Introduction: Metacognition and Mindset
Introduction: Metacognition and Mindset
Transcript
In this section, we're going to talk about one overarching question, how do we learn?
I know everyone watching this has successfully learned many, many things in life, from how to drive a car, to how to parent a child. We're all learning all the time. But here's the thing, a lot of how learning works, and how our brains work, turns out to be pretty counterintuitive. And a lot of the ways that we've been taught to think about learning, actually go against the ways that our brains are set up to learn.
What do I mean? Who listening to this has been told at some point "you are a math person." Or, who's been told, "you are not a math person." Most of us have probably gotten one or the other. But the truth is, there's no such thing as a math person. Believing we are though, or that we're not a math person, changes how we learn math. As another example, who was told "practice makes perfect"?
I remember being drilled for hours on my times tables as a kid. Writing out simple problems over and over and over again, in the hopes that if I just wrote them enough times they would stick in my brain. But it turns out, that idea of let me just keep going until it clicks is one of the least productive strategies that we have for long-term learning. So, then what are the productive strategies?
What I'm proposing in this section is that the better we understand our brains the better we'll be able to come up with learning strategies in the classroom, and in life, that can maximize our ability to learn efficiently and to learn deeply.
Now, I'm not a neuroscientist, and I'm not a cognitive psychologist, I am not an expert on the human brain. What I am is a teacher, and a student, and I've worked hard to understand how learning works in the college classroom. I'm going to share with you some key principles that have helped me and my students to learn in the Columbia classroom, and I hope they'll be helpful to you.
I know everyone watching this has successfully learned many, many things in life, from how to drive a car, to how to parent a child. We're all learning all the time. But here's the thing, a lot of how learning works, and how our brains work, turns out to be pretty counterintuitive. And a lot of the ways that we've been taught to think about learning, actually go against the ways that our brains are set up to learn.
What do I mean? Who listening to this has been told at some point "you are a math person." Or, who's been told, "you are not a math person." Most of us have probably gotten one or the other. But the truth is, there's no such thing as a math person. Believing we are though, or that we're not a math person, changes how we learn math. As another example, who was told "practice makes perfect"?
I remember being drilled for hours on my times tables as a kid. Writing out simple problems over and over and over again, in the hopes that if I just wrote them enough times they would stick in my brain. But it turns out, that idea of let me just keep going until it clicks is one of the least productive strategies that we have for long-term learning. So, then what are the productive strategies?
What I'm proposing in this section is that the better we understand our brains the better we'll be able to come up with learning strategies in the classroom, and in life, that can maximize our ability to learn efficiently and to learn deeply.
Now, I'm not a neuroscientist, and I'm not a cognitive psychologist, I am not an expert on the human brain. What I am is a teacher, and a student, and I've worked hard to understand how learning works in the college classroom. I'm going to share with you some key principles that have helped me and my students to learn in the Columbia classroom, and I hope they'll be helpful to you.