How to Learn Effectively at Any Age?

Brain like plasticine

The brain has the ability to change and adapt in response to our experiences. The more often we repeat behaviors and patterns and consolidate the acquired knowledge, the stronger the newly formed neural connections in the brain (they arise when we do something for the first time). The more often we repeat a behavior, the better and more effective we are at it. This means that our brain adapts its structure to the way we live and the stimulation we give it. This is the process of neuroplasticity, that is, the self-reorganization of the brain under the influence of our experiences. Thus, the brain has very advanced capabilities that favor learning at any age.

Why study at any age?

People often stop believing in their ability to learn as they get older. They think that they are no longer able to assimilate knowledge effectively, as a result of which many of them give up at the first failures, and some give up learning altogether. This behavior can act as a self-fulfilling prophecy - a 50-year-old thinking that he is not able to learn German will not make such attempts. Thus, he will not stimulate the plasticity of his brain, which will only strengthen his belief in the inability to learn. Meanwhile, researchers have no doubt - new things can and even should be learned at any age! This benefits by:

• strengthening the sense of self-efficacythat is born in us when we pursue our goals,
• prevention of brain health — learning novelty (no matter what age we do it) stimulates the formation of new neural connections, which helps keep the brain in good shape,
• the ability to adapt flexibly to changes, as they appear in our lives.

Lifelong Learning as a strong trend in education

In these times, when changes are ubiquitous and natural, the lack of the ability to adapt to them can be a serious challenge. Because learning is essentially a form of adaptation to change, it is becoming an extremely necessary skill in today's world.

This idea is fully shared by the creators of the concept of lifelong learning (eng. Lifelong Learning), seeing in it an important competence of our times, in which it is increasingly common, for example, for one person to change his profession two, three or even four times during the entire professional activity. Such changes can be voluntary, caused by the desire to develop and follow curiosity, but also forced by the fact that many professions cease to apply or are threatened by automation. As a result, continuous learning is an everyday reality and even a necessity imposed on us by a dynamically changing environment.

Outsmart your own brain

Now that we know that it is worth learning, we will look at several ways that can be helpful in the successful acquisition of knowledge. On the one hand, the brain has all the resources to learn effectively, but on the other... it does not like change and loves to protect its own energy. So how do we overcome the challenges that our own mind poses to us? Here are some tips from Dr. Judy Willis, a neurologist and brain activity teacher:

1. Combine the new with something you know. Whenever you acquire new knowledge, try to associate it with something that is already familiar to you. Are you learning how to make sophisticated sushi? Remember how you wrap traditional Polish pancakes with white cheese!
2. Focus on the meaning, not the sound. As you learn new definitions and find it difficult to remember difficult words, try to focus more on their meaning than on remembering the phonetic forms themselves. For example, when remembering the name of the definition of “multiple structures”, rather than trying to memorize it, remember that “plural” means that there are “many individuals” in that structure. You can also use your imagination and imagine this “multiplicity of individuals” of some species, such as dogs, to make it easier to remember.
3. Activate the senses. It is worth supporting memory by engaging in the learning process of sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste. That is why many of us like to learn English while watching series that stimulate eyesight (subtitles in English) and hearing (listening to dialogues).
4. Give yourself surprises. Boredom can make it very difficult to engage in the learning process, so it is worth diversifying your studies, looking for curiosities on a given topic or using different ways of acquiring knowledge.

Just reading? Not necessarily

In order to learn effectively, it is important to know that even reading a given text several times is very often not enough. Reading is just one of the elements of learning, because memorization is a process that requires more commitment than running your eyes over a text. It is therefore worth supporting yourself by:

• coming up with your own examples for the material you read,
• breaking away from the book after reading a fragment of the text and imagining that you are a teacher who is supposed to tell students in their own words about the phenomenon they are just getting to know,
• speaking out loud, and not just running your eyes over the text,
• dividing the parts to read into smaller parts that we also work with in other ways, e.g. after reading a chapter on the principles of gravity, look for a podcast or video on the topic from a reliable source.

Time and concentration

It is worth remembering that short but regular periods of learning are much more effective than multi-hour marathons with a book. It is therefore beneficial to divide large tasks into smaller parts and then “bite” into knowledge using a variety of techniques.

Often a huge obstacle to learning new things is an inadequately prepared environment, full of distracting stimuli. If you feel that it is difficult for you to focus, put the following tips into practice:

1. For the duration of study mute the phone.
2. Designate yourself special termwhen you can calmly devote yourself to acquiring a new skill and make sure that other matters are not urgent enough to distract you from learning.
3. If you have trouble keeping your attention, reduce the number of distractors in the room.
4. Use own motivation to study or Curiosities as a drive (“But I will feel great when I order a dish in Rome, talking in Italian with the waiter!” “What is this meditation really about? Why do some people love her? I have to try!”).

Your own ways

Each of us functions a little differently and has our favorite ways of learning and motivators that are support in the moment of doubt. The most important thing in effective learning is therefore self-observation and drawing conclusions. Before you start learning, you can ask yourself questions that will help you go through the whole process more consciously:

• Do you prefer to study in solitude and silence? Or is it the presence of other people that helps you learn new things?
• Does competing with others stress you out or drive you?
• Listening to quiet music while studying for an exam helps you or distracts you?
• Do you remember better in the morning or in the evening?
• Is it easier for you to learn roller skating when no one is looking at your falls or in company? And if in company, is it supposed to be the company of novices like you, or will you bet on lessons with an experienced coach?
• What helps you learn, and what is the most common obstacle?

Thanks to the answers to the above questions, you can learn from previous experiences and, as a result, acquire new skills more easily. It is also worth remembering that while our preferred learning conditions may change over the years, there are no obstacles to learning effectively at any age. On the contrary, it is a great workout for our brain, which not only keeps it in better shape, but also helps us believe in our own agency and follow curiosity - no matter when we were born.

_{Bibliography:}

_{[1] Draganski, B. et al., Changes in gray matter induced by training. Nature 427, 311-312, 2004.
[2] Kruszewski Z. P., Półturzycki J., Wesołowska E. A. (eds.), Continuing education - ideas and experiences, Ed. Scientific Novum, Płock, 2003.
[3] McGuire S.Y. & McGuire, S., Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate in Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation, Stylus Publishing, LLC, 2016.
[4] Mackenzie A.M., Exam preparation, anxiety and examination performance in a group of adult students. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 13 (5), 373-388, 1994.
[5] Willis J., Brain-Based Teaching Strategies for Improving Students' Memory, Learning, and Test-Taking Success, Childhood Education, 2007.}