Learning never stops. Irrespective of the life stage that you find yourself in, being able to know about something new every day is not only invigorating but also essential. But since like every good thing, learning takes its own sweet time. The challenge lies in utilizing this time in a more efficient manner.
So we have listed down five ways in which you can give a boost to your students’ learning abilities:
Taking Notes
Whether one takes notes during class, lecture or even a conference; writing what the teacher has said in their own words always helps in retaining that information for later use. Note-taking skills also matter because your kids can then understand the topic in a much better way. While taking notes, develop a consistent pattern by using abbreviations and symbols that help in saving time. Using phrases instead of a long sentence is always a good idea. But the most important thing is to write down only what’s important while leaving out the trivial bits. This is something that will come with practice.
Multiple study sessions of shorter duration
Almost all of us have been guilty of leaving our studies up till the last day before exams and pulling out all-nighters to somehow clear the exams. While this may look cool but it ends up adding immense and needless pressure. Instead, having shorter study sessions continuously during study term will be more beneficial. They are more productive and will also encourage a deeper understanding of the subject.
Proper Sleep
Sleep is something that students ignore in the race to complete their work before deadlines. But doing so comes at the cost of your ability to process information. There is a strong link between sleep and the speed of grasping new concepts. Deep sleep helps to increase the capacity of our brains to retain whatever we have learnt, provided that it happens within twelve hours of learning that piece of information. And getting a good night's rest is also good for your kids’ mental health.
Innovate while learning
While learning something new, it doesn’t help if keep doing the same thing again and again. There needs to be at least some modification each time they try to learn a particular concept. They can use mnemonic devices, modify their notes, or connect what they are learning with their everyday experiences. Not only does it decrease rote learning, but it also breaks the chain of monotony. This is important to keep both interest and attention levels up, which in turn helps to process what they are learning. But one thing that is important to remember that minor changes are the way to go. Trying to introduce too many new things will only end up confusing further, resulting in a waste of time and effort.
Learn to use more than one method
While it is important to learn through course/reference books and notes as it will help in exams, learn through different media like videos, podcasts, audios or pictures available in the library or the internet. This is proven to be a more effective method because it engages with and stimulates different parts of the brain. Plus, each medium has its own advantages, which will also lead to holistic learning.
Learning helps to widen the horizon to understand and interpret new things. But it doesn’t have to be a painstaking process at all. Nor does it have to be done under an immense amount of pressure or fear of failure. Using these five techniques will certainly help to improve learning abilities while making the complete process a much more enjoyable experience.
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