The Best Way to LearnBy Ray M. Colorado |
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When I first thought about the title of this article, I imagined that it would attract many readers. But then, I thought, probably not. People have seen many promises to double, or triple, even quadriple, learning power that prove to be untrue. If you are highly skeptical while reading this, I don't blame you at all. But please stay.For many years I was a sucker for buying books that promise to increase my learning abilities. Not only books but audiotapes, videotapes, and magazines. I attended many seminars and workshops. I am ashamed to admit many had been a waste of time. But one seminar I attended in 1996 made a big difference. It was a two-day workshop for Bank of America employees. The leader did not promise to double my ability to learn. Rather, he showed me what I already have in me that, if I take advantage of it, will maximize my learning capabilities. Here's what I learned from the seminar. My own brain is visually oriented. I find pleasure in seeing things. I like pictures, movies and drawings. I think more in terms of images and less in words or sounds. I like changing things and relate best to things that change, move or grow. I learned many things while working at Bank of America. But I believe sending me to that seminar was a lifetime company gift I will always cherish. My learning ability not only doubled, it probably increased tenfold. Before that workshop I usually get a headache trying to learn something new. I learn things not by brain power but by sheer will power. I succeed mainly through persistence. The things I learned from that seminar, however, showed me how to learn things with pleasure. I learned to use my existing mental abilities, instead of struggling to acquire abilities I did not have. The seminar taught that the way people learn can be categorized into four groups:
If you choose the training material that match a person's natural mode of thinking, you will reduce the training time and the trainee's experience will be more pleasant. Five years after that Bank of America workshop, I discovered Brian Tracy's lecture series on Accelerated Learning Techniques. Tracy is one of my favorite public speakers. I heard it said that he had helped thousands of salesmen become millionaires through his lectures on salesmanship. Well, I'm far from being a millionaire, although I keep hoping someday I will be. His lectures on Accelerated Learning Techniques, however, confirmed the things I learned while at Bank of America, that you learn best if you study according to your mental orientation and personality. Then two years later I heard Colin Rose's lecture series on Accelerated Learning Techniques. Rose was given a Nobel Prize for discovering ways to increase your learning abilities by as much as 400%. Not surprisingly, his formula was similar to that of the Bank of America seminar and Brian Tracy. We learn best by using materials that match our mental orientation and personality. The knowledge and understanding I gathered from the Bank of America workshop, and from the Brian Tracy and Colin Rose lectures on Accelerated Learning Techniques, gave me good ideas on how to train my kids in programming. More specifically, I learned how to select materials that rightly match each one's learning style and personality. As a result, they learned a lot and enjoyed the learning experience, too. My son Dexter is visually oriented. He learns best from books which has pictures and illustrations. By using books and training programs that suits him best, he became an expert on computer graphics, digital video and animation. Using computer tutorials which has many illustrations, he mastered College Algebra and Geometry, all within one month. These happened while Dexter was only twelve years old. His younger brother, Hexel, has a very different personality and mode of learning. He is logic oriented and does not care much for pictures and illustrations. He wants rational explanation. He learned Oracle database programming in two weeks, and also learned C programming in two weeks. Each of these two subjects requires one semester of study in college. This is quite an achievement, even for adults. Hexel was only nine years old. The learning materials Hexel used did not have pictures or illustrations. They only had text and he likes it that way. Quite the opposite of Dexter, Hexel finds pictures and illustration a mere distraction. As long as the explanations are logical, and the examples practical, he can take them. Dexter once tried using Hexel's learning materials but he found them boring and unhelpful. Had I, as a proud parent, insisted Dexter had enough intelligence (inherited from my genes, of course) to learn the materials Hexel used, he probably would have quit learning programming early on. He is young and wants to play. And vice versa for Hexel. Had I insisted that he inherited enough intelligence from me and so, therefore, he can handle the materials that Dexter used, then he too would have quit long ago. He wants to play, too. For Dexter and Hexel, because they used materials that suit their personalities, learning college-level subjects was as easy as child's play. Both are now programming experts, but each learned their skills very differently. ### About the author: Ray Colorado is president of PinoyTexas.com and Filipino Business Directory (PinoyDirectory.com). He is also a Youth Worker at Wesley United Methodist Church in White Settlement, Texas. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas and can be reached at raycolor@aol.com. 7-28-2006 |
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