having to move from the theoretical to the practical. With learning
this is less likely to be the case. It may be that until you have expe-
rienced something, you have not really internalized it. Reading
about learning to learn rather than doing it is inherently likely to
be frustrating! It is likely that you will want to apply the insights
you have gained to your own life.Pause for a moment and think about the 5Rs in your own learning life. For example, how
resilient are you as a learner? Or, put another way, what do you do when the going gets
tough? Do you stick with it or do you give up? Do you have strategies for working things
through? What about your resourcefulness? Do you take time to reflect on what you have
learned? If so, how do you do this?The learning cycle
Good gardeners want to learn about the cycle of the seasons. People
who love DIY can tell you exactly how to go about doing a partic-
ular task. Anyone who has cooked anything knows that you need
to have some kind of an idea how you are going to create a meal,
even if you are not the sort of person to follow a recipe. The same
is, of course, true of learning.
Competent learners tend to want to know a little about the
theories underpinning such an important activity. Unfortunately,
there have been some very wrong-headed notions attached to learn-
ing for far too long. One of the most pernicious of these is IQ, the
idea that there is only one way in which you can be clever. Another
is sometimes referred to as the “tabula rasa” or “clean slate” view of
learning. In this approach, the learner is seen as an empty vessel wait-
ing to be filled up with knowledge. Learners are passive beings wait-
ing for their teachers to teach them. These two ideas have, in my
view, poisoned the school systems of the world and given the training
departments of so many large organizations a serious illness. The dis-
ease they have caught is, of course, the problem of passivity. This is
sometimes called “chalk and talk,” a strange custom whereby learn-
ers are put in rows and spoken at while they diligently copy down
what is being said. It is highly inefficient as a method of learning.84 Power Up Your Mind