How to Learn with Intention (According to Cambridge)

Crack the code to learning efficiently

I find myself having the personality traits of a very obnoxious person. This includes my inability to mentally rest (like most writers) and my yearn to learn.

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This means over summers, I find myself on EDX constantly. EDX is a website where you can take free online courses. Naturally the first course I took was PredictionX: Omens, Oracles & Prophecies by HarvardX so I can say “my Harvard course” or credit knowledge i’m sharing to Harvard. EDX courses allow you a payable option that will give you a certificate and in some courses allow access to assignments rather than just the reading and video material. I have only purchased a course once… to say I have a Harvard certificate. It hangs on my mom’s fridge.

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This summer, I took a Cambridge University course called ‘Learning and Memory in the Brain: a Guide for Teachers’

Now, I know what you may be thinking- you may not be a teacher, and I am not a teacher writing this. However, I think this can benefit everyone, especially students (which I am) and thought this would be perfect as we enter the fall semester.

I also would like to say, if you are a student, and a university student especially- well done! I know how overwhelming it can feel, how scary it is between preparing for after college and just making sure you can simply graduate. Let me share what I learned to hopefully ease anxieties and hopefully provide some tools!

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Ginny, our course instructor, introduces this course with a section on basic neuroscience. This was extremely helpful in understanding the content that referenced the connections of neurons later in the course. I know I have learned this countless times in school, but definitely appreciated the review. Here is a picture of my notes below to refresh your brain as well!

Ok now that this looks a little overwhelming… let us actually begin.

✶⋆.˚ Understanding How the Brain Learns: Key Takeaways from a Cambridge Course ✶⋆.˚

Forms of Learning:

✶⋆.˚ The most impactful thing I learned from this section is the Hebb Theory and Long Term Potentiation.

To begin, adaptation is when neurons become less sensitive or fatigued and habituation is learning to stop responding to repeated stimuli; A little like adaptation, but more consciously controlled. so, for example, a sea slug being poked will withdraw, thinking the stimuli is dangerous. But, if it keeps happening, it realizes it's not and stops having that reaction.

Hebb Theory (1949)- Neurons that fire together, wire together. (True)

- When one neuron repeatedly activates, a second, long-term potentiation happens.

Long Term Potentiation (first few minutes or hours after learning something)

• Before you learn something the neuron connection is weak. When the signal comes in , some neurotransmitters release and some receptors pick it up and send the signal on (slow process).

• When you learn, the first neuron starts making more neurotransmitters, so when the same signal comes in, more is released to the synapse.

  • The second neuron actually grows new receptors

• If the activation of two neurons continues for long enough, new synapses can grow between neurons- extra branches, extra dendrites!

  • The first stage of laying down memories, memory, consolidation.

Brain Anatomy

Helpful notes:

✶⋆.˚ My favorite fact EVER (and simultaneously least favorite) Every time you recall a memory, you’re effectively reconstructing it, activating the network of brain regions that stored it. This process destabilizes the memory. After, it needs to be consolidated again. Scary!

• Scientists are not completely sure how this works (ugh I know). It is similar but different to the initial consolidation process using different proteins. In this process the memory can be changed and details can be lost or added. Once reconsolidated it's impossible to tell the new from the old. (haaaate this concept, can I add Jimmy Fallon into my 6th birthday memory)

  • This can be beneficial when learning! Associate it with something else next week or next semester to build connections and help learning AND memory. (Love a double whammy!)

✶⋆.˚ The trick to memory is to recall it just as you're about to forget it.

Schema- sets of already known things

• Provides a framework to help us structure and understand information.

• Efficient — we don't need to remember all the details.

• Automatic - doesn't take too much effort.

• Slow to update when new information is presented.

Students need a good foundation to use as the schema for learning new information in class

Declarative memory

People remember the first and last components of a list. When studying it is important to mix up the order to prevent this from being a disadvantage.

• Will remember concrete words over abstract words.

Bartele’s ‘The War of the Ghosts’ where he told a story and asked people to recall and retell the story at different times. He noted that they added detail and emotions to make the story make more sense to them. All of this helped us to understand that memory isn't simply for storage, it's a way of helping us make sense of the world to understand what's going on. Even if that means altering the information that comes in in some way.

Brain Changes Through The Ages:

What goes on in a baby’s brain?

John Locke- humans are born a tabula rasa (blank slate) ready to be shaped by experience.

Plato- we are born with innate knowledge of perfect ideas and concepts.

Modern Theory- some of our understanding of language is innate.

• A common way of finding out what babies like is to give them two options and see which one they choose to look at.

• Babies are born with a preference for faces- just a few hours after birth, they'll choose to look at a face or something that resembles a face over any other stimulus.

Novelty:

Infants can process their preference for novelty

If you show a baby the same image over and over again, they’ll get bored and stop looking at it. If you show them something new, they will look longer again.

Conceptual Knowledge:

If, for example, they look longer at an impossible event like an object teleporting, they’re said to be surprised by that event and therefore understand it’s impossible. (believing all claims for folk physics we’re born with have been made).

Object Permanence:

If you show a very young baby a toy and cover it with a blanket, they’ll quickly lose interest.

At 8 months old, they’ll start to look for the toy under the blanket! (they understand object permanence)

• This is why peak-a-boo is so entertaining for babies because they really believe you’re disappearing.

Critical Period Theory:

Some scientists argue that if you don’t develop certain skills at the right time during childhood, you’ll never fully grasp them.

Sensitive Periods:

During the first few years of life, new neural connections form really quickly.

Then, these connections are reduced through pruning. Those used regularly are strengthened, and those that aren't are removed allowing the brain circuits to become more efficient.

Executive Function and Self-regulation:

What it does: regulate behavior, focus on the task at hand, and plan for the future.

Two times these skills develop rapidly: 3-5 and again in teenage years.

• There is evidence that the development of these brain regions relies on the child's experience.

• Stress can delay the development of executive functions.

  • Routine and guidance, and practice and play can help to rework this

    • Hiding games for babies to challenge memory, jigsaw puzzles for older kids, and strategy games for teens.

Metacognition:

The ability to think about thinking and know about knowing (say that three times fast).

To do this, students must:

• Tells us if we know something or need more practice

• It develops with age and practice

• Take a test and then predict what they scored.

✶⋆.˚ Evidence in the Classroom

Active Learning:

anything where the students are having to use and think about what they’re being taught, rather than just reading a textbook or listening or lecture.

Why it works: the way memories form

• To store a memory, we need to create new links between neurons and then to strengthen it.

Desirable difficulty in learning

• If something is easy your brain isn't active or strengthening it

Active learning consists of :

• Write down key takeaway

• Predictions

• Discussions

Regular tests and quizzes (recall what is learned- activates neural connections)

3 questions based on the material from the lesson, pull 10 on Friday for a quiz- this stimulates spaced learning

Interleaving

• Mixing up tasks, topics or questions to keep the brain working and engaged. Only works well when topics are similar

Mnemonics:

• first letter of each item to remember (ROYGBIV for colors of the rainbow)

The Memory Palace/ Loci:

The oldest and was used back in Roman times to learn long speeches by heart.

Best for lists and order

• Use something you already know like your house, imagine walking through it and placing items corresponding to each item on your list in various places. When you recall it, you imagine walking the route again and you should find the items pop up in your mind.

Learning Styles

• According to studies, students do not truly learn better with one style over another, although it may be preferred, it is not accurate.

• It is best to relate it to the content

• Word with image helps people remember better