Los Cuatro Pilares de la Educación

 

Keys to Effective Learning

Keys to Effective Learning

Academic Succes

Whether we are at school, college, university or working hard to climb the career ladder, I’m sure that we all understand the importance that continuous and ongoing learning plays in our continued success throughout life. This IQ Matrix presents you with some fundamental Keys to Effective Learning. Based on the principles discussed within the Memletics [...]

Introduction

Whether we are at school, college, university or working hard to climb the career ladder, I’m sure that we all understand the importance that continuous and ongoing learning plays in our continued success throughout life.  This IQ Matrix presents you with some fundamental Keys to Effective Learning. Based on the principles discussed within the Memletics Accelerated Learning Manual, this Mind Map will hopefully provide you with a good foundation on the basic principles behind this powerful learning method.
Visit the Memletics.com website to learn more about the Memletics Accelerated Learning System.

Learning is as much about technique as it is about developing an empowering and lasting physiological and psychological state. You may well have all the techniques and learning methods thoroughly entrenched into your habitual patterns of behavior, however, if you lack the energy or can’t bring forth the required mental effort and awareness, than your progress will undoubtedly suffer as a result. Here are some suggestions to assist you in developing an empowering state that will provide you with the energy you need to excel:

Healthy Cells

Your biology is made up of billions of cells that work cooperatively to keep you healthy and at peak condition. However, through incorrect dietary habits, we drain our cells of the energy they need to promote peak states of learning on a consistent basis. In order to bring back that “ZING” into your cellular biology you need to consume plenty of water, glucose, oxygen (through deep breathing exercises) and get the essential nutrients you need such as amino and fatty acids that will keep your cells at peak conditioning.

Healthy Physiology

Even though learning is mostly a very sedentary activity, it is however very dependent and reliant on one’s physiological health and wellbeing. By partaking in physical exercise, by eating energy rich foods (fruits and vegetables) and through periods of deep relaxation, you will dramatically enhance your learning ability and maximize your potential.
Furthermore, it is easy to take our learning environment for granted and its influence on our physical wellbeing. Make sure that your learning environment is supportive to your learning needs and that it provides you with adequate fresh air, lighting and skeletal support. Finally, it is important to understand one’s sleeping patterns and energy cycles that we tend to move through throughout our day. Make sure you plan your learning accordingly with these peaks and valleys in your cycles to achieve accelerated learning states.

Healthy Psychology

Psychology is all about strengthening your mind in ways that will enhance and accelerate your learning potential. This can be achieved in several ways. First, start off by setting empowering learning goals that will propel you forward despite the challenges that you may face.
Secondly, adopt a positive mental attitude that will help you to focus on solutions over problems.

Thirdly, just as you would exercise daily in order to keep your body fit, it is also important to develop the ability to stay mentally alert and centered throughout your day. This requires brain gymnastics and fitness. By this I mean to challenge your brain with finding solutions to problems, with creative thinking, with memorizing numbers and phrases, and generally with anything that will stimulate it in ways that will take it out of the doldrums of its comfort zone.
Take a look at the brain training software available for the Nintendo DS for further information. And finally, just like your body, your brain also requires periods of relaxation and recuperation on a daily basis. Here are some more online resources for Brain Training.

The Learning Process

There are some simple steps and guidelines that one can follow to assist in structuring, organizing and managing the entire learning process. Although please keep in mind that the methods outlined here present one of a number of ways that this process can be undertaken. A future Mind Map will focus on Study Skills which will provide you with a slightly different perspective on this approach. However for now, here are some suggestions that can assist you with enhancing the learning process:

Locate

Your first step is always to locate and identify the learning materials (books, articles, websites, etc) that you will need for content extraction. In order to be both effective and efficient throughout your learning process, make sure to have all your study materials prepared before moving onto the next step.

Explore

Exploration of your resources and topic content is the next step within the learning process. This exploration of your content material should be accomplished through the use of 7 intelligences; namely:

• Visual (diagrams, graphs, sketches, mind maps),
• Aural (focus on and record sound),
• Verbal (lectures, discussions, dramatic reading, creating recordings),
• Physical (incorporating movement, role playing, post-it-notes),
• Logical (analysis, playing with numbers),
• Social (group learning, role playing, involving others)
• Solitary (personal journal, reaction notes, etc).

These will be discussed in a little further detail at a later time. For now, it is important to move through the exploration phase in a way that enhances your immediate understanding of this material, and this is best achieved through the use of the above mentioned learning methods.
As a general rule, the more of these methods you utilize throughout the learning process, the more readily and easily you will absorb the material you are studying. For more information, please read Advanced Multi-Sensory Study Skills IQ Matrix.

Arrange

Here you are basically preparing your content for the process of memorization. Firstly, analyze the content to get a feel for the type of material you are dealing with. Secondly, select the techniques you will utilize that will be most effective in assisting you with the long-term retention of the materials. Finally, you must now prepare the content in a way that will support the learning methods you have chosen.

Reinforce

This is the point where you take everything you have done in the previous steps and begin converting this information into longterm memory. This is accomplished through applying the 7 intelligence principles, through varied and creative repetition, and through conducting regular reviews of your material throughout the learning process.

Enquire

This process involves the act of measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of your learning. This can be measured in 4 ways.
Firstly, through Immediate Reviews where you take in feedback on a continuous basis throughout the learning process.
Secondly, through Lesson Reviews where you review the effectiveness of the previous steps when learning new material.
Thirdly, you can apply Formal Reviews where you utilize tests and other grading methods to test your knowledge of these principles.
And finally, conduct a System Review by over-viewing the entire learning process and looking at ways it can be managed more effectively and improved in the future.

Learning Techniques

Learning Techniques

There are literally hundreds of creative and interesting techniques you can use to accelerate your learning immediately. The more creative you become, and the more variety you add to your learning methods, the easier it will be for you to progress towards your learning goals and objectives. More details about this methods will be provided at a future time. However, for now here are some techniques and suggestions that will get you started along your journey:

Associate

Here you are using basic characteristics of memory to learn new material. Techniques include peg words, mnemonics and chunking.

SILVIA*

Visualize

Here you are using mental imagery and visual techniques to reinforce your knowledge of the material. Techniques include creative visualization and mental rehearsal.

Verbalize

Here you are utilizing words and writing to improve and accelerate your learning. Techniques include scripting and assertions.

Simulate

Here you are using tools and people to simulate your learning in a variety of different ways. One of the most effective methods for simulation is to role-play your learning.

Perform

Here you learning through methods of anchoring and over-learning the material you are studying.

Repeat

This is about focusing on strategies that will allow you to continuously repeat the information you are learning in a variety of creative ways that will enhance your retention and recall of information. This can be accomplished in many ways, however creating and referring to flash-cards seem to work well for many learners.

Your Preferred Learning Style

Everyone has personal preferences and methods of learning that naturally favor them both cognitively and physically. Although it is important to focus on a variety of learning styles and strategies throughout the learning process, you should however spend most of your time on your preferred learning styles for fast and effective results.
Here is a quick breakdown of the different learning styles for your reference. While you are reading through them, take note which learning styles most resonate with you, then zone in on them throughout the learning process. For an in-depth analysis, please read the 7 Intelligences of Accelerated Learning IQ Matrix.

Visual Learner

This learner prefers learning through the use of colors, pictures and images.

Aural Learner

This learner prefers learning through the use of sounds and music.

Verbal Learner

This learner prefers learning through the use of words in the form of speech and writing.

Physical Learner

This learner prefers learning through the physical use of their body, hands and via the methods of touching.

Solitary Learner

This learner prefers learning through self-study methods that don’t involve other people.

Social Learner

This learner prefers learning through working closely and interacting with other people.

Logical Learner

This learner prefers learning through the use of reasoning and logic.

Experimental Learning

What is Experiential Learning?
Experiential Learning is an approach to learning in which participants engage in an activity, reflect on the activity critically, and obtain useful insight and learnings.
Learning which is developed experientially is "owned" by the learner and becomes an effective and integral aspect of behavioral change. Skill development, versus simply acquiring knowledge and concepts, occurs through Experiential Learning.
What is the Experiential Learning Cycle?
The Experiential Learning Cycle includes five sequential steps, or stages. The steps are as follows:

·         Experiencing: (This is the initial stage of the cycle): Almost any activity that involves self-assessment or interpersonal interaction may be used as the "doing" part of experiential learning.

·         Publishing: After participants have experienced an activity, they are ready to share or publish what they observed and how they felt during that experience.

·         Processing: (This is the pivotal step in the experiential learning cycle). This step, referred to as the group dynamics stage, includes systematic examination of shared experiences by the members of the group.

·          

Generalizing: In this stage, the members of the group begin to focus on their awareness of situations in their personal or work lives that are similar to those they experienced in the group.

·         Applying: In this final stage, the facilitator helps participants apply generalizations to actual situations in which they are involved

¿Cómo se aprende una lengua extranjera?

El proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras ha sido objeto de disímiles investigaciones a lo largo del tiempo. Los estudios acerca de cómo se enseñan y se aprenden las lenguas han ido progresando, cambiando de orientación en función de los diferentes estadíos del desarrollo científico intelectual y de las necesidades que exige el desarrollo social.

Las lenguas como fenómeno social evolucionan y se desarrollan. El inglés no solo ha evolucionado en relación con su extensión en el mundo, sino que como consecuencia, se han modificado los perfiles sociolinguísticos de quienes lo estudian, de quienes lo enseñan y por supuesto de quienes lo aprenden. En los inicios del tercer milenio, el desarrollo científico-tecnológico, la globalización como fenómeno social y el ingente desarrollo de las tecnologías de la comunicación han propiciado un contexto diferente para la enseñanza-aprendizaje de la lengua inglesa. En todos los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje se habla hoy en términos de eficiencia, lograr un aprendizaje eficiente de una lengua extranjera implica indudablemente la habilidad de utilizar la lengua que se aprende con fines comunicativos reales.

Dentro de la enseñanza comunicativa de lenguas, el enfoque basado en tareas ha venido a convertirse en el modo plausible de ejercitar en clases los procesos de comunicación.

La enseñanza mediante tareas surge en los años 80 del siglo XX como un intento de buscar la comunicación real en el aula. Este enfoque nace como una propuesta innovadora en el diseño de la en­señanza comunicativa de lenguas extranjeras y se centra en la forma de organizar, secuenciar y llevar a cabo las actividades de aprendizaje en el aula. La tarea comunicativa, a juicio de autores como Nunan, Breen y Candlin, implica resolver un problema o completar una laguna de información activando un proceso mental utilizando la lengua extranjera, y se considera que es a través de ese proceso que se adquiere la lengua en cuestión.

La tarea comunicativa constituye entonces la célula fundamental de un proceso de enseñanza- aprendizaje de lenguas cuyo objetivo final sea la competencia comunicativa. Las tareas comunicativas constituyen, además, una vía material de incorporación de la realidad a la clase, a la vez que favorecen el protagonismo del estudiante y le brindan la oportunidad de utilizar los conocimientos que posee, provenientes de otras materias o de la realidad circundante, para la solución, ya sea en el actuar personal o colectivo, de los retos que la tarea le impone a cada momento.

Haciendo una profunda revisión bibliográfica sobre el tema se puede concluir que el enfoque comunicativo en la enseñanza de lenguas es el que ha mostrado mayor aceptación, en los últimos años, entre los profesores e investigadores vinculados a esta área del saber. El enfoque basado en tareas nace como una propuesta innovadora en el diseño de la enseñanza comunicativa de lenguas. Constituye un intento de buscar la comunicación real en el aula para las personas que estudian una lengua extranjera y no tienen la posibilidad de utilizarla en situaciones auténticas.

Trabajo colaborativo

El trabajo colaborativo se define como procesos intencionales de un grupo para alcanzar objetivos específicos, más herramientas diseñadas para dar soporte y facilitar el trabajo.

En el marco de una organización, el trabajo en grupo con soporte tecnológico se presenta como un conjunto de estrategias tendientes a maximizar los resultados y minimizar la pérdida de tiempo e información en beneficio de los objetivos organizacionales.

Elementos

Elementos del trabajo colaborativo:

• Objetivos: Los mismos de la organización; particulares, bien definidos u otros

• Ambiente: controlado y cerrado.
• Motivación: la persona es convencida por la organización.
• Tipo de proceso: se formaliza el proceso grupal.
• Aporte individual: conocimiento y experiencia personal al servicio de los intereses organizacionales.
• Pasos del proceso grupal: se deben definir claramente y previamente.