Learning to use new techniques: the 5Rs
So far in this book you have read about a number of new learning
techniques, including these “getting ready to learn” skills: Consciously modeling or imitating others.
Pondering the different feelings—pleasant and unpleasant—trig-
gered by different learning experiences.
Pondering your motives for learning—the original ones and the
ones that keep you going.
Understanding the different roles played by people when learning
together.
Getting in touch with the emotions that suffuse learning.Most of the rest of our list are the techniques you need if you are
to become an effective learner.
Let me take you back to your school days for a moment. For
most of us, the essential tools or basic skills of childhood were the
so-called 3Rs: wRiting, aRithmetic, and Reading. While these
remain core skills, they are no longer the only ones to acquire in the
Knowledge Age.
British academic Guy Claxton has produced a compelling
analysis of this issue in Wise-Up: The Challenge of Lifelong Learning.
Claxton argues for a different set of 3Rs: Resilience, Resourcefulness,
and Reflectiveness. These, he asserts, are the new core areas of com-
petence on which the lifelong learner should be concentrating. They
are much broader than the old 3Rs. And that is the point—they refer
to the real world of lifelong learning, where attitudes and skills are
much more important than the possession of specific knowledge.
I agree with him. But, there are two further very important
areas: Remembering and Responsiveness. Memory is the key to so
much of our learning, especially memory for techniques and
approaches rather than memory for facts. In an electronic age, this
latter attribute is increasingly far less important. And it is the capac-
ity to adapt that is the real attribute lifelong learners need if they
are to be able to change the way they do things in their lives.82 Power Up Your Mind
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