Learning How to Learn, Part 2: Chunking

The second week of the Learning How To Learn course is about chunking.

Chunking is about forming small mental patterns of meaning relating the material learned to a greater context. These chunks are committed to memory and are easy to retrieve when needed. They unite scattered information into retrievable conceptual units of meaning, so that we can think and perform actions smoothly without going into all the details each time.

Forming chunks:

1. Focus and give your undivided attention to the information needed to form the chunk
2. Understand the idea you are trying to chunk, use focused and diffused modes of thinking, practice, do it yourself
3. Get context: not just how, but when to use this chunk, and when not to use it. How does it fit in the bigger picture
4. Practice:

Bottom-up learning: chunking: how to use a certain technique

Top-down learning: big picture: when to us a technique instead of some other one

Learning strategy: first go through the table of contents, headings and pictures to get a bigger picture (context), then dive into details. This is called a "picture walk".

Recall: mental retrieval of main ideas, is a lot more effective than rereading the material. Read the material, close the book, try to recall what you read.

Mind mapping does not often work, because it is difficult to connect ideas, before you learn them.

• "Picture walk" through new material
• Focus
• Understand
• Practice
• Test yourself!
• Make mistakes!
• Recall material outside your usual environment.
• Create a library of chunks

Summary:

• Chunking
• Transfer
• Interleave: mix different problems
• Illusions of competence in learning:
• Test yourself
• Minimize highlighting
• Mistakes are good
• Use deliberate practice what you find more difficult
• Einstellung: an old pattern may prevent a better solution from being found

Law of Serendipity: Lady Luck favors those who try

Scott Young, "Marco Polo" of Learning:

- Self-Explanation technique: take a sheet of paper and try to write the concept down as if trying to explain it to somebody else. The parts that are vague are good indicator of where you need to improve on your knowledge

- Find simple analogies and metaphors: like electricity and gravity (potential)

- Develop projects for self-education: e.g. have a mission, try to set yourself interesting challenges, 

- Online resources: MIT open courseware

- Learn more by studying less: 

Amy Alkon, author:

- Start doing things days in advance, so that you give yourself time to assimilate the information

- Reading: it's ok to skip parts, write down main ideas (there are usually not so many of them)

- Learning: read a few times, go to some other reference material

- Sleep: nap, don't sleep too long, slow down your breathing

Some good piece of advice from a grandfather to a grandson:

Immediately after every lecture, meeting, or any significant experience, take 30 seconds -- no more, no less -- to write down the most important points.