So, don’t think of the old 3Rs, but of the exciting new 5Rs:
Resourcefulness, Remembering, Resilience, Reflectiveness, and
Responsiveness. These skills are at the heart of what makes a com-
petent lifelong learner.
Resourcefulness, Remembering, and Resilience are dealt with
in Part II, while Reflectiveness and Responsiveness are explored in
detail in Part III, as they tend to come after a learning experience.Learning about learning
If you accept the idea that learnacy is as important as numeracy
and literacy, it is natural to want to find out more about learning
theory.
The most obvious way of learning about learning in general
is reading books or using other media to find out about the subject.
Reading a book such as Power Up Your Mindis a good example, as is
watching a television program about how your brain works, or using
a CD-Rom to find out about learning styles. Earlier in this chapter,
I explored the idea that learning is a progression from unconscious
incompetence to unconscious competence via conscious incompe-
tence and conscious competence. For most people, the stage when
you become consciously competent is the most important one,
hence the subtitle of this part of the book. So, if you are interested
in getting the best out of your mind, you will want to read about
the subject generally. You have already encountered theories that
could be useful to you.
In our list there are two obvious examples: distinguishing between formal and informal learning, and
understanding the different roles played by people learning together.
It is a paradox of learning to learn that it is difficult to allow your
interest to remain at a theoretical level. In this sense, it is quite dif-
ferent from learning about, say, architecture. You might learn about
how medieval houses were designed but would not necessarily want
to rush out and build one. Your interest remains valid without yourLearnacy 83