Lawsagna

When your loss is your brain's win

Have you ever bought a lottery ticket or at least, been tempted to buy one?  Your rational mind understands that the odds of winning are slim, but that tingling of hope inside says, "Somebody inevitably wins.  What if it's me this time?"   You are not alone.  In fact, the odds of winning a lottery are stacked clearly against you because our brains like gambling and prompt so many to buy those lottery tickets. 

The uncertainty of the reward is what keeps the brain interested.  When the brain is busy predicting if we win or lose, it produces more of the neuromodulator dopamine, which is responsible for focused attention and more pleasurable experience.  That explains how people can spend hours pulling a lever of a slot machine.  Imagine what would happen if you were to get a regular salary for pulling the same lever but no chance of a random win. You'd be bored to death very soon.  Random rewards keep the excitement alive but can also lead to gambling addictions. 

Finance professor Peter Tufano of Harvard Business School used this behavior of dopamine neurons for the force of good when he created a pilot program called "Save to Win."   Michigan residents now can invest as little as $25 into a one-year Save to Win Certificate of Deposit for a chance to win an annual grand prize of $100,000, plus monthly cash prizes varying up to $400.  The goal, of course, is to encourage more people to save. 

Here's something even more exciting.  Our brains interpret near misses as wins, causing us to keep playing longer.  In a recent fMRI study conducted by Luke Clark of the University of Cambridge, near misses activated the reward system of the volunteers who were playing a computerized slot machine in the same way as wins.  The researchers saw a lot of activity in the striatum and the insula - areas involved in reinforcing behavior with positive feedback.  Since people are generally not happy when they feel they were so close to winning but didn't, you may wonder about the reason for this odd behavior of the brain.  The answer may be that such positive reinforcement after near misses encourages learning.  The brain wants us to keep practicing the skill until we get better. 

How could you use this reward system of the brain to help you build good habits faster?  Here are a few things you can do:

Create a reward jar and fill it with pieces of paper with the descriptions of things you'd enjoy doing (your rewards), mixed with some blank papers.  If you stay on track with your new habit, let's say, for a week, pull a piece of paper from the jar to see if you've got your lucky reward.  Sometimes, you will, other times, you won't (if you get a blank paper), but that's exactly the point.  If you brain knows that the reward is coming, it feels nice, for sure, but not so exciting after a while. 

If you want to help others improve and grow, do random acts of kindness to encourage paying it forward, give unexpected gifts to celebrate accomplishments, express your gratitude by sending a thank-you note by snail mail (it is so rare these days that it would seem like a win to the recipient).

And remember that near misses are your opportunity to become better.  Our dog trainer taught us to give our dog a treat every time the dog got a bit closer to the desired behavior.  It's not just dogs that can learn new tricks with positive reinforcement.  Encouragement goes a long way for people too.

25 Tools: A Toolbox for Learning Professionals 2009 by Jane Hart

Jane Hart, the founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, created this excellent presentation of the most popular learning tools in 25 categories, as selected by learning professionals worldwide.

25 Tools: A Toolbox for Learning Professionals 2009

View more OpenOffice presentations from Jane Hart.

"THE IMPENDING DEMISE OF THE UNIVERSITY" By Don Tapscott

In his thought-provoking Edge piece "The Impending Demise of the University,"  Don Tapscott explores that future of learning and the function of universities in a networked society: 

Universities are finally losing their monopoly on higher learning, as the web inexorably becomes the dominant infrastructure for knowledge serving both as a container and as a global platform for knowledge exchange between people.

Meanwhile on campus, there is fundamental challenge to the foundational modus operandi of the University — the model of pedagogy. Specifically, there is a widening gap between the model of learning offered by many big universities and the natural way that young people who have grown up digital best learn.

The old-style lecture, with the professor standing at the podium in front of a large group of students, is still a fixture of university life on many campuses. It's a model that is teacher-focused, one-way, one-size-fits-all and the student is isolated in the learning process. Yet the students, who have grown up in an interactive digital world, learn differently. Schooled on Google and Wikipedia, they want to inquire, not rely on the professor for a detailed roadmap. They want an animated conversation, not a lecture. They want an interactive education, not a broadcast one that might have been perfectly fine for the Industrial Age, or even for boomers. These students are making new demands of universities, and if the universities try to ignore them, they will do so at their peril.

Knowing how to work with information becomes more important than mastering subject matter content:

In the old model, teachers taught and students were expected to absorb vast quantities of content. Education was about absorbing content and being able to recall it on exams. You graduated and you were set for life — just "keeping" up in your chosen field. Today when you graduate you're set for say, 15 minutes. If you took a technical course half of what you learned in the first year may be obsolete by the 4th year. What counts is your capacity to learn lifelong, to think, research, find information, analyze, synthesize, contextualize, critically evaluate it; to apply research to solving problems; to collaborate and communicate.

But now that students can obviously find the information they're looking for in an instant online in the crania of others online, this old model doesn't make any sense. It's not only what you know that really counts when you graduate; it's how you navigate in the digital world, and what you do with the information you discover. This new style of learning, I believe, will suit them.

Universities should be places to learn, not to teach.

Click here to read the full article.

Learning to learn from Joshua Waitzkin, a champion in chess and martial arts

SharpBrains offers a thought-provoking interview with Joshua Waitzkin, a champion in chess and martial arts and the author of  "The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance."   A passionate learner, Waitzkin fuses philosophy, psychology, meditation with his personal experiences in mastering chess and tai chi to create a unique blend of principles for learning, self-improvement, and mastery:

I am able to compete at the highest levels because I have cultivated an approach to learning and performance that maximizes my strengths, tackles my weaknesses through the prism of my strengths, dissolves crippling false constructs and divisive mental barriers, and allows me to express myself through my art in as unhindered a manner as possible.
…
Growth only really comes at the point of resistance, but that is the moment that we tend to stop. Because it hurts. Whether we are confronting our psychological foibles or our physiological limits, it is much easier to turn back from the challenge than to push through the discomfort. I think digging deeply into ourselves, pushing our limits, is a muscle that can be cultivated like any other -- incrementally. If we embrace these outer limits of our ability as something malleable that can expand with training, and if we embrace the discomfort of these moments of growth, then we start to love the richness of the self-discovery. The discomfort becomes exquisite. Learning becomes life.
…
I have learned that in those rare moments of truth in our lives, we have to be willing to let go of the comfort of our knowledge, our preparation, our sense of control, and we have to flow with an improvisational spirit that embraces chaos, turns adversity to our advantage, and digs into our deepest reservoirs of energy and creativity. Our relationship to the learning process, in my opinion, should be one that prepares us for that freedom under pressure - or more truly, that liberates us to live every moment with that openness to unexpected beauty. Learning and peak performance aren't about control or memorization or perfection - they are about something much deeper, something more essentially human.

Click to read the full interview with Joshua Waitzkin at SharpBrains.

Learn a language in 2009 and improve your brain

As a linguist by training, I have always liked learning new languages.  In fact, English is not my native language, Russian is.  I started truly learning English when I was in high school and added a few more languages later while studying linguistics.  After reading "The Bilingual Brain" in the Society for Neuroscience Brain Briefings,  I am considering adding a new language to my 2009 resolutions: 

"Parlez vous francais? Sprechen Sie Deutsches? Hablas español? If so, and you also speak English (or any other language), your brain may have developed some distinct advantages over your monolingual peers. New research into the neurobiology of bilingualism has found that being fluent in two languages, particularly from early childhood, not only enhances a person’s ability to concentrate, but might also protect against the onset of dementia and other age-related cognitive decline."

Those who start learning languages at an early age benefit the most.

"In fact, being bilingual may give children an advantage at school. Bilingual preschoolers have been found to be better able than their monolingual peers at focusing on a task while tuning out distractions. A similar enhanced ability to concentrate—a sign of a well-functioning working memory—has been found in bilingual adults, particularly those who became fluent in two languages at an early age. It may be that managing two languages helps the brain sharpen—and retain—its ability to focus while ignoring irrelevant information."

I am glad I am raising my daughter bilingual (English and Russian), and we'll be adding Spanish soon.

Adults benefit from learning languages as well.  There are many misconceptions surrounding adult language learning, especially about the "critical period" hypothesis that argues that the brain is too rigid to learn after puberty, making second language acquisition more difficult for adults.  Current neuroscience research into the competitive nature of brain plasticity offers a different explanation.  The skills we practice compete for our brain map space.  In his book "The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science," Norman Doidge writes:

"As we age, the more we use our native language, the more it comes to dominate our linguistic map space. Thus it is also because our brain is plastic—and because plasticity is competitive—that it is so hard to learn a new language and end the tyranny of the mother tongue.

But why, if this is true, is it easier to learn a second language when we are young? Is there not competition then too? Not really. If two languages are learned at the same time, during the critical period, both get a foothold. Brain scans, says Merzenich, show that in a bilingual child all the sounds of its two languages share a single large map, a library of sounds from both languages."

This can also explain why learning a language as an adult is quite possible and much easier if you immerse yourself in the environment where that language is spoken, or if you otherwise have a strong need or desire to learn it, for example, when your close friends, your spouse, or your co-workers speak a different language.  If you put enough attention into it, it will happen.   It is, to a large extent,  an issue of priorities, time, and motivation. 

What language are you learning this year?

Love of Education: A Shifting Paradigm - for LeWeb08 by Robin Good (Video)

This is the video of the "Love of Education" presentation delivered by Robin Good at LeWeb in Paris.

I am off to create my list of things I need to learn in 2009.  What's on your list?

Working/Learning Carnival

Michele Martin of The Bamboo Project Blog is hosting the September edition of the Working/Learning Carnival today.  The topic is how to stay motivated for learning.   Check it out.  You can find the information about the Working/Learning Carnival and its past editions here.

"Q-tools: An approach for discovery and knowledge work" by Dave Gray

In the world of rapid information flow, asking the right questions is often more important than knowing the answers.  Dave Gray offers an interesting paradigm of questions to help us process information:

A prism is a question that divides information into smaller groups. The purpose of a prism is to break down information into categories or subgroups…

A razor is a question that divides information into two categories, based on relevance. The purpose of a razor is to define a boundary which can be used to sort any incoming information, and determine whether it lies inside our outside the boundary…

A generator is a question that has a potentially unlimited number of answers. The purpose of a generator is to explore new or unknown territory and to find knowledge that may be hidden and make it explicit…

A peeler is a single question that, when repeated, drives attention to deeper and deeper levels, like the peeling of an onion. The purpose of a peeler is to penetrate beyond superficial levels in order to get to the heart of the matter…

A flanker is a question that seeks patterns or ideas that are similar. The purpose of a flanker is to think laterally and find an analogous situation that may help you think about things differently…

A splicer is a question that combines information, or sets, into groups. The purpose of a splicer is to find larger categories and simplify collections of information…

A pointer is a question that has a well-defined or broadly agreed-upon answer, or set of answers. The purpose of a pointer is to gather specific information…

Check out the full article for the visual representations of the question types and specific examples of their use. 

If you want to increase your intelligence, train your working memory

If you want to sharpen your mental ability to solve new problems outside your area of expertise, you should train your working memory, according to The New York Times article “Memory Training Shown to Turn Up Brainpower” by Nicholas Bakalar.  

Fluid intelligence refers to the ability to reason and solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge:

"Until now, it had been widely assumed that the kind of mental ability that allows us to solve new problems without having any relevant previous experience — what psychologists call fluid intelligence — is innate and cannot be taught (though people can raise their grades on tests of it by practicing).

But in the new study, researchers describe a method for improving this skill, along with experiments to prove it works."

This method was a structured training in working memory:

"The four groups underwent a half-hour of training daily for 8, 12, 17 and 19 days, respectively. At the end of each training, researchers tested the participants’ fluid intelligence again. To make sure they were not just improving their test-taking skills, the researchers compared them with control groups that took the tests without the training.

The results … were striking. Although the control groups also made gains, presumably because they had practice with the fluid intelligence tests, improvement in the trained groups was substantially greater. Moreover, the longer they trained, the higher their scores were. All performers, from the weakest to the strongest, showed significant improvement.

...

The authors suggest several aspects of the exercise relevant to solving new problems: ignoring irrelevant items, monitoring ongoing performance, managing two tasks simultaneously and connecting related items to one another in space and time."

Top 100 Tools for Learning

Jane Hart at the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies is compiling the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 list by asking learning professionals to contribute their lists of top 10 favorite tools for learning.  If you want to know more about Web 2.0 technologies and social learning, the Centre is an excellent place to start.  I've written about the Directory of Learning Tools, which now contains over 2,000 production and personal tools for learning. You can also check out 25 must-have free tools for professional development. And here’s the link to my top 10 learning tools. 

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 20:  Learning to learn

What distinguishes best lawyers, doctors, architects, etc. from the rest of the crowd?  What do they know or do that others don't?  One possibility is that they are very proficient in using certain meta-skills that can be applied to multiple tasks and contexts and supercharge whatever these experts do.  Effective learners invest time and effort in developing the skills that help them learn and perform to their best potential.  What could those meta-skills be and how can we develop them?  Here is what I've brainstormed so far:

Extracting only relevant information. Being able to zero in on the essential elements saves time and brain power.   

       What to do: 

1. Learn the basics well.  Applying meta-skills takes up working memory, which is very limited.  When you have to think about the basic content and try to use your meta-skill, your working memory gets overloaded.  You have to know the foundations well in order to filter any additional information.
2. Clarify and simplify.  If you have clutter on your desk and somebody leaves an important piece of paper there for you, you may not see it.  But if you have a clean and well-organized desk, anything new will jump out at you.  The same applies to your head.
3. Practice "selective ignorance."   In this day and age, we consume much more information than we really need.  It's not always better to read and learn more.  Making sure you pick the best in the ocean of information is important, so become selective.  Each piece of information you consume should have a purpose and application.
4. Learn to prioritize.  Prioritizing forces you to make decisions about the relative importance of things.  The ability to see the essential will strengthen with this practice.
5. Use effective reading strategies that allow you to get to the important information quickly.

Recognizing patterns easily.  If we can connect pieces of information into a pattern, we are able to use our previous knowledge and experience more effectively.  Once something falls into a familiar pattern, we know what to do because we encountered a similar situation before and we can draw from the past experience. 

       What to do: 

1. Compare and contrast things.  You will teach yourself to notice important differences and similarities. 
2. Reflect on your past experiences.  As you do so, look for patterns in actions and outcomes. 

Memorizing. Working with our memory means being selective about what we need to memorize and why.  It is also about choosing the right strategy to retain information. 

        What to do:

1. Learn how memory works. 
2. Find memorizing strategies that work best for you.
3. Ask yourself why you need to remember something.
4. Choose the appropriate strategy and give your full attention to the material you need to memorize.

Analyzing and comprehending information.  We constantly rearrange our knowledge base to integrate new information.  How do we know that we truly comprehended something?  It fits into our big picture of how things work. 

        What to do:

1. Summarize and synthesize what you have learned.  Make sure you know how the concepts fit together.
2. Ask questions.  Questions help to reveal blind spots in your knowledge, challenge assumptions, expand your thinking.  Opt for open-ended questions, which start with what, who, how, why, when, where.
3. Teach what you have learned to others.  It will help you master the subject matter. 

Occasionally, we analyze something incorrectly, hence the next point…

Verifying and testing the knowledge.  Effective learners are able to test and adjust their mental maps continuously.  They are not afraid to put themselves out there because that is how they receive feedback and make improvements.   

       What to do:

1. In the ideal world, you encounter a problem and ask yourself what you need to know to solve it.  Then, you go and learn what you need in the easiest and fastest way.  It is called "just-in-time" learning.  It ensures that your learning is relevant and valuable.  You apply it right away and gain competence in the process.  In the "learning-in-advance" scenario, look for opportunities to practice what you have learned.  If it is a skill, try transferring it to a different context and use it there. 
2. Learn collaboratively.  Share your ideas with others.  Talk through your thought process. 
3. Capture your ideas in writing.  Writing makes things clearer.  If somebody reads it, you may get feedback as well. 
4. Be adventurous and get out of your comfort zone.      

Reviewing. Assessing past actions is a crucial step if we want to achieve mastery.  We need to figure out what worked and what didn’t and adjust the behavior.

        What to do: 

1. Develop a habit of looking back at your actions and evaluating how well they served you.  Did you get the outcome you wanted?  Can you think of a better and faster way to achieve the same result? What would you do differently in the future?
2. Always search for ways to simplify, speed up and improve the process.
3. Ask people for feedback and once you’ve received it, consider it carefully.

Self-monitoring. Here, we have to assume the roles of the doer and observer at the same time.  We assess the performance in the moment, react, predict, and make adjustments as we go.  Such self-regulation offers a big learning advantage because we are attuned to instant feedback and can correct our course of actions accordingly.

        What to do: 

1. Practice mindfulness.   
2. Think about your thinking.
3. Pause and reflect on what you are doing.  Eventually, you will be able to monitor yourself without having to stop what you are doing.  It will be like a second layer of awareness that will allow you to stay attuned to the relevant clues in the context and adjust your actions as needed.

Maintaining the right attitude. Cognitive skills are important but they are not everything.  Emotional intelligence is needed as we navigate through our lives.  Think about how much information is encoded in people’s emotions and attitudes.  We have to be "emotion detectors" to succeed.  Read my earlier post on "How to develop your emotional intelligence" for more tips and resources. 

How do you develop your meta-skills?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think
Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development
Step 14:  Asking Good Questions
Step 15:  Condensing your knowledge
Step 16:  Memorizing
Step 17:  Becoming a reflective learner
Step 18:  Establishing rhythms, rituals, and routines
Step 19:  Learning holistically

What I learned in my first week of the raw food diet

It's been about a week and a half now since I started my 30-day raw food program.  I view it as a learning experience.  Instead of focusing on limitations, temptations and frustrations, I choose to think of this experience in terms of explorations, discoveries and learning opportunities.  I believe that the mindset is really important when it comes to any kind of change, and sometimes, being able to adjust your perspective on things can do wonders for you.  I want to share some of my observations so far in the hope that it may help you maintain the positive attitude when you want to adopt a new behavior.  Here are a few things I learned:

Creativity.  When I started the program, the little voice of self-doubt tried to plant some limiting concepts in my head.  For example, I feared that avoiding cooked foods meant my choices were very limited.  It took some critical thinking to get rid of this notion.  I looked at my regular diet and realized that the bulk of it consisted of the same cooked foods, such as rice, pasta, fish, chicken, turkey, etc. in various combinations.  There was no reason I couldn’t combine raw foods in the same way creating varied menus.  I decided to focus on creativity when it came to menu planning.  I learned to make tasty green smoothies that combined fruit and vegetables for optimum taste and nutrition.  The celery, cucumber and romaine lettuce mix tasting like mango and bananas is easier to enjoy, and I don't have to eat salads every day.

Discovery. For each food item I had to give up, I decided to come up with a new item that I could try.   My additions include persimmons, papaya, agave nectar, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, and the list will continue to grow.  My trips to the grocery store are like mini-explorations now that I hunt for vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds that I have not tried for a while (or at all).

Balance between planning and flexibility. I need to plan for the upcoming weeks so that I have enough food around to keep me on the program.  At the same time, I realized I liked it better when I didn't have each day's menu planned.  I now go day by day and eat what my body wants at the moment.  I listen to my body more and learn to recognize its messages.

Re-assessment. When you do the same thing the same way over and over again, you don't feel the need to stop and ask if what you do still makes sense or whether there is a better approach.  A change forces you to take a second look at your habits and routines.  My raw food program made me realize that I unnecessarily overcooked many fruits and vegetables, depleting them of their nutrients.  For example, from now on, when I need to cook broccoli, I will boil water, take it off the heat, and then add the broccoli.  There is no need to boil it even for a few minutes.  Hot water will break it down a bit, but it will still be full of flavor, and crunch, and all those things that are good for you.  Also, now when I cook my baby's oatmeal, I add frozen blueberries after I take it off the heat.  They will thaw and cool the oatmeal faster.  Simple things like these, I would not have noticed without my raw diet. 

The benefit of firm boundaries.  I still have cupcakes and cookies in the house as the rest of my household is not ready for the raw diet yet.  However, making a firm decision not to eat them took away the doubts, hesitations, and all of that back-and-forth dialogue and guilt trip that I would have otherwise had in my head:  "I really shouldn't eat…or maybe, just one...I hate my sweet tooth…will it help if I eat just one…was it that good?"  Firm boundaries stop unproductive thoughts.

Support.  Identifying and using your sources of support is very important.  Internet and Web 2.0 offer great opportunities in this regard.  I visited raw food blogs and websites for tips and recipes, watched motivational interviews on YouTube, wrote about my experiment publicly – all of which strengthened my commitment.  It is good to have those resources lined up before the going gets tougher.

We can all learn from our challenges.  Take time to think about what you are learning and how it can help you in the future.  What did you learn from your challenges?

"Taking Play Seriously"

The New York Time Magazine’s article "Taking Play Seriously" by Robin Marantz Henig offers interesting perspectives on the nature and function of play:   

Armed with research grounded in evolutionary biology and experimental neuroscience, some scientists have shown themselves eager — at times perhaps a little too eager — to promote a scientific argument for play. They have spent the past few decades learning how and why play evolved in animals, generating insights that can inform our understanding of its evolution in humans too. They are studying, from an evolutionary perspective, to what extent play is a luxury that can be dispensed with when there are too many other competing claims on the growing brain, and to what extent it is central to how that brain grows in the first place.

Scientists who study play, in animals and humans alike, are developing a consensus view that play is something more than a way for restless kids to work off steam; more than a way for chubby kids to burn off calories; more than a frivolous luxury. Play, in their view, is a central part of neurological growth and development — one important way that children build complex, skilled, responsive, socially adept and cognitively flexible brains.

Their work still leaves some questions unanswered, including questions about play’s darker, more ambiguous side: is there really an evolutionary or developmental need for dangerous games, say, or for the meanness and hurt feelings that seem to attend so much child’s play? Answering these and other questions could help us understand what might be lost if children play less.

The article goes on to discuss a number of scientific hypotheses about the nature of play and studies that support them.

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 19:  Learning holistically

When we think of learning, we often focus on cognitive functions and memory.  But learning doesn’t happen just in our heads.  I think there's a benefit in looking at learning from the holistic perspective that involves body, mind, and spirit (I am talking about human spirit here).  If the learning is powerful, what we learn becomes integrated into our belief system and behavior.  Learning has the potential to change not just what we know, but who we are.  How can we experience holistic learning?  Here’re a few suggestions:   

• Let your heart and passion drive your learning.  We are so conditioned to follow somebody else’s curriculum from school to college to corporate training, we come to believe that there is no learning without a syllabus.  Try setting your own learning agenda and let your curiosity guide you.  Learn something not because you have to, but because you want to.      
• Develop your intuition.  Intuition is a powerful blend of experience, awareness and inner wisdom.  It offers you a shortcut to knowledge that you may not gain through logical reasoning.  For more information on how to develop intution, check out the intuition resources at the Institute of HeartMath.
• Engage your multiple intelligences when you learn.  You can find tips on how to do it in my post "8 times smarter:  learning with multiple intelligences."  Think about how you can use various senses in learning.
• Be emotionally engaged.  Feeling inspired requires consistent work.  Create your own learning “bliss bank” and fill it with words, images, articles, and other things and activities that motivate you.  When you need an emotional uplift, go to your “bliss bank.”    
• Experiment with your learning environment.  Pay attention to how the physical space and tools you use to learn make you feel.  Escape into nature to see how fresh air and movement influence your thinking and memory.  For example, you can experiment with the "memory palace" technique as you walk along a familiar route. 
• Approach learning as play.  Our fear of failure and self-limiting constraints often prevent us from entertaining our best ideas.  Play is less threatening and can help us unleash the creative potential inside.  Next time you need to solve a problem, first create a list of bad ideas.  Get this fear of "looking stupid" out of your system.  You may be surprised how this simple technique can lead you to some great solutions.
• Consider the moral and ethical implication of what you are learning.  Will the use of your new knowledge be congruent with your values and beliefs?  Are you a better person because of this recently acquired skill?  Focus on developing skills that help your life mission. 

Do you have any suggestions for how we can learn better holistically?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think
Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development
Step 14:  Asking Good Questions
Step 15:  Condensing your knowledge
Step 16:  Memorizing
Step 17:  Becoming a reflective learner
Step 18:  Establishing rhythms, rituals, and routines

 

Cognitive Fitness

From "Cognitive Fitness" by Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts, Harvard Business Review (need subscription, you can preview the summary of the article on the order page):

…advances in neuroscience suggest that there is no reason why your brain at 60 can’t be as competent as it was at 25. That would not have been news to thinkers such as Socrates, Copernicus, and Galileo, who were all still at the peak of their intellectual powers in their sixties and seventies. Nor would it surprise business leaders such as Alan Greenspan, Warren Buffett, and Sumner Redstone. These icons and others like them have intuitively understood that the brain’s alertness is the result of what we call cognitive fitness—a state of optimized ability to reason, remember, learn, plan, and adapt that is enhanced by certain attitudes, lifestyle choices, and exercises. The more cognitively fit you are, the better you will be able to make decisions, solve problems, and deal with stress and change. Cognitive fitness will allow you to be more open to new ideas and alternative perspectives. It will give you the capacity to change your behaviors and forecast their outcomes in order to realize your goals. You can become the kind of person your company values most. Perhaps more important, you can delay senescence for years and even enjoy a second career.

The article goes on to suggest steps you can take to stay cognitively fit and discusses some implications of the brain research to learning.  For example, the study of mirror neurons, which "aid the speed and accuracy of our perception by mentally simulating objects and actions in our environment," helps us understand how we can learn better through observation and indirect experience. 

The authors encourage play at work because play "engages the prefrontal cortex…nourishing our highest-level cognitive functions – those related to incentive and reward processing, goal and skill representation, mental imagery, self-knowledge, and memory, just to name a few."  They suggest playing games, such as bridge, chess, sudoku, solving challenging crossword puzzles, doing improvisation, reading funny books.

Searching for patterns is another way to maintain your cognitive fitness:  "First and foremost, challenge your existing mind-set, enlarge it, and make it more complex."  The authors encourage executives to "[l]isten to different viewpoints, read new kinds of articles and books, and visit places with a focused set of learning objectives."

Those who seek novelty and innovation through continuous learning benefit from neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change and enhance its performance.  The article suggests learning a new language, musical instrument, or new technology.

VizThink Conference '08

VizThink Conference '08 will take place on January 27-29, 2008 in San Francisco.  Even if you cannot attend, you may want to visit the conference website and check out a number of available podcasts and webinars on the topic of visual thinking.  They also have a blog and a wiki with additional content.   

"VizThink is gathering visual thinkers from all corners of the world to create the first global community dedicated to the use of visualization in all forms of learning and communication."

Professor Matthew Bodie looks into the future of the casebook

What would a law school casebook of the future look like?  Professor Matthew Bodie’s article "The Future of the Casebook: An Argument for an Open-Source Approach," published in the Journal of Legal Studies, discusses the possibilities for creating a digital casebook as an open-source project. (Hat tip to video visi visum).

Abstract:      
Despite dramatic technological change, the thick, attractively bound casebook remains ensconced as the written centerpiece of legal education. That will soon change - but its replacement has not been established. This paper argues that the legal academy should take this opportunity to implement an open source approach to future course materials. Guided by analysis and examples of commons-based peer production such as open source software, professors could establish electronic commons casebooks with a myriad of materials for every course. These joint databases would unshackle individual creativity while engendering collaboration on levels previously impossible. Although there may be concerns that such a project would not draw any interest, or might be swamped by too much interest, the successes of other peer-production projects demonstrate that such concerns are generally unwarranted or manageable. Copyright ultimately poses the biggest difficulty, but even that barrier can be circumvented to greater and lesser degrees. Although as yet an untried experiment, an open source approach has the potential to open a new era in legal pedagogy.

If you let your imagination run free, what opportunities do you see for a future casebook?  Perhaps, audio files of cases, possibility to search related materials with keywords and tags, templates for case notes, briefs and outlines, collaborative legal wikis?  Nothing heavy to haul around, please...  Everything available at a click of a button, including virtual chats with your professor during office hours.

 

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 17:  Becoming a reflective learner

Reflective learners are better at learning because they regularly look for opportunities to improve the learning process.  They are also likely to use their new knowledge more effectively and purposefully.  What distinguishes reflective learners?  Here are few characteristics you want to cultivate to become a reflective learner:

• Motivation.  When you are motivated, you see learning challenges as opportunities to perfect your learning skills.
• Curiosity.  Inquisitiveness drives your mind to experience, explore and ask questions.  It works up your learning appetite.
• Focus. Focus makes you persevere and stick to the subject matter until you get the results.   When you are focused, you are more discerning and selective when it comes to information, and that helps to deepen your knowledge.
• Self-awareness.  You should know what kind of learner you are and what learning strategies work best for you.   
• Confidence.   Don’t be afraid to fail.  You want to be open to new ideas and approaches even if they involve risk.  You should also welcome criticism because it helps you grow.
• Info-savviness. You need information processing and learning skills to be able to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and integrate new information. 

One step you can take right now to become a reflective learner is to create your personal learning portfolio.  A learning portfolio is a record of your personal learning experience.   Here are a few suggestion on how you may want to approach it:

1. Identify the content of your learning.  What is it that you want to know?  Look at your current projects and goals and identify a learning component in them.  For example, you want more clients.  What do you need to learn to get more clients?  Do you want to know how to market effectively on the internet?  How to network?  How to contact your strategic partners?  You get the idea.  Identifying a learning component in each task will force you to look at the efficiency of what you are already doing.  Ask yourself what you can learn to become better at this task.  Engage your curiosity.  Record your ideas in your learning portfolio. 
2. Write down the reasons why you want to learn those things.  How does your learning fit into the larger context of your personal development, career objectives, and social life?  You are more likely to focus on and achieve your goal if you have a reminder of why it is important.   
3. Determine how you are going to accomplish your learning objectives.  What experiences do you need to have?  How do you develop the skills you need?  Who can be your teacher / role model / mentor?  Use your info-savviness as you create your own learning curriculum filled with activities that can boost your professional and personal development.
4. Figure out how you can measure you progress.  How do you know that you have reached your goal?  What are your milestones?  Be confident enough to ask for feedback.  Record your successes and challenges.
5. Reflect on your learning process.  Practice self-awareness as you write down your observations of what works and what doesn’t work for you.  How could you learn more effectively?  Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself:
   - What confused you most?
   - What is the best way to resolve your confusion?
   - What key ideas and information did you learn?
   - What surprised, dismayed, delighted you most in you learning experience?
   - How does your learning relate to the larger context of your life and work goals?
   - Have you learned any practical skills, ideas, tools, techniques that you can easily apply to real-life situations?
   - Have you learned anything new about yourself, your interests, feelings, values?
   - What helped your learning?
   - What interfered with your learning?
   - What should you do more of?  What should you do less of?
   - What is one thing (skill, habit, activity) you want to focus on next?
6. Find the ways to use and apply your new knowledge and skills.  Stay confident in your abilities as you brainstorm new ways to use your knowledge.  How can you learn more by doing? 
7. Have a section where you can record random comments and observations, clip images that appeal to you, write down quotations, ask yourself questions and just let your thoughts flow onto the paper without reservations.  This will fuel your motivation.

What do you do to be a reflective learner?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think
Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development
Step 14:  Asking Good Questions
Step 15:  Condensing your knowledge
Step 16:  Memorizing

 

How attitudes towards intelligence affect the ability to learn

How we think about our intelligence influences our success as learners.  In her article “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” in the current issue of Scientific American Mind, Carol S. Dweck, Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and the author of “Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success,” describes two kinds of attitude towards intelligence that affect kids’ performance in school:  the “growth mind-set” and the “fixed mind-set.”  People with the “growth mind-set” believe that their intelligence can be developed through learning and hard work, while those with the “fixed mind-set” believe that their intelligence is static and cannot be improved.  A recent study has found that children with the “growth mind-set” perform better in school, show greater persistence when they face challenges, and are more enthusiastic about learning.  In contrast, kids with the “fixed mind-set” are more concerned about “looking smart” than learning, get discouraged with they encounter a problem, and avoid challenges.  These differences are also reflected in the workplace where people with the “growth mind-set” are more likely to mentor others and to welcome feedback because they see it as a tool for improvement.  Those who believe that their intelligence is fixed are likely to ignore their own shortfalls and shun criticism. 

How do you develop the “growth mind-set”?  The article suggests praising kids for their effort and hard work instead of their intelligence.  Students also benefit from learning about the brain and its ability to change and grow new connections.

Blog Action Day: Learning about the Environment

The 15th of October is Blog Action Day.  Thousands of bloggers put their thinking energy into one issue today – the environment.  They write about it in their own ways, weaving the topic into the themes of their blogs.  So, how are we learning about the environment? 

Some learning we do by choice, other comes to us the hard way.  Learning about the global warming and its effects is an example of the latter.  You may have heard about the four stages of learning:

1. Unconscious Incompetence.  We don’t even know what we don’t know.
2. Conscious Incompetence.  We are aware of what we don’t know.  We know what we need to learn.
3. Conscious Competence. We have learned enough to be able to act in accordance with our knowledge, but we still have to think about it.
4. Unconscious Competence.  The new behavior becomes natural, we don’t have to think about it any more. 

The events of this year shifted many of us into the conscious competence stage.  We know what we should and shouldn’t do to make a difference.  We know enough about the issues to start acting accordingly.  Sustainable living takes planning, adjustment, and concentration.  There is still a lot we need to learn as individuals, families, communities.  Any change is hard, and it takes effort.  It is easier to leave the computer on because that’s how we have always left it.  It is easier to toss a can into the trash rather that look for a recycling bin.  It is easier not to think about those habitual actions.  After all, they are part of our unconscious competence.  And we have to replace them with the skills that we are still learning, and it is a challenge.  Practice is really the only way.  “Think and do,” “think and do” will eventually evolve into “do and do,” and think about something else.   That’s when the environmental consciousness will become part of us, so much so that the new practices will be automatic, just like brushing our teeth in the morning.  But even then, we will still be learning about exciting discoveries and new better ways to do things, and we will continue trading our unconscious behavior for the conscious again.   It is a never-ending process, but hopefully, the one that leads to a better life on this one beautiful planet.

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development

Learning doesn’t end when you leave the classroom, submit a paper for grading, or finish a test.  Most of our learning in life happens informally through conversations, stories, actions, and mistakes.  Have you met people who always seem to know how to find an answer quickly, who to ask for advice and where to go for help?  The truth is you can be one of those resourceful people.   You just have to master informal learning.  Here are 7 pointers to get your started: 

1. Build awareness.  Don’t be a zombie who operates on autopilot.  Be mindful of what is going on around you.   There are many things at work that with experience, we can do almost automatically.  But in order to learn, we need to pay attention.  Get informed about your company, understand its history, the services you provide, markets, processes, culture and politics. 
2. Embrace the “TEAM” approach to learning:
   T = Test your understanding;
   E = Evaluate the results of your test;
   A = Assess the strengths and weaknesses of your current position in light of the results;
   M = Modify your understanding if needed.
   Repeat the cycle. 
3. Reflect.  Get into the habit of reflecting on the experiences of your work day.  What excited you?  What frustrated you?  What was the most important thing you learned today?  Did you manage your time effectively?  How can you improve your work processes?    You can come up with your own list of questions and use it as a checklist at the end of the day. 
4. Be strategic about your professional development.  Don’t assume that you will get the necessary training and resources.  Develop your personal learning agenda.  Identify the skills you will need as your career evolves and set a timeframe for developing those skills.  Create a personal curriculum that covers all possible ways and methods for you to learn.  When time comes for the conversation with your boss about your professional development, be prepared. 
5. Seek feedback whenever you can.  Constructive feedback can open new learning opportunities. 
6. Be social. Talk to people.  Ask them about their passions and areas of expertise.  The more people you know, the easier it will be for you to access information when you need it.  Figure out how knowledge flows in your organization.  Who generates it?  How is it distributed? Who are the connectors? 
7. Develop a curious mind.  A curious mind is inspired, attentive, ready to solve problems and build new connections.  It welcomes challenges and envisions possibilities.  It is a great mind to have when you want to learn.

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think

Foster your creativity

Many law students and lawyers have a creative bend, and it turns out, there are lots of good reasons to continue fostering your creativity.  Online Guide to Mediation offers an insightful review of the Boston Globe article "Art for our sake: School arts classes matter more than ever - but not for the reasons you think".   The article reports on a recent study indicating that art teaches a “specific set of thinking skills,” or what the researchers call the “studio habits of mind”: 

One of these habits was persistence: Students worked on projects over sustained periods of time and were expected to find meaningful problems and persevere through frustration. Another was expression: Students were urged to move beyond technical skill to create works rich in emotion, atmosphere, and their own personal voice or vision. A third was making clear connections between schoolwork and the world outside the classroom….

Each of these habits clearly has a role in life and learning, but we were particularly struck by the potentially broad value of four other kinds of thinking being taught in the art classes we documented: observing, envisioning, innovating through exploration, and reflective self-evaluation.

Art teaches us to look beyond our own expectations, which may cause inaccurate perceptions:

Seeing clearly by looking past one's preconceptions is central to a variety of professions, from medicine to law.

And for some, creativity can bring a big pay-off literally.   Just read the story of Scott Jordan, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur who invented the Technology Enabled Clothing, designed to keep your favorite gadgets hidden but easily accessible when you need them.

Anticipation

The air is filled with anticipation here today.  We are leaving for a week-long vacation tomorrow morning.  There is still a lot to be done, but it is also time to enjoy the excitement of something good to come.   How often do you notice this emotion of anticipation?  Interestingly, I see it play out daily in my toddler daughter and my dogs.  When the dogs see their food bowls, they start doing “laps” around the kitchen – you can tell they are excited.  And whenever I tell my daughter that it is time to put on her shoes (which means we are going out), she starts running around the house, laughing. 

It would be good to be able to recreate this positive emotion more often in learning.  It is linked to our expectations, and the expectations help to position us for success.  Do we learn better when we anticipate the learning to be fun, engaging and useful?  And if so, what can we do to create the environment of positive anticipation?   Perhaps, I should revisit these questions when I come back.  Meanwhile, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.   What good do you anticipate today?

Tip Bit #30: Know when to keep the lid on

Certain dishes need to be cooked covered, others – uncovered.  For example, water comes to a boil faster if you keep the pot covered   The lid prevents the heat from escaping, and you get the condensation effect so the steam returns back to the pot as water.  But if you want the flavors of a dish to intensify, you let it simmer without a lid so that extra liquid could evaporate.   How does it relate to the study of law?  Learning has two similar phases. 

The beginning phase, when you learn something for the first time, resembles cooking with a lid on.  You try to get as much information as possible about the subject matter.  You don’t let anything escape you.  You may not know yet what’s important to remember and what you can let go of.  You keep circulating information through your brain to find the most natural links and connections.  This is a stage when you want to ask  lots of questions, create hypothetical “what-if” scenarios and see where they take you.   

When the second phase comes, you take the lid off.  You know enough to figure out what you need to keep and what you can let evaporate from your memory.  Just like the flavors blend together and intensify, your knowledge becomes more concrete and integrated.  You see the big picture, but you can also identify the individual ingredients.  You reduce all that you have learned to its essence.      

How do you know when to move from the first phase to the second?  When you keep coming across the same information over and over again even if you try to find something new.  It’s just like the condensation loop:  the water comes back into the pot.  It’s a good sign that you have covered it all (no pun intended).  By the way, these two phases also apply to research. 

Are you in a maze or a labyrinth?

Daniel Pink in his book “A Whole New Mind:  Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” explains the difference between a maze and a labyrinth:

“Mazes and labyrinths are often lumped together in the popular imagination, but they differ in important ways.  A maze is a series of compartmentalized and confusing paths, most of which lead to dead ends.  When you enter, your objective is to escape – as quickly as you can.  A labyrinth is a spiral walking course.  When you enter, your goal is to follow the path to the center, stop, turn around, and walk back out – all at whatever pace you choose.  Mazes are analytical puzzles to be solved; labyrinths are a form of moving meditation.  Mazes can be disorienting; labyrinths can centering.  You can get lost in a maze; you can lose yourself in a labyrinth.  Mazes engage the left brain; labyrinths free the right brain.” 

It strikes me as a good metaphor for the learning process.  When it comes to your learning, do you feel like you are in a maze, disoriented and trying to find your way out as soon as possible?  Or are you in a labyrinth, focused, enjoying the process and making progress at your own pace?

Tip bit #27: On memory collages

If you need to memorize a complex concept, try creating a memory collage.  Here’s how  it works.  Pick the key elements and relationships that describe the concept.  Then, find images that you associate with those elements.  You can browse magazines if you want to make it low tech or find images on the web if you want to create your collage in a digital format, or maybe, you can sketch them yourself.  After you are done collecting your visuals, arrange them in a collage trying to reflect the relationships among the underlying elements.  The benefit of a memory collage is that it allows you to see the concept as a whole whereas the verbal description can only be sequential. 

Visit Creativity Portal to explore various collage resources on the internet or play with Art Zone interactive tools to create your own collage online. 

Riding the brain waves

Have you noticed how sometimes your thoughts flow freely, you feel smart and creative, and other times, your thinking feels strained and your mind is distracted?  Imagine that your thoughts are riding the waves – the brain waves, that is.  The nerve cells in your brain emit electrical impulses that can be measured by a device called an electroencephalograph (EEG).  The brain wave frequencies, measured in hertz or cycles per second (Hz), fall into four categories:  beta, alpha, theta and delta.  These brain wave patterns are associated with specific states of mind. 

Beta waves (15-30 Hz).  You ride beta waves in your normal wakeful state when you think, read, concentrate on a task or solve problems.  Your mind is fully engaged. 

Alpha waves (9-14 Hz).  You ride alpha waves when you are calm and relaxed.  Alpha waves are associated with creativity, sense of peace and well-being.  When you start meditating, you slow your brain wave pattern to alpha.

Theta waves (4-8 Hz).  You ride theta waves when you drift off to sleep or you are just about to wake up.  Theta waves indicate deep relaxation.  They often bring about vivid imagery, memories from the past, creative insights, inspiration.  Meditation that reaches the theta state opens the doors to heightened perception and intuitive breakthroughs. 

Delta waves (1-3 Hz).  You ride delta waves in your dreamless sleep.  It is the slowest of the brain wave patterns. 

Learning to influence your wave brain patterns through creative visualizations, meditation, music or hypnosis may allow you to achieve the desired state of mind whenever you need it for a specific task.  For example, if you are looking for creative inspiration or want to access memories from your subconscious, you may decide to go for a run to get into the "zone" and induce the slower alpha brain wave pattern.  To learn more about brain waves and various techniques to work on your brain, check out quide-to-self-help-techniques.com. 

Are you a LLOLER?

Are you a LLOLER?  Let’s find out.  LLOLERs have cravings.

They crave new knowledge and find ways to get it.

They crave new experiences to enrich their lives.

They crave environments where they can surround themselves with smart people.

They crave books, articles, seminars, courses.

They crave control over what they learn and how they do it. 

They crave time to reflect over their learning experiences.

They crave conversations because they create meaning. 

They crave challenges because they make them stronger and more resourceful.

They crave change because it is an opportunity to learn and grow.

They crave learning opportunities even when they are disguised as failures.

They crave questions because they make them think. 

They crave feedback because it causes them to improve.

They crave relationships because they like to learn from people. 

They crave meaning and purpose because that’s how they know that they are moving in the right direction.

LLOLERs are Life-Long Learners.  “LLOLER” sounds less official and more fun because it reminds me of “laughing out loud.”  And LLOLERs crave laughter and play.  Are you a LLOLER?

“Holistic Learning” E-book by Scott H. Young

If any of you took interest in the holistic learning concept, Scott Young has released a free e-book titled “Holistic Learning.”  You can download it here.  To describe the holistic learning process, he uses an analogy of constructing a brick building.  In class, professors often hand out bricks, but it is up to the students to construct a building out of them.  How do you approach your construction project?  This short, easy-to-follow book details the process.  Interestingly, Scott seems to think that law may not be a good subject matter to study holistically because of the arbitrariness of the rule-based system.  I am not so sure.  What do you think?   

The book made me ponder the question of how I link whatever I am learning to my existing knowledge base and what connections have more impact.  I believe you can generate some positive energy and empower yourself when you establish a link that truly resonates with you.  Without that link, the information is just a dead weight.  I learned that when I decided to develop healthier eating habits.  I read many articles, I knew what was good for my body and what was not, but all that information did not make much difference until I found the right connection.  Weight loss goals and abstract health-talk didn’t do it for me.  What prompted me to start looking at food as fuel was the notion that whenever I consumed sugar, trans-fats or other bad stuff, my body’s efforts were diverted from generating energy, building immunity, fighting viruses to absorbing and getting rid of the “junk.”  I just had this image of my body getting “anxious” and “tired” after I ate candies or processed food and feeling “light” and “active” after I ate fruits and vegetables. That sensation made me think twice before grabbing a bad snack.

How do you integrate new knowledge into your way of life?         

8 times smarter : learning with multiple intelligences

Today I offer yet another approach to reviewing – I’ll call it “transformations.”  The idea is to transform the material presented in one format into a different format and engage your multiple intelligences in the process.  Here are some examples:

Linguistic intelligence.  Make a list of the most challenging concepts and then write a coherent paragraph on each of them as if you are explaining the concept in an article.  Find the most efficient ways to describe legal tests, rules, standards, so that you don’t have to waste time and words when you take an essay exam. 

Logical-mathematical intelligence.  Play with fact patterns and causalities.  Start by analyzing a hypothetical, and once you have your solution, change the facts.   Ask “what if” and observe how the changes in the fact pattern influence the outcome.  List all the assumption you make as you are analyzing the situation.  Verbalize every step in your argument. 

Musical intelligence.  Create musical jingles or rhymes to aid your memory.  Record yourself speaking on the subject:  your voice will reinforce the retention.

Spatial intelligence.  Pick a topic in your outline and rearrange it into a flow chart or a table.  Create a mind-map of what you have read. 

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.  Listen to legal opinions while walking around campus.  Do some repetitive movements as you study: you can juggle, do squats, pace around your room.  If you feel creative, try molding a piece of clay as you are learning a concept.  Here are more tips for kinesthetic learners.

Interpersonal intelligence.  Participate in a study group.  Explain the concept you are learning to somebody who has never studied law, answer their questions. 

Intrapersonal intelligence.  Be a reflective learner.  Take time to figure out what works best for you and capitalize on your strengths.  Ask yourself:

• On the scale 1 to 10, how well do I understand this topic?
• What are the most challenging aspects of the material?
• What can I do to learn it better?
• What resources help me most?
• How do I know that I have done enough?

Naturalistic intelligence.  Are there any similar laws, principles or categories that you can observe in the natural world?

On visual thinking and optical illusions

Do you want to develop your spatial intelligence and learn to think visually?  How about attending Visual thinking school?  It’s free, there is no formal enrollment or registration, and you don’t even need to leave your desk to do it.  This online curriculum, developed by Dave Gray,  includes mini-course modules such as Introduction to visual thinking, Visual communication, Visual vocabulary, Visual thinking tools, Visual thinking spaces, Sketching, Sings, symbols and icons, Information design, Visual mapping:

"This site is different every time you visit: it's continuously updated via live feeds from the web to bring you the best and most delicious images and links available: visuals to inspire, examples to follow, books to read and things to do, designed to stimulate your imagination and visual thinking." 

Need a break?  Check out 71 Optical Illusions by Michael Bach.  They are very intriguing. 

Creative thinking

I’ve decided to dedicate this week to thinking because that’s how my posts shaped up so far.  It will be known as the “Thought-Full Series.”   Robert Sternberg, the developer of the triarchic theory of intelligence, divides thinking into three categories:  analytical thinking, creative thinking and practical thinking.  The analytical thinking refers to abstract thinking and logical reasoning.  It is about analyzing and evaluating information.  Creative thinking is about the ability to generate new ideas and deal with novel situations.  Practical thinking is about the ability to apply the knowledge in the real world and change your environment.  Last Monday, I wrote about reasoning by analogy as part of analytical thinking.  Yesterday’s post about goal-setting illustrated practical thinking.  Today’s theme is creative thinking.   

How important is creative thinking to lawyers?  Lawyers are not usually seen as creative types.  After all, they research the rules and advise on how to follow the rules.  At the same time, there are many aspects of law practice that can benefit from creativity:  how to find ingenious solutions for your clients while obeying the laws, how to negotiate better outcomes for all, how to mediate conflicts, how to communicate with your clients effectively, how to cut costs and grow business.   Can you think outside the box but play by the rules?   

“Think like a fool,” advises Roger von Oech of Creative Think.  You will benefit from fresh perspectives, shrewd observations and surprising insights.

Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project offers Eight tips for sparking your creativity.  Let your mind wander and take notes. 

I like to listen to Accidental Creative podcasts because I want to be “prolific, brilliant and healthy.”

What do you do to nurture your creativity?

Strike a pose to remember

The works of memory fascinate me.  I’ve already talked about how smells, associations,  images, sounds, and emotions can bring memories back.  Now I can add body postures to the list.  Cognitive Daily describes a new study suggesting that “just holding your body in the right position means you'll have faster, more accurate access to certain memories.”  The subjects were able to remember certain events in their lives faster when they assumed the same positions that their bodies were in when those memories occurred. 

I personally don’t like to sit still for a long period of time.  Now I have a legitimate excuse to move around.  So, next time you need to learn res ipsa loquitur, stand on your head, imagine an ER unit, and reinforce the image with a smell of ether and the sound of ambulance.  Later, when you need to recall the "scalpel left behind," just assume the head-stand position again.      

Tip Bit #13: On reflective learning

People like to be in control of what they do.  It applies to learning as  well.  One way to make your learning experience more meaningful to you is to take time to reflect on the learning process itself.  Imagine that you want to go to Paris for vacation.  To see the city, you can either choose to go on a group tour with a guide or you can create your individual sightseeing agenda.  If it’s your first time in Paris, you don’t know anybody there and you don't speak French, a guided tour may be your best option:  you will be shown all the main points of interest and receive the basic information about the places.   However, if you are familiar with the city enough to decide what to see and how to organize your trip, you can create much more personal and meaningful experiences in Paris. 

How does it apply to learning?  Law school is in many ways like a guided tour with a busy schedule.  But when you get off the bus and have some free time, consider a few questions to orient yourself towards better learning experience.  What kinds of questions should you be asking?  Here are some examples for a weekly review:

1. What confused you most in class this week?
2. What is the best way to resolve your confusion?
3. What key ideas and information did you learn?
4. What was the most important idea you learned this week?
5. What surprised, dismayed, delighted you most in class this week?
6. How does your learning relate to the larger context of your life and work goals?
7. Have you learned any practical skills, ideas, tools, techniques that you can easily apply to real-life situations?
8. Have you learned anything new about yourself, your interests, feelings, values?
9. What helped your learning?
10. What interfered with your learning?
11. What should you do more of?  What should you do less of?
12. What is one thing (skill, habit, activity) you want to focus on next week?

Psychology of color

What colors do you like?  How do different colors make you feel?  Colors affect us emotionally, mentally and physically.  If we pay attention to how we relate to different colors, we could use them for our benefit.  Here are some tidbits about colors and their meanings. 
 
Red is associated with energy, passion, strength, danger, power.  It represents “emergency” in the field of medicine, “hot” and “danger” in engineering, and “loss” in finance.  Red has a great emotional impact.  Use it when you need to energize yourself and prepare for action.   Red is often used for “Buy Now” and “Click Here” buttons in web ads to prompt people to make quick decisions.    

Orange is associated with enthusiasm, stimulation, creativity, joy, warmth.  Orange is an attention-getter.  Use it to stimulate your mental activity and appetite.

Yellow is associated with sunlight, happiness, intellect, inspiration, energy.   Use yellow to cheer up or stimulate your curiosity.  It excites the brain and aids perception and memory, so it is good for learning.   

Green is a color of nature.  It symbolizes freshness, renewal, growth, safety, tranquility.  Green represents “money” and “profit” in finance and “safety” in engineering.  Green will help you relax.  It promotes the feeling of peace and harmony.

Violet is associated with luxury, mystery, creativity, independence, nobility, spirituality.  Use violet if you want to feel inspired and creative. 

Blue is associated with stability, calmness, trust, confidence, security, order.  It represents “reliability” in the business world.  Blue is a soothing color, it promotes mental relaxation.  Use it if you seek clarity and better ways to communicate something.  It is also known to slow down metabolism and decrease appetite.   

White is associated with coolness, purity, lightness, innocence, cleanliness.  Use it if you want serenity and simplicity. 

Black is associated with power, formality, elegance, sophistication, mystery.  Use black when you want to create the impression of strength and authority. 

Some believe that your preferred color can tell something about your personality.  Do you agree? 

How about taking ColorQuiz, a free five-minute personality test based on color psychology?

Finally, visit this site if you want to know more about color therapy. 

How to be a versatile communicator

Here’s one more skill that law students will probably have to master on their own:  how to present information in a visual way.  It turns out that lawyers differ from the general public in the way they learn and communicate.  According to the Attorney Communication Style Study conduced by Animators at Law, attorneys are 10% more likely to be auditory learners, 4% more likely to be kinesthetic learners and 14% less likely to be visual learners than the general public.  61% of the general public learns visually, 53% of practicing attorneys are either auditory or kinesthetic learners.  (Thanks to Idealawg for pointing me to this research).

What do these results mean to law students and lawyers?  On one hand, if you happen to be a visual learner (that’s still 46.9% of practicing attorneys), you may be at disadvantage in law school, which emphasizes verbal and auditory skills, but you have an advantage when you communicate with your clients or jurors.  On the other hand, non-visual learners need to adapt to the preferred visual style of their audience.  (Here’s a link to my previous post on how to communicate “on TAP”:  topic, audience, purpose.) 

How do you communicate visually?

You can use charts, graphs, pictures, slides or draw on a whiteboard.  Check out a Periodic Table of Visualization Methods for ideas on how to visualize information.   Another good resource to engage you spatial intelligence is the information aesthetics blog. 

Pay attention and “mirror” the language patterns of visual learners.  They may say phrases, such as “I see…,” “Imagine that…,” “Look at it this way.”  If you are an auditory learner, you are likely to use phrases, such as “I hear…,” “That sounds good.”  Kinesthetic learners may say:  “I feel that…”, “Can you grasp this concept?”   

Interestingly, when people interpret metaphors, they make connections across senses in the cross-modal areas of the brain where information from touch, hearing and vision comes together to form abstractions.  Jaron Lanier explores the relationship between images and sounds in "Jaron’s World:  The Meaning of Metaphor" for Discover.    

Finally, if you need an excuse to play video-games or simulations once in a while, now you have it:  you are developing you spatial skills to be a more versatile communicator.  Here’s a long list of free online flash games.

What advertising can teach us about outlining

Have you ever wondered why a line of a TV commercial can be stuck in your head for years without any effort on your part to memorize it, but an important legal rule may elude you right when you need it most?  Can legal concepts be presented like ads in a magazine?  Consider how certain notions applicable to advertising can be used to make the content of your outline more memorable.

• Function.  Ads inform, persuade and call for action.  What are the objectives of your outline?  Your entries must inform:  state a rule, accurately describe a legal test, provide a holding in a case, etc.   The persuasion part translates into legal reasoning.  Your outline must reflect the reasoning behind the laws.  Finally, it should address the application of the rules and standards.  What can you do with this rule?  That’s your “call for action.”
• Positioning.  In advertising, positioning means identifying the right target audience for your message.   When applied to outlining, positioning signifies the “big picture.”  When you outline, think about how each of your entries relates to other entries.
• Message.  Memorable ads usually convey a single clear message.  When you outline, make sure you break down complex concepts into smaller components.  Take time to distill the main idea from the legal mumbo-jumbo.
• Truthfulness.  Ads must not mislead the customers.  The same is true for the outlines.  The content must be accurate.
• Language.  Advertising phrases are short and punchy, but they remain coherent.  Coherence allows you to reconstruct the full meaning despite the simplified syntactic structures and lack of connectives, such as "and," "so," "therefore," which mark relationships between sentences.  When you outline, get rid of needless words.  At the same time, whatever is left must be sufficient to bring back the full concept. 
• Sings and symbols.  Ads often use signs and symbols that are commonly recognized by the audience, like McDonald’s Golden Arches.  One of the interesting things about sings is that the relationship between the sign and the object it signifies is arbitrary.  Common signs are a matter of convention.  The good news is that you can be creative and invent your own symbols and signs to remember the information better. 
  For example, to remember the charity-to-charity exception to the Rule Against Perpetuities (acronym “RAP”), which applies when both the present and the future estates are created in favor of charities, I use the following phrase:  “Red Cross does not RAP, but it takes two to tango.”  This saying is my memory clue.
• Layout.   The elements of an ad, such as text and images, are organized in a certain way to reinforce the message.  Most students’ outlines are bland.  While adding pictures and colors may seem like extra work, it pays off when you need to recall the information.  You’ve probably heard that the process of outlining is more beneficial than the final result.  You aid your memory when you engage your multiple senses and intelligences while creating the outline.

Do you want your outline to work like an ad?

Do you smell success?

Matthew Stibbe of Bad Language shares great tips on How to learn things.  He must know a thing or two about learning:  he used the techniques to learn Dutch, prepare for a test in medieval history, and study for his commercial pilot’s license.  Many thanks to Raymond Ward for letting me know about this site.  Smell-coding intrigued me so much that I decided to visit The Sense of Smell Institute to investigate the olfactory function further. 

It turns out that the smell-coding technique involves associative learning – a process by which you link one item, in this case the subject matter you are studying, to another item – a particular aroma.  Later, when you need to recall the material you were studying, you help your memory by smelling the aroma associated with that material. 

I've also found out that people form strong associations between odors and emotions that they experience when they are exposed to the odors.  The odor can elicit the corresponding emotion, so be aware of the effect of aromas on your mood.  This effect can be either positive or negative.  For example, if you experienced frustration while learning how to swim in a swimming pool, you may have associated the smell of chlorine in the water with the emotion of frustration.  Later, if you are exposed to chlorinated water, the smell can make you feel frustrated.  On the other hand, if you have personally meaningful smells that make you happy, relaxed, focused, etc., you can use those smells to trigger the desired emotions. 

Essential oils can also enhance performance.  For instance, citrus smells promote mental awareness and concentration, so try using orange or lemon oil when you study.  Peppermint improves the performance of clerical tasks by increasing attention.  Lavender will calm your nerves, smell it when you need to make a presentation in front of a large group.  The perfume of cacao activates the production of endorphins that make us happy, so we can pass on that chocolate bar (well…I am not sure about that, the more the merrier).  Rose essence gives the sense of harmony and security. Check out the Alphabet of Smell to find out more about the meaning of various aromas.

Have you had any experience with aromatherapy?  Does it help you to work, learn, relax?  Share your comments!

Learning on the go

Do you find it easier to concentrate and learn when movement is involved?  Is it hard for you to sit still?  Do you do well in sports or performing arts?  Do you have hobbies that require working with your hands?  If so, you may be a kinesthetic learner who would benefit from incorporating movement into the learning process.  The Law School Academic Support Blog  has great tips for kinesthetic learners on how to improve their performance. 

Roger von Oech of Creative Think offers a neat product to boost creativity – The Ball of Whacks, which consists of 30 magnetic blocks that can be used to create a variety of designs.  You can work with your hands and improve your creative thinking at the same time – a win-win combination for kinesthetic learners and a great fun for everybody else. 

While movement is a necessity for some learners, all of us can benefit from kinesthetic intelligence.  Our brain consumes a third of all the oxygen that our body receives.  Physical exercise helps to increase the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain, improving its function.  I’ve found that certain types of physical activities work better for my mind. 

Walking is one of them.  It calms my nerves and clears my head.  Read Walk for Focus by Brain Based Business to find out how walking can benefit your brain.  If you want to listen to cases while taking a walk, go to http://www.audiocasefiles.com where you can download the digital audio recordings of legal opinions for 0.99 cents a piece.   

Spinning is another one of my favorites.  It is a much more vigorous exercise.  I liked the setting of a spinning class I attended a few years ago:  it had dim lights, good music, and effective but not overbearing coaching.  I felt like I was in the zone.   

At the time I was studying for the bar, I lived in an apartment in a Chicago high-rise with a swimming pool on the roof.   I took my books up there and did laps during my study breaks.  I don’t claim it will work for everybody, but it worked for me.   The additional benefit was that I didn’t feel like I had to miss out on all the summer fun because of studying.  And as I already wrote in the five-things-you-may-not-know-about-me meme, Latin ballroom dancing was my escape from law school.  Who knows… it may have helped me more than I am willing to admit. 

You don’t always need a big chunk of time to gain exercise benefits.  These days, I often do 15-minute yoga sessions to stretch and breathe.  And I am learning to juggle because juggling improves the brain function.  It also makes my baby daughter laugh, especially when I drop a ball.  Sometimes, simply being mindful of your posture and remembering to relax your shoulders can boost your energy according to The Happiness Project.  I’d add a few shoulder rolls to that.  Little steps can make a big difference. 

Are you ready to use your kinesthetic intelligence?  What’s your move?   

Tip Bit #6: lessons out of the blue

You can find learning opportunities in most unexpected places.   Yesterday, I found one on a bag of wild blueberries that I bought at a grocery store.  The bag had a nice graph of total antioxidant capacity for various berries from the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.  Oddly enough, I welcomed this opportunity to learn about berries and their antioxidant qualities even though it was a marketing technique on the part of the company:  wild blueberries have the highest antioxidant capacity after all.  But the point of tip bit #6 is not to read the messages on bags and boxes although you may learn something about warranties this way.  Rather, the point is to look for learning opportunities outside your usual learning environment.  Don’t pack your “legal hat” into the backpack with your books and notes.  Wear it in the real world.  We learn best when we can connect the material to real life situations we encounter.  I am more likely to remember the chart if I see it on the bag of blueberries that I like than if I study it in a textbook. Look for contexts where the concepts you are studying become relevant and test your knowledge.   You can also learn out of the blue.

Find your learning rhythm

Lately, I have been experimenting with various patterns of work/rest/chores/childcare/ other tasks throughout my day.  I have found the challenge to be not so much about scheduling all those activities, but rather about establishing routines that give a healthy rhythm to my day without disrupting its natural flow.   I don't think it is just kids and dogs who need routines.  Adults can benefit from them too.  I can explain it better with a cooking example.  Making lasagna is a multi-step process:  I need to brown ground beef, make the sauce, prepare the ricotta mixture, boil lasagna noodles, assemble the lasagna and then bake it in the oven.  Some of those steps require a certain order:  I cannot assemble the lasagna until I have all the components ready. At the same time, I can choose to make it in several sessions:  I could assemble the lasagna in advance and put it in the refrigerator to bake at some later point.  To use the time efficiently, it makes sense to prepare several things at the same time, for instance, I could mix the ricotta cheese and eggs while browning the meat.  I need to remember to preheat the oven so that I don’t have to wait for it.  With practice, you are able to get into the swing of things so that the whole process goes smoothly and efficiently.  You have found your rhythm. 

Human beings are very rhythmic.  Our hearts pump blood through our bodies rhythmically.  We breathe, walk, talk in a rhythmic fashion.  Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users describes it well in Rhythm Method: “Life runs on a pulse…”.  It is not a stretch to say that learning has its rhythm too.  How can you find your learning rhythm?  There are a few questions you may want to consider:

• Is there a certain order in which you prefer to do your tasks when you study?  Do you like to complete all your reading assignments first and then outline?  Or do you prefer to start with reviewing and outlining, and then get to reading?  What are the trade-offs of each approach?
• Do you first complete the easy tasks or the difficult ones?  Why?
• Do you like to focus on one subject matter and do everything related to it during the whole study period or do you switch between subjects and tasks?
• When do you review your notes:  right after class, before the next class, or at the end of the week? (I hope it’s not one day before the exam.) Do you know what works best for your memory?
• How often do you take breaks when you study?  Many believe that 50-minute sessions with 10-minute breaks are optimal. 
• How well is your studying schedule coordinated with the rest of your daily routines?  Do you feel rushed all the time?  Are you exhausted by the end of the day?
• What are your best working hours?  Do you take advantage of your natural energy peaks throughout the day when you study?  What tasks should you be doing when you energy is high?  Which ones do you reserve for your low points?   

I am sure there are more questions to ask.  Send them in!  I encourage you to experiment with your daily routines to see if you can find your rhythm and flow.  It makes a difference.

Music to your brain

How does music affect you?  Do you have a favorite CD that lifts your mood whenever you play it?  Do you have special tunes that energize you or help you sleep?  When I was an expecting mom, I read all sorts of articles on the effect of music on the baby’s development and we played music a lot in our house, but I still was amazed to discover how enthusiastically my child responded to music early on.  She started swaying and ‘dancing’ when she heard her favorite songs even before she could walk.  And she exhibited preferences for upbeat tunes.
 
So why are so many of us deeply touched by music?  Daniel Levitin, a professional musician and neuroscientist sheds some light on the mystery of music in his book This Is Your Brain on Music:  The Science of a Human Obsession.   Brain imaging done on people as they listened to music showed that music activated various parts of the brain related to planning, expectation, language, motivation, pleasure.  Music elevates dopamine levels, much like narcotics and antidepressants do.  Levitin also believes that music promotes cognitive development. 

Do you want to explore what is music to your brain?  You don’t have to go far these days.  Pandora  of the Music Genome Project will create a personal radio station for you, playing tunes that you are likely to enjoy, when you indicate your favorite artists or songs.  You can also get free classical music recordings via podcast.  Interested in meditation music or brain wave therapy?  Brain Sync has a collection of CDs and audio programs for you.  It also offers a free 10-minute guided meditation if you want to take a little break from your computer. 

The mosaic of legal analysis

Students sometimes have trouble composing analytical sentences.  They describe the applicable legal standard, mention the facts, and end up with the conclusion rather than the analysis.  For example, if I say: “The risk of injury to a tenant resulting from criminal activity on the premises was foreseeable because the landlord decreased the security in the building, the crime rate in the building increased, and the tenant complained about the security of the common areas to the landlord,” I stated a conclusion.  I mentioned the legal standard of foreseeability and the facts that the landlord decreased the security, the crime rate went up, and the tenant complained.  What’s missing is the analysis.  Because the analysis is usually based on common sense and our understanding of how things work in the world, it’s easy to fill the analytical gap in the sentence above in our minds and forget to verbalize it.  When I said that the landlord decreased the security in the building and the crime rate went up, you understood that to mean that the risk of injury to a tenant really existed.  You wouldn' t have the same understanding if I told you that the building was vacant.  When I said that the tenant complained about the security of the common areas to the landlord, you inferred that the landlord was aware of the problem with the common areas.  Now, what if I tell your that the tenant had hallusinations, made up stories all the time, and everybody in the building knew about it? 

The point is that you need to spell out that common sense understanding as part of your analysis.  An analytical sentence would look something like this:  “The risk of injury to a tenant resulting from criminal activity on the premises was foreseeable because the landlord knew that the crime rate in the building was increasing and it posed a risk to tenants since the tenant told him so when she complained about the security of the common areas.”

Some of you may find it helpful to compare the process of writing out the analysis to making a mosaic.  Your mosaic board is the legal standard.  The mosaic pieces are the facts.  Before you start gluing the pieces to the board, you need to have a mental image of what you want to create, and you need to draw that image on the board so that you know where each piece goes.  Similarly, you need to put into words your understanding of how facts meet the legal standard.

Related post:
Get your pens ready:  it's time to scribble   

Can we create the ‘Aha’ moments on demand?

Do you know the feeling when you have been struggling with a problem for a while and then suddenly all the pieces of the puzzle come together and you have the answer you have been looking for?  Do you remember what you did right before that ‘Aha’ moment?    I’ve recently read an article titled “The Eureka Moment” by Guenther Knoblich and Michael Oellinger in Scientific American Mind (need subscription).  They report on a number of experiments conducted by cognitive neuroscientists that suggest the right brain takes the leading role in generating the insights.  While we don’t know yet how to create those eureka moments on demand, there are some practical steps we can take to increase the likelihood of their occurrence.

1. First, you need to know your stuff.  You need sufficient knowledge and understanding of the issues to solve the problem.
2. Second, much like athletes train before a competition, you need to condition your brain by giving the problem your full effort and attention.  You are likely to get stuck at some point, and that’s OK.  There is a trick to overcome this phase. 
3. The trick it to get away from the problem for a while.  The downside of the knowledge and expertise is that we become too rigid in our approaches.  The brain needs some quiet time to restructure the problem and allow us to look at it from a different angle.  That’s when the insight is more likely to occur. Scientists believe that sleep helps to absorb and reorganize information, so naps often lead to the ‘Aha’ moments.  Here is an interesting account of the breakthrough moments experienced by famous musicians, artists and scientists.   It turns out that many of those moments happened in a somnambulistic state.  A positive attitude helps too, so take a break from the problem and do something fun.  The solution may come to you when you least expect it. 

Too often we associate gain with pain, and while some pain is inevitable, your brain does not want you to suffer continuously.  Treat your brain well, reward its hard work with sleep and pleasure, and it will do wonders for you.

Take your learning hat wherever you go: "Cappuccino U" by Jerome Martin

The last exam is over.  You head out of the classroom door with a  sight of deep relief.  Done!  No more learning for at least a few weeks.  Well…not so fast…  Welcome to Cappuccino U!  “What?” I hear. “Is that some caffeine-induced state of delirium? Or are you implying it’s time for me to apply to Starbucks? I haven’t seen my grades yet.”  No, no, no.  Cappucino U is a metaphor for some Third Place – not your home and not the office or school – where informal learning occurs.   Jerome Martin has written an e-book entitled "Cappucino U" that is available in the PDF format through Spotted Cow Press.  It will only take you about fifteen minutes to read, and once you do, you’ll get a glimpse into your future as a knowledge worker.   

A coffee shop is an example of such Third Place.  I remember, I loved studying in a coffee shop.  The library was too quiet for me.  The local coffee shop offered just the right blend of aroma, light, noise, good discussions, focused reading, and occasional interruptions in the shape of a friend or a classmate.  (They didn’t have a wireless internet in the coffee shop back in those days.)  I still love reading and working in coffee shops.

Cappuccino U presents a new approach to learning where you decide what to learn, how to learn and where to learn it.  It is about learning communities and networks enabled by smart technology.  It’s about staying current in your field and taking responsibility for your knowledge.  It’s a neat concept to explore while you are on your break. 

What’s your favorite place for informal learning?

Related post:
Studying is your business

Lessons from the crib

Ben Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog is running the group writing project “What did you learn this year?”  I thought his question was very appropriate for my learning blog, so here are my reflections on year 2006.    

2006 was a year of new beginnings and new learning opportunities for my family.  On December 13, 2005, we welcomed our baby girl into the world and began to learn about the joys and challenges of parenting (our two four-legged furry kids didn’t prepare us enough).  Five months later, we relocated to a different state, my husband started a new job, I left mine and embarked on the balancing act of caring for my daughter and working to launch my own business.  I picked up blogging along the way, which turned out to be a nice outlet for the frenzy of thoughts and ideas in my head.  My blog is about learning, and who is a faster and better learner than a baby? She has taught me a few things about this subject, and I am happy to share our lessons from the crib.

• "Practice" is the name of the game.  We’ve all heard:  “Practice makes perfect.”  Babies are wise, they somehow know it from the day they are born.  My daughter started with practicing her communication skills and making her intent loud and clear, a bit too loud for my ears.  With each new skill she learned, she exhibited the same effortless persistence, indicating that failure was not an option.  Such attitude encourages learning. George Leonard in his book Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment writes about the value of practice:  “Mastery is staying on the path.”  Next time you need to learn a new discipline or a set of skills, remember this and rest assured that you already possess everything you need to succeed.
• Learning is a laughing matter.  At which juncture on our way to adulthood did learning become serious and boring?  That’s certainly not the way my baby views it.  Learning is a fun and joyful activity for her.  She learns through play.  It turns out that positive emotions improve adult learning as well.   A good learning game that makes participants engaged and relaxed can accelerate learning.  It’s good to be a kid once in a while.
• There is more ways to learn than through words.  Babies learn through observation, touch, smell, taste, interaction.  My daughter loves music and dances every time she hears her favorite songs.  She is learning coordination and rhythm.  Adults also relate to information in multiple ways according to Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University who wrote the book Intelligence Reframed:  Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century.  Every day, I am reminded that multisensory learning is the best. 
• Curiosity drives learning.  I am amazed at how curious and observant my baby is.  I can read it in her face.  “Where did the noise come from?”  “What happens if I push this cup over the edge of the table?”  “What does this stuff taste like?”  I think adults are often too busy to be curious.  When was the last time you put “oblige my sense of curiosity” in your to-do list?  Maybe, we should give in to our curiosity more often even if it means that an hour disappears in pursuit of a random thought.   William Wirt once said; “Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.”
• “Do, or do not. There is no try,” said Jedi Master Yoda in Star Wars.  This lesson is about the mindset. Babies don’t try to do things, they do them.  Even when it appears to me that my daughter is trying to walk, in her mind, she is walking.  She is not thinking: “I am going to try to put that leg forward and see what happens.” She just does it.  What happens if we eliminate “try” from our vocabulary and just do things to our best ability?  Some good learning experience.
• Falls and bumps are just that:  falls and bumps.  They don’t mean we are failures.  They are not evidence of a faulty character.  They are part of life.  Just get up and keep going, like babies do.
• Learning needs support.  There are times when my baby wants me to hold her and comfort her.  She needs my support, and she knows I am there for her.  It gives her confidence and a sense of security.  While our adult education system encourages competition, I think, we can all benefit from cooperative and supportive environment when we learn.
• When you don’t quite understand something, smile.  My baby must think I am silly.  She rewards me with her smile more often than I deserve it.  Her smile is hard to resist.  I believe, a sincere smile is the first step to true understanding:  “I am not sure what you are saying, but I like you.”  Thanks to my baby, I smile more these days.

What have your kids taught you about learning?

Related posts:
8 ways to learn
Baby steps
Lessons learned

 

Are you ready for lifelong learning?

Nobody expects to be able to run a marathon without a proper training.  The training program is usually quite comprehensive, including, among other things, a mileage buildup schedule, choosing the right equipment, injury prevention techniques, proper nutrition, stretching and weight training, mental conditioning.  While people seem to accept the holistic nature of the marathon training, many still struggle to embrace the holistic approach towards learning, in part, because the mainstream traditional education has long considered cognitive thinking as the dominant component of learning.  However, there is more to effective learning than the intellectual competence according to an article entitled Hacking Knowledge: 77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better, brought to my attention by lifehack.org.  The learning is discussed from several angles, such as: health, balance, perspective and focus, recall techniques, visual aids, verbal and auditory techniques, kinesthetic techniques, self-motivation and others.  Are you ready to train for the “life-changing knowledge”?   

Juggle your way to a better brain

I am not talking about the metaphoric juggling of all the things you need to do in law school or law practice.  I am talking about the actual physical act of juggling. Scientific studies suggest that juggling causes an increase in grey matter in certain parts of the brain responsible for advanced mental functions. When we are busy, we often abandon physical exercise to free that time for our studies or work, but physical movement is crucial for learning.  Neurophysiologist and educator Dr. Carla Hannaford presents more evidence that movement improves mental capabilities in her book Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head.  It is especially true for somatic learners, as I mentioned in my related post on multiple intelligences.

I encourage you to take your first step to a better brain.  Get away from your computer or books for ten minutes, pick up a couple of oranges or some juggling balls, if you've got them, and juggle.  You'll have fun, laugh at yourself, release stress, re-energize your body and mind, and set a process into motion to grow that grey matter in your brain.  Need more inspiration?  Check out the Just Your Average Joggler blog or watch the video of Chris Bliss juggling.

8 ways to learn

What was the last time you saw a picture in a law textbook?  I can hardly remember any.  Studying law in a traditional law school setting emphasizes verbal and logical activities: words and reasoning.  However, there are at least six other ways that people can relate to information, according to the theory of multiple intelligences developed by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University.  (See Gardner, Howard. Intelligence Reframed:  Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century.  New York:  Basic, 2000. ) These intelligences are:

• Linguistic intelligence.  People with a highly developed linguistic intelligence are good with words and languages, they can express themselves well and use words as a preferred way to remember information.  To continue with my cooking analogy, food enthusiasts with a high linguistic intelligence who aspire to become a show host at the Food Network can now apply for a new season of the Next Food Network Star. 
• Logical-mathematical intelligence.   People with a highly developed logical-mathematical intelligence are good at detecting patterns, reasoning deductively and thinking logically. Those are the molecular gastronomy chefs from my previous post.
• Musical intelligence.  People with a highly developed musical intelligencer are good at recognizing and composing musical pitches, tones, and rhythms.  These people think in sounds and are often sensitive to the sounds in their immediate environment.  How about creating menus to go with your favorite operas? Food historian Francine Segan wrote a new book of musical meals: The Opera Lover's Cookbook. 
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.  People with a highly developed bodily-kinesthetic intelligence are good at expressing themselves through movement.  Body movement helps them to process information.  The Japanese cooking art of Teppanyaki “on the grill” comes to mind, where chefs cook delicious meals on the tabletop right in front of the guests while skillfully sending metal spatulas and eggs into the air.   
• Spatial intelligence.  People with a highly developed spatial intelligence are good at recognizing and using spatial patterns.  They tend to think in pictures and use them to retain information.  Have you seen what some of the pastry chefs cook up?
• Naturalist intelligence. People with a highly developed naturalist intelligence are good at recognizing, categorizing and drawing upon certain elements in nature.   Perhaps, organic chefs come from this category.
• Interpersonal intelligence.  People with a highly developed interpersonal intelligence are good at relating to people and understanding their motivation, intentions and emotions.  Would you like a personal chef, anyone?
• Intrapersonal intelligence.  People with a highly developed intrapersonal intelligence have a good awareness of their own motivations, desires and feelings.  They tend to engage in self-reflection and self-analysis.   Could that be me in the kitchen? 

Why is this important? 

First, if we can figure out what kind of learners we are and how we process information, we can determine out strengths and weaknesses and predict our biggest challenges in the learning process.   

Second, we can adjust our own studying patterns to rely more on our strengths.  For example, if you suspect that you are really strong on spatial intelligence, you may want to include some pictures, charts, mind maps in your outline for better recall.
 

Third, we may decide to work on some of our weaknesses more if overcoming them is really important for success.  For example, we can pay more attention to our writing and get help if needed. 

Last but not least, we can decide how we want to use our strengths in the practice of law.  Are you great with clients because you have a high level of empathy?  A skillful use of body language may convey trustworthiness to a jury in a courtroom.  If you are sensitive to sound patterns, you may be able to “read” people better at the negotiation table by paying attention to their voice pitch and intonation. 

Anything else you can add to the list?