Learning Theory Made Simple

by John Eisenhauer, Communications VP

What an amazing winter! I hope you’ve enjoyed it personally and professionally. This issue includes all the information for what should be a great Symposium in Bend as well as our other spring events, including a full schedule of Go With A Pro clinics for new level I’s. As always, we’ve included some interesting articles on teaching to keep up the energy as you finish out the season.

This is also the time of the season when many of you turn your focus toward your personal development goals. Schools and the division ramp up their training programs, many of them designed at least in some way to help you prepare for certification exams. As an organization, we attend clinics, study manuals and get together for indoor sessions, all in an effort to learn as much as we can and often as fast as we can.

This process can be so exciting. After all, we love what we do and this is our chance to concentrate on our own improvement. Yet, sometimes the process we would expect to be so satisfying can instead be a bit overwhelming and frustrating. Is that because we’re being asked to move out of our comfort zones, it’s hard to take “constructive feedback”, or is there something else going on?

We know we all learn at different rates and that a number of factors affect how we learn. We all realize there’s a “learning curve”. We’ve also all heard the term TMI or “Too Much Information” (although often not in this context...). Well, when it comes to learning, TMI definitely applies. TMI is just as much as an issue to our own learning as it is to our student’s.

Here’s where “Learning Theory Made Simple” comes in. Learning Theory Made Simple is made up of two components: the “File Cabinet” and “Peas in a Straw”. These two concepts are interrelated. Let’s start with the File Cabinet first.

Processing new information requires more than just understanding what something is or how to do something. We also need to have a place to “put it”. We need to know how it relates to what we already know or what we’ve already experienced. In many cases, we really don’t have anywhere to put that new information yet. As a result, we find ourselves forgetting things, starting over time and again, and generally feeling lost.

If we realize that much of the learning process is in fact building our “File Cabinet”, it may help us understand the stages we seem to go through as we learn. As much as we’d like it to be, learning doesn’t often seem very linear. Sometimes we might pick up something very quickly, move on to the next step right away, then completely stall out or even regress. Then suddenly we make “the big leap forward”. Where did that come from?

You might think of it as a result of some “behind the scenes” File Cabinet building. Unlike the physical act of making files (or file folders in our computer), our brain’s ability to organize information and make connections isn’t always conscious and we may not even feel like we have any control over it. But, the full variety of our life experiences, the questions, study and practice; all of the effort we put toward learning contributes in its own way.

So, how do you know when you’ve “built” your file Cabinet? Well, first of all, it’s never going to get “built”. If you’re lucky, you’re going to continue to build files to put in your cabinet. Along the way, you should however realize that from time to time, things that seemed really complicated now seem unbelievably simple. Things just seem to fit together. This represents your improved ability to organize or “file” information as it comes along. That evolution from complex to simple takes time, but we may be able to help it along by applying the second Learning Theory Made Simple concept - Peas in a Straw.

A straw can only hold so many peas. Once it’s full, adding more peas on one end just means that some will be forced out of the other end. Thinking of “peas” as bits of information, this analogy helps explain why when the pacing of the delivery exceeds the capacity to receive it, we not only don’t get it, we in fact often loose something we’d “gotten” earlier. Just KSS or “keep it simple stupid” isn’t always enough to ensure that we (or our students) actually get it. We also need to pay attention to the number of simple things we are either trying to teach or learn at any given time. In order to be successful, there always needs to be some room left in the straw.

You can think of this room in any number of ways. Perhaps it’s mileage or practice time. Perhaps it’s the opportunity for you (or your student) to ask a question that would help organize something or put it into context. Perhaps it’s your (or your student’s) ability to fill that space with connections of your own. All I know is, a full straw or worse, a straw that keeps having peas added to it means placing information in our (or their) files will be more difficult.

So, as you pursue your personal development goals remember the “File Cabinet” and “Peas in a Straw”. Just like your students, you need to allow yourself the time to process new information. Just like your students, you need to pace yourself so that you can build on the knowledge and ability you already have. I guarantee if you approach your own learning and teaching this way, you will be much more successful. You will find much more enjoyment in the process along the way and stay more connected with what is realistic. You will know for yourself when you are “ready” to take the next step toward an exam when what was once TMI now seems simple and when you realize through your own learning experience how important it is to allow your students to learn what it is you’re trying to teach them.