The Principles of Good Learning

Learning plays an important role in our lives and we have to take it continuously as much as possible.

But, is not always an easy process. There are times that we are learning something but is not that deep in a sense that we can forget it easily for the next hours, days, or weeks. There are some instances also that learning takes place in our experiences itself especially if mistakes are present.

To learn something cannot be only done by merely searching and reading an information. There are different ways for us to learn and there are principles that we must take into consideration.

Just like what I've read in David Robson's article entitled "How a 'beginners’ mindset' can help you learn anything" where he mentioned also about the basic principles of good learning that anyone can use for effective learning.

Let me explain those in my own words/interpretation.

1. Learn from your mistakes

Instead of repeating the same mistake over and over again, it's better to take them as a lesson for us to do better next time. I've already written my thoughts about learning from mistakes on my previous articles so I will just reiterate it here as part of the principles I am sharing with you right now. Mistakes are part of the learning process and not intended to repeat again for how many times. It's already our choice if we do it again intentionally, so if we really wanted to learn something, take our past mistakes as a guide for us to do something successfully on our next try.

For example, when I was in High School, my common mistakes in writing is my sentence structure accompanied by grammatical errors. I was always frustrated that time whenever my papers are filled with red marks, a signed of corrections made by my teacher. Since, I really wanted to improve my writings before, I identified first the mistakes I've committed especially about the verb tenses I used, the inappropriate commas, and wrong usage of articles (like "a," "the," and "an"), and I tried to never repeat the same mistakes whenever I got to write again.

2. Practice should be varied

Practice makes perfect, that is what we usually hear from other people who are trying to motivate us upon something we are struggling to do perfectly at first. But, the process of practicing something should be varied as well in a sense that it shouldn't be static. If we sensed that the practice we're doing is not that effective for us, let's explore and try something new until we come up with the best results.

For you to clearly understand it, take a look at my example. In relation to my previous example on number 1 principle, when I got to identify the mistakes in my own writing, I tried my best to come up with different strategies and practices that I can use to improve my writing skill and that includes writing several pieces of essays from time to time. Sounds ideal but, it doesn't really help me to improve my writing and just made me feel exhausted and tired. I remember the time when I wrote 4 essays per day with minimum of 700 words and the results are not that good. Due to tiredness, there are more evident grammatical errors and as well as wrong spelling of words. With that, I changed my strategy into 1 essay per day and I tried to get some feedbacks from my teacher and more knowledgeable peers to check my writings, and that somehow help me improve (though I'm not saying that I'm already an expert here, because I am still learning).

3. Teach others the same skill

What's more fulfilling in learning is that we have the chance to share it with other people. If we mastered a certain skill and we see someone struggling on it, it's better to help them through teaching.

That's how we started too wherein we are also innocent before about something and then here comes our teachers and more knowledgeable peers who taught us many things for us to master a particular knowledge or skill. Let's take away selfishness out of our mindset. Aside from applying what we know in solving real-life problems, let's spread it also to everyone so that, they can also use it to solve everyday problems and to share it with others also just like what we did at first.

Isn't it fulfilling to know that because of our teachings, someone is being successful on a certain craft? That moment when we played an important role in someone's life and they are thankful for the knowledge and skills we shared to them. It's not about the money or material things that we can gain from them, it's their smiles that show how successful they are with a big or little help from us.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Learning is a continuous process and it should never stop even if time passed by. We shouldn't disregard the opportunities around that can teach us something, rather embrace it fully because it's still for our own good. Lessons are not always found in books, but can also be found on every circumstance we encounter. That's why it's advisable to go out from our comfort zones and explore more so that we will be filled with much learnings that we can use whenever and wherever we are.

If we made mistakes, take that as a lesson.

If our practices is not that effective enough, change it to something better.

If we mastered a skill, share it to others.

Author's Note:

I want to express my gratitude for those who are consistently supporting me everytime I'm publishing my works. To all of my old and new readers, thank you very much for always leaning your time in reading my articles. And to my sponsors, I am so grateful for having you all, I hope you are all doing fine and happy.

Thank you so much miss @Marinov for renewing your sponsorship.

May God bless you always! 😇❤️

Advance Merry Christmas! 🎄🎅

Date Published: September 13, 2021

Lead Image and gif: Originally made by me using Canva