Technologies Affect How Students Think And Learn

The putting of spaces between words, and the mass production of books paved the way for a new kind of reading in the 1800’s. Ellen White observed the cause and effect of this new way of reading, “With the immense tide of printed matter constantly pouring from the press, old and young form the habit of reading hastily and superficially, and the mind loses its power of connected and vigorous thought.” Reading hastily weakens the minds ability to learn and think.

Devices, the internet and social media have made many chronic skimmers. Days, weeks and months are filled with lots of scrolling and racing through texts, web pages and images. Deep reading and deep thinking are rare in our digital lives. What has become the dominant way of reading is the way that leads to the loss of “connected and vigorous thought.”

Learning calls for a student to think rigorously about an idea, thus allowing him to see the relation it has to the next idea and among the sum of ideas in his classes. Ideas that are connected and related remain easily accessible to him, and he can apply them comfortably.

But robbed of the power of “connected and vigorous thought”, the mind fails to follow thoughts in classes, and in textbooks. Students fall behind. Chronic skimming has weakened the mind’s ability to follow thoughts and think deeply. And unable to see the logical connections and progressions of ideas, rote learning is adopted as the means to pass through school.

Further the mind is weakened by rote learning. Not practicing higher order thinking saps the mind’s strength to do high order thinking. Use it or lose it, is the wisdom of neuroscience. But what is more troubling, is the idea that many schools further drill children throughout their schools’ lives, at the expense of teaching them to learn and think. Few schools provide a remedy today.

But this experience need not be long lived, the mind can regain its ability to learn and think deeply. This is made possible by practicing deep reading and listening. Those practices will be the subject of a future post.

Education That Does Not Impart Intellectual Strength

When I was between the ages of 8-12, myself and a dozen of other primary school aged children, plunged into a pool and begun our first swimming lesson. It was very evident to our instructor that skill and strength were going to come through practice and doing. Small bits of technical knowledge would be followed with lots of practice and doing. When the technical knowledge had become part of our experiential knowledge, we would receive more, which was similarly followed by intense practice and doing.

An alternative teaching method the instructor could have employed, would have been to give us a years’ worth of technical knowledge to use in a pool at some future time. But taught in this way, we would have soon lost interest in swimming, and the knowledge to be applied in some distant future. Moreover, we would have had very little swimming ability to show from all our getting of technical knowledge. This alternative method rules education today, and consequently education is not creating many intellectuals.

It seems largely forgotten that we “that we learn by doing; that practice makes perfect; that example is more powerful than precept; that true education is a development—a growth, —and not a manufacture or an accretion; that ability can neither be borrowed nor lent; that strength and skill come through exercise, and not by imitation.”

The most able teacher could give learners all the technical knowledge needed to have a good command of English grammar, with hope they’ll make use of it at some future time, but knowledge that isn’t immediately applied will soon be forgotten. Children will soon lose interest in English grammar, and they will have very little skill to show in reading and writing from all their getting of technical knowledge.

From the youngest to the oldest, we should have children forever doing. We learn by doing; it is practice that makes perfect, and it is activity that builds intellectual strength.

What Eating can Teach Us About Learning

Photograph: Irene Jurgens

1. Our meals do not immediately come one after the other, we leave time in between meals to digest.

I have found it to be most ideal after 40-60 mins of learning to allow myself 20-30 minutes of reflection and meditation on what I have just learnt, in order to help my mind to digest the ideas (20-30 minutes has been ideal). I have found this brings clarity, fosters the connection of ideas in my mind and prepares me to pick up the subject again later with enthusiasm to gain more.

2.  We are advised to have as little variety as possible at mealtimes, having a great

variety of foods in one meal burdens the stomach.

I have found this to be the case with the mind. Trying to learn too many ideas in one sitting makes the time fruitless. I have found it best to learn at most two ideas. And to have studied the first thoroughly before moving to the second. Textbooks often pile up too many ideas into one page. You do not have to learn them all in one sitting. Pick one idea, thorough study it, test yourself and move on.

3. It is advised that we eat slowly, and chew well.

Haste makes waste in learning, more fruitful are the sessions where I prioritise thoroughness than speed. Great speed leads to cognitive overload, and overloaded, the brain fails to make connections, to form new memories and brain fatigue quickly settles.

4.  We are advised to eat in a cheerful frame of mind.

We should study in the same frame of mind. Being anxious that we may not be able to learn ideas, robs the mind of the power to learn. And rarely are new ideas learned in one sitting. The mind needs time to digest. Often multiple sittings are necessary in order to have a good command of ideas. Study hopeful and cheerful, say, “what others have learnt in the sciences, I will learn through consistent and well directed hard effort.”