a lot of other instances however when I think written communication trumphs the alternative, given that I find so much other stuff can come into verbal communication, stress at attempts to communicate which fail, stress at perceptions or assumptions or misunderstandings about the learners capacities, motivation, willingness or abilities to understand, impatience, all of that, I've had a lots of different situations were I have been as good a student as possible with a really bad teacher who has huge issues of self-esteem or competence and would really rather prefer that they people they are imparting knowledge to remain ignorant, incapable etc. because it preserves whatever semblance of superiority or dominance they imagine they have or have a strong need to imagine they have.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a thing in management but its even bigger in education or training of any variety too, mistakes people make about their own competence and that of others based upon the roles they play.

 

[Cellmold]

I jump in balls deep and see what sticks.

It's the only way it works for me. Maybe a bit of Mnemonics on the way as well, but not really that often. Mainly the jumping in thing.

Either I get it or I don't, binary as that is.

 

[gromit]

I see there being two kinds of learning, facts learning and concepts learning. There is overlap between the two but you kind of need to do both.

In terms of really remembering information or facts (not just some stupid mnemonic, which I've also used in a pinch), then for me the best is meaningful repetition, using the information in context multiple times.

As for concepts, I pay a lot of attention during lectures, ask clarifying questions, etc. If I understand the material and it makes sense that first time, I hardly have to review for the exam. If it's more complicated then I might have to go through the concepts a few more times, on my own, or have a friend explain it, or even the faculty. Once I "get" the idea, then I'm good.

As for learning style, probably a bit of everything: practical/hands-on, reflection, conversation, etc.