Power Up Your Mind: Learn faster, work smarter

The Campaign for Learning has gathered interesting data

about the different environments where people would prefer to

learn. In answer to the question “In which three of the following

places do you think you personally learn most?”, we received the

following responses:

%

Home 57

Work 43

Libraries 36

College/university 29

On holidays/traveling 22

Museums 13

Adult learning centers 13

At school 11

Source: Campaign for Learning,Attitudes to Learning, MORI poll, 1998

It is interesting that the two places in which most people learn are

their own home and their workplace.

What about you? Where do you like to learn? Does this list hold true for you? How much chance

to you have to learn at work? Do you learn in different ways depending on where you are?

Who you learn with

There is more to environment, of course, than merely place. It is

also about the other people who use it.

Human beings are social animals. Some of us choose to live

on our own, but the vast majority live in groups of two or more.

Even those who select privacy for their domestic arrangements seek

contact with other human beings throughout their lives. Not sur-

prisingly, much of our learning is informal and social. It depends on

the presence of other people.

This has been true from our earliest days, both as individuals

and as a species. Babies learn from their mother, their father, and

their family and friends. They watch and listen and imitate.

Eventually, they hear a word, say it, say it again, and make a pat-

tern out of the saying. Learning is an integral part of our social way

68 Power Up Your Mind