How Do We Learn How to Learn?

Introduction

This is not a scholarly work on pedagogy, but rather is a collection of practical ideas on how to learn. This list is not prescriptive (nor in any real order), but I'm offering them in the hope they'll give you suggestions as to new ways of learning how to learn.

General

• Attendance does matter. Go to every class, meeting, section, and office hour you can.
• Constantly ask questions! No question is trivial when you're learning.
• Some enemies of learning: Fear of failure, laziness, and impatience.
• Some allies of learning: Initiative and perseverance. Ninety-nine times out of 100, if you think you should give up, you shouldn't.
• Seek to develop not just knowledge but an intuition about a subject.
• You can learn by approaching a subject by analogy. This is common the physical sciences, where equations in one field are often similar to equations in other fields.
• When working on a contentious issue, you should aim to understand your opponent's view so well that you can argue for your opponent's position with even more winsomeness than your opponent. Then you can say you understand the issues clearly.
• Many times what is important isn't understanding the solution but rather understanding the problem. Thus, is it critical to figure out how you will know what the problem is: The analysis tools to use, the standards of judgment that apply, a sense of what is important and what is not.

Pedagogy

• Knowledge builds upon itself. Thus, it becomes easier to learn the more you know. Learning is hardest when you begin studying a subject.
• You need to both memorize as well as focus on the principles behind the subject. In today's age, memorization has been disparaged. While rote learning alone is not the goal, memorized facts are still essential, as they provide a foundation from which you can extrapolate new ideas using the principles behind a subject.
• Use many methods of learning. This includes reading, debating and talking with others, doing with your hands and body, listening, experimenting, and teaching others.
• Research and discovery can give insight on a subject that reading or listening cannot give.

Reading

• Read from many sources. Don't just read one author's (or teacher's) explanation, but seek a multitude of explanations for a single topic. Different authors explain concepts in different ways; some may really speak to you clearly, while another may be really confusing to you.
• Read both for detail as well as the big picture.
• When reading mathematics or science texts for detail, make sure you can justify to yourself every step in a derivation.

Acknowledgments

Contributions by: Curtis Gruenler, Ninh Le, Johnny Lin, and Jung-Tai Lin. However, only Johnny Lin is responsible for the content of this page. Please email me ideas to add!

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