by Sharon L. Bowman.
This post presents the 6 Powerful principles to Learn and Teach better. You can use it when you want to train yourself or someone else.
You can find the original article here.
Here the list of the 6 principles:
- Movement is better than sitting
- Talking is better than listening
- Images is better than words
- Writing is better than reading
- Shorter is better than longer
- Different is better than same
Movement is better than sitting
This principle is easy to understand. The brain works better when well oxygenated and movement increase oxygenation of the brain. At the opposite when sitting for a long time oxygen level in the brain decrease.
So you should move before or when you are learning something.
Talking is better than listening
When you talk about something you learned you process the information 3 times:
- Listening to it
- Thinking about it
- Restating by using your own words
So the best way to learn something is to teach it.
Images is better than words
Brain remember better images than words. By seeing an image the brain remembers the entire picture.
So use mental images or metaphors to remember something.
Writing is better than reading
Have you already tried to write something by thinking about something else? It’s not possible! When writing the brain focus only on what you are writing. Writing is kinesthetic, visual-spatial, and tactile.
So write a short summary on what you are learning.
Shorter is better than longer
When you spell a telephone number to remember it do you spell it as a list of 10? Chances are that you split it as chunks of 2 numbers. Brain remember better when is shorter.
So do short learning sessions instead of long ones (10 to 20 minutes each and pause).
Different is better than same
New things or changes in something we always knew will retain more attention than something that is routine (because it is boring, so the brain ignores it).
So make your learning different to remember better.