Many adults who have been out of the education system for some time are concerned about their ability to learn effectively. They worry that their brains have ‘gone stale’ or that you ‘can’t teach an old dog new tricks’. However, this is not the case. Anyone of any age has the capacity to learn -we all continue learning throughout our lives.

Yet, for your learning to be both efficient and effective, it is important to think first about how you learn. By doing this you will find that you understand your learning better, your studies become more enjoyable and you are able to learn more in less time. This chapter provides advice and guidance about learning how to learn.

WHAT IS LEARNING?

Learning is not just about memorising facts. It also includes the development of skills, knowledge, critical thinking and power of argument. Learning also helps us to carry out tasks more successfully and more efficiently. Learning can be divided into three areas:

• Learning which helps you improve your physical abilities. At school you might have been taught how to play netball, football or hockey. You might have had swimming lessons as a child. Indeed, as a very young child you learned how to stand, walk, run and hop.
• Learning which helps you to develop and increase your knowledge. Everything you know has been learned at some stage in your life.
• Learning which helps you to change your attitude and beliefs. This could be in a formal learning setting – you might have been taught something by a school teacher which made you change your mind about something in which you believed, or you may have experienced a situation that tested your existing assumptions, helped you to learn something new and changed your attitudes.

RECOGNISING PRIOR EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

When we return to learning we carry with us all the baggage of our previous learning experiences. For some adults these experiences will be negative, whereas for others they may be positive. Most adults, however, will be able to draw on both positive and negative experiences, all of which can help you to evaluate and improve your learning.

It is important that you can learn from all your experiences, and, as an adult, you have a great deal of experience on which to draw. Experiences are not just about the acquisition of knowledge, but about the process through which you move to acquire this knowledge. For example, you may have tried to learn French at school but think that you were not very successful because you didn’t pass your O Level or GCSE. However, you went through the process of learning a language, and as an adult you can draw on this learning experience. You might decide to learn Spanish because you go on frequent holidays to Spain – your motivation levels are much higher, you are interested in the language and you have your school experiences on which to draw. All this should contribute towards a positive learning experience.

If you are new to your subject area, you may think that you have no knowledge of your subject. However, you almost certainly will have some knowledge, although you may not have recognised this. Your interest in the subject must have developed from somewhere – perhaps it was a television programme or a newspaper article. If this is the case you will have information about the subject stored somewhere in your memory. As your course progresses, you will find that this previously stored knowledge filters through into your studies and helps you with your reading and essay writing.

EVALUATING YOUR PRIOR LEARNING

To help you think about your ability to learn, think about all the times when learning has been successful and all the times when learning has been unsuccessful. Table 1 provides an example of this exercise from Alice, a 31-year-old mother of two, enrolled on an access course.

Alice was surprised to find that she had more items of successful learning than she had of unsuccessful learning, especially as she had considered herself to be a ‘failure’ at school.

Table 1. Evaluation of prior learning

From the above exercise it becomes clear that for successful learning to take place, the following should occur:

• The skills to be learned are relevant to you and your needs.
• You are interested in your learning.
• You are motivated to learn.
• You can learn to use these skills in different contexts and activities.
• You are actively involved in the learning process.
• You are able to think, develop and work at your own pace.
• You feel comfortable in your learning environment.
• You are comfortable with the instructor, teaching methods and/or teaching materials.

Learning can be unsuccessful for the following reasons and it is important to notice that some of these reasons are through no fault of your own:

• Poor teaching methods and/or materials.
• Uncomfortable learning environment.
• Lack of confidence.
• Low opinion of self and ability.
• Stress.
• Lack of motivation and interest.
• Irrelevance to life and interests.
• Forced to do something you don’t want to do.

An important part of learning how to learn is the development of self-evaluation skills. It is useful to do this at the start of your course as it will help you to think about your prior experience in relation to the subjects you hope to study. However, it is useful to continue this self-evaluation throughout your course. One way to do this is through keeping a learning diary which is discussed in Chapter 3.

RECOGNISING YOUR LEARNING STYLE

Over recent years a great deal has been written about individual learning styles. Some people believe that the learning style you were born with remains the same throughout your life, whereas others believe learning styles can and will change as you grow older.

Today, on the internet, there are a variety of surveys which will help you to start thinking about your preferred learning style. Just type ‘Learning Style Survey’ into a search engine and see what comes up. I have tested two of these surveys and they are both fairly accurate in terms of my learning style. Have a go at filling them in – it’s an interesting exercise because it makes you think about the way you retain information. However, you should remember that this type of online survey can be open to misinterpretation and error – don’t take the results too seriously.

An awareness of your learning style may help to point you in the direction of the right course and could help to overcome problems you might experience due to a mismatch in teaching and learning styles. However, good tutors will recognise that people learn in different ways and they will tailor their teaching methods to the learning style and preferences of people in their class. If they don’t do this, students will not enjoy their learning and find it an unfulfilling and dissatisfying experience. Often, older students perceive this to be a problem with their personal ability to learn, thinking that their brains are getting ‘woolly’ due to their age. However, this is not the case. Instead, problems such as this may arise because of the teaching style of the tutor and not because of your ability to learn.

When thinking about your learning style, it might help to ask yourself the following questions:

• 1)Do I prefer to work through problems myself or do I prefer to discuss them with other people?
• 2)Do I rush into solving a problem immediately, or do I prefer to sit back and think about all the options first?
• 3)Do I prefer practical experimentation or do I like to think about theoretical issues?
• 4)Do I try to be objective and detached or do I like to form relationships and share my personal opinions?
• 5)Do I prefer working with figures or words?
• 6)Do I like to be team-leader, led by others or work on my own?
• 7)Am I a good team-player? What role do I take within a team?
• 8)Do I like to read about an issue first, or discuss it first with other people?
• 9)What method of teaching did I most prefer at school? Why was this?
• 10)What method of teaching did I least prefer at school? Why was this?
• 11)Do I always believe what I am told or do I have to check it out for myself?
• 12)Do I think problems through step-by-step or do I prefer to view the whole picture?
• 13)Do I see a new situation as a challenge or as a barrier?

IMPROVING CONCENTRATION AND MEMORY

Everyone can improve their memory. Indeed, some people believe that there is no such thing as bad memory – instead people just use their memory badly.

Our memory is made up of two main parts – the short-term memory and the long-term memory. In the short-term memory we store facts and ideas for as long as we need to apply them. In the long-term memory we store information that we will use at a later stage. To pass information from the short-term memory to the long-term memory we have to practise what we have learned. This involves careful reflection and analysis, thinking about what we have learned, writing about the concepts and ideas and understanding them. It may also involve some form of repetition and rote learning, especially in the case of facts and figures.

There are four parts to developing an effective memory:

• Information is received through various ways – the eyes, ears, touch, smell and taste. However, to receive information effectively, we must be open to receiving the information. This means that the information we wish to receive must have some personal relevance and we must be paying attention to what we are receiving.
• The information is stored in our memory in an effective manner. This will depend upon the type of information we are receiving. Facts and figures may have to be repeated over and over again, ideas and concepts may have to be thought about, written about and discussed. The storage of information is more effective if we understand what we are storing.
• The information has to be stored in an appropriate place within our memory. This involves a process of organisation where ideas are related to each other. It is easier to remember things if we can relate it to past experience and knowledge.
• We must be able to retrieve effectively the information when it is required. This may involve practice in recalling information and regularly reviewing the information we have stored.

As we have seen earlier, people learn in different ways. This affects the way we remember. For example, some people will find it much easier to remember faces whereas others find it easier to remember names. Your memory can be improved by understanding the learning style which helps you to take in and retain information in the most effective way. If you consider multi-sensory modes of learning – including sight, sound and touch – interest is added to the learning process and information is retained more effectively. Research has shown that school children find it easier to learn if it is possible to see, hear, say and touch the relevant materials. Learning can also be enhanced by the use of movement, such as that found in dance and drama.

For adults, information retention can be enhanced with the use of auditory and visual modes of learning – for example, learning rhymes to help you remember, or using visual images such as videos and slides. Do you remember the colours of the rainbow through the name ROY G. BIV, do you sing the song, or do you use the phrase ‘Richard of York gave battle in vain’? If you find the method that suits you, it will help your memory to become more efficient and effective.

TRAINING YOUR MIND TO LEARN

One of the most important parts of training your mind to learn is to recognise and take control of those factors that distract you from your learning. Chapters 2 and 3 consider environmental distractions and those caused by other people, but perhaps even more powerful are those influenced by our own minds and bodies. Examples of these distractions are listed in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Learning distractions

Create a similar table and fill it with your personal distractions. Once you have recognised these distractions you will be able to resolve the problems by tackling them one at a time. Start with those that are easy to rectify such as having your eyesight and hearing checked. Other identifiable problems will decline or be reduced as your course progresses and you become more familiar and comfortable with the learning environment.