This post summarises learnings from Dr Oakley’s MOOC on learning How to Learn (see References below for link) together with my own thoughts and reflections on that course together with my Systems Theory post-grad course currently being studied with the Open University and other current studies. Related posts can be found under the tag Learning About Learning.
In particular, I have taken time out from that post-grad module due to feeling really confused, fed up, bored and generally utterly demoralised by my continually unsuccessful attempts to get on with studying that module. Rather than beat myself up about it, I decided to just give myself some time off to go and study a different (albeit, connected) subject. Hopefully it will free up some mind-space and sparks some useful ideas to go towards my next assignment.
Chunking as a Learning Method
Chunking is studying information in small, accessible packages. These chunks are more easily assimilated, since the mind is better able to unite and fit them together into a unified whole. Chunking has been described as a ‘mental leap’ – taking pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and fitting them together to make a whole picture.
By the very process of the mind fitting together all these disparate bits of information, the memory is better able to remember and recall this new logical or mental construct which has now been created. That mental construct is also more readily available to be manipulated and fitted into the bigger picture of the subject being learned about.
So chunking, as a study skill, is really about learning things in context – which really means ‘in ways meaningful to me as learner’ – as opposed to just learning facts which can be regurgitated at will.
Using the metaphor of a puzzle is useful because it suggests this idea of raggedy edges which then slot together with other pieces of the puzzle. The puzzle pieces fit together coherently into a unique new whole, whereas a nice neat smooth-edged fact is just going to sit there on its own and not fit snugly with other facts.
Learning, Memory and Emotions:
So how do chunks work with memory? The logical chunks, or contextualised ideas, sit in the long term memory waiting to be called by the short-term/working memory. Remember, when we’re focussing our attention on something at hand (the subject being studied), the working memory can retrieve and manipulate ideas and chunks of information from the long-term memory into its four working memory ‘buckets’. This is happening in the focussed thinking (or learning) mode, but it requires the attention process to be working efficiently.
Emotions can easily disrupt our ability to study and apply this focussed thinking mode, especially emotions like stress, fear or sadness/depression. It’s another important reason why we just can’t study effectively if we’re not in the right mental or emotional frame of mind to do it. Better to take a break altogether – or at least switch over to some more enjoyable type of learning to get ourselves out of that unhelpful emotional state.
Finding Meaning vs. Using:
It’s through either ‘meaning’ or ‘use’ that the mind is able to unite and fit together all those little packages. This is important to note since it indicates there are two different ways in which the learning process can take place:
i. through the search for meaning, or
ii. through use of the information.
Recognising that learning takes place through a search for meaning, highlights that it (the learning, or more precisely the subject being learned) is something that has to be willed and desired after. Alternateively, the information is something which needs to be in repeated use, employment or application in some way or other in order for the learning to ‘stick’.
Both these two ideas tie in neatly with Systems Theory as expressed by the O.U. Systems Thinking module:
i. learning emerges out of the process of exploring and sense-making around a particular situation or subject, and
ii. learning is a practical process (or a ‘practice’) which exists as a relational dynamic, that is, learning increases in proportion to the number of recursions, iterations or repeated exposures to the situation or subject at hand. Here it should be stressed, the iterations are not just unchanging carbon copies of each other, but a dynamic living process, where each iteration or cycle of learning causes fresh insights and awareness to arise, which subsequently informs the next cycle, and so on.
How Does the Learning Process Happen?
We are in some kind of environment and engage with that environment in some process of interaction with ‘other’ – whether that other be animate or inanmate. Our engagement and interaction with that other takes place through the dual mediums of perception (sensing through either sight, hearing, touch and so on) and cognition. The perception of some sensory stimulus triggers your brain’s neurons to fire up, activating an existing neural pathway or creating a new one which solidifies the relationship in your mind of what has just been observed or perceived.
But each event or interaction does not happen in isolation from all the other events or interactions which have gone before, so the brain is also continually sorting, categorising, comparing and contrasting, every single event and interaction with memories of past events/interactions and our thoughts/ideas/mental constructions about them. So this one particular event orinteraction creates its own memory trace, but does not sit in isolation within the memory, but is instead connected to many other memory traces in your mind, based on the connections of meaning (the relationships) you recognised or conceived of.
Developing a Learning Process Based on Neurobiological Principles:
The focus on ‘use’ (or, in a traditional learning environment) is important: here we should develop a learning process which makes use of rote learning and repetition of small chunks of information. An example would be grammar and vocabulary drills when learning a new language. This engages the focussed thinking mode and operates in a very structured way.
But we should intersperse this strucutred rote learning with periods which are focussed on developing ‘meaning’, employing the diffuse thinking mode. Here a more free-form and unstructured type of learning can take place – one based on interation and building relational links between different memories, ideas and insights in the mind. An example from the language learning situation would be free conversation with a native speaker.
This second type of learning ties back neatly to Ison’s mention of Dawkins’ rock V bird: the predictable, Newtonian, deterministic thrown rock versus the unseen, unfamiliar and unpredictable effects of a living bird taking flight (2010, p.131). But what strikes me – having learnt about these two equally-important modes of thinking, focussed and diffuse – is that both the ‘rock’ (structured, repetitive) and the ‘bird’ (unstructured, relational) are vital in an optimal learning process. Ison cautions us toremember that a situation or ‘system’ is not the thing that we have labelled it (eg simple = rock, or complex adaptive = bird) because the label remains in our own mind as a mental construct and is less a reflection of the thing itself but more a reflection of how we are choosing to see it (2010, p.134). I would say this caution fits well here because the ‘seeing’ of the situation or ‘system’ that each of us does might come from either the focussed/strucutred part of our mind, or it might come from the diffuse thinking mode (and hence be associated with all kinds of internalised relations and patterns which we ourselves may uniquely see).
Steps to Effective Studying:
- Create conceptual chunks by uniting and binding together disparate, scattered and unstructured bits of information, through finding meaning and building up relational links (a process some refer to as taking ‘mental leaps’);
- Each ‘chunk’ – which is, in practice, a network of neurons, or neural pathways, and can be thought of as a memory trace – can be strengthened through focussed and concentrated repetition and application (either through revision methods, exercises or real-world application) during structured study sessions;
- The structured sessions should be interspersed with unstructured diffuse learning sessions where the mind is allowed to engage in a more free-form method of learning, centred around key structural pieces (eg basic grammar, core vocabulary or key concepts) but being allowed to range more widely and naturally;
- These unstructerd sessions may be aided by use of various tricks, techniques and mental games, puzzles or challenges to shift the mind further into diffuse mode (in a similar way to creative or entrepreneurial ideation techniques), building more diverse and lateral neural connections;
- Repeat steps 1-4 over and over in a recursive and cyclical manner, building up from smallest individual chunks (sub-systems) up to larger and larger chunks (systems) which you can then start fitting together in the smae manner to form whole ideas (supra-systems).
This cycling through ever-greater levels of expertise, application and understanding can be seen as a process of staged development, a gradual unfolding of understanding which arises from the continued immersion in, or exposure to, greater and greater levels of complexity and difficulty as the student progresses onwards through their learning journey.
In Summary:
Chunking is a learning process that allows smaller pieces of information to be built up into larger and more complex ideas and mental structures through a process of finding meaning coupled with repetitive usage. It is performed most efficiently by interleaving structured and unstructured study sessions, which engage the focussed and then the diffuse thinking modes respectively.
Key Elements of Learning
- Sensing the thing to be learnt: ‘taking it in’
- Observing someone else perform the required function themselves (q.v. Worked Examples): ‘seeing how it’s done’
- Establishing the pattern which needs to be learnt or mastered (q.v. Pattern Identification Process): ‘grasping hold of it’
- Breaking that pattern down into its constituent parts, individual skills or competencies: ‘chunking it up’
- Following the step-by-step learning cycle as described above to unite the parts or chunks into one coherent whole: ‘tying it all together’
- Working your way towards ‘unconscious mastery’ through the ongoing process of usage or repetition
- Usage and repetition allows the neural pathways to become sufficiently strengthened so the thing being learned (ideas, throughts, movements, actions, skills, techqniques) becomes second nature and can be performed without thinking
- In addition (for abstract or conceptual subjects, and experiential situations) a deepening engagement with the ideas will be gained through periods of reflection and sense-making, particularly by drawing together disparate ideas and creating new links and connections between them
Where Does Learning Seem to Go Wrong for Me:
If I struggle to learn, it seems to be because I am so fixated on perfection, on ‘getting it right’, that doesn’t seem to leave room for the play element (representing the diffuse mode) which is so crucial in building those neural connections and networks in the first place. This pushes me back to only doing those things which I can already do with competency, or which I can pick up very quickly. So I cycle between focussed mode on the one hand, and unconscious mastery mode on the other. and seem to be stuck between these two and unable to work on the ‘tying it all together’ aspect.
Reviewing this set of key learning elements suggests to me that, if I go all out on the chunking methodology – I feel I should call it ‘micro-chunking’ in my case – I might actually make some progress in learning difficult and complex abstract subjects like my Systems Thinking module. One anxiety which creeps up now though is the thought that I just don’t have time to go back over Part 2 and relearn it all via this new (new-to-me) study approach. Perhaps instead I should refocus my efforts back onto Part 3 but framing my approach as suggested in last week’s tutorial (using key concepts from Part 2 to inform and shape my approach to Part 3). This could provide a better way to step back into the key concepts from Part 2 which seem most interesting and/or relevant to me right now. It would certainly stop me from having to go back to the beginning of Part 2 and start again from scratch – an idea which I just can’t bear (and fortunately which I also intuitively know would be counter-productive even if there were time available for it).
The Importance of Worked Examples:
When learning a difficult technical subject like maths of science, we’re provided with worked examples which are really incredibly useful because they allow us to step into the example to ‘see how it’s done’. We can see where we’re trying to end up at, or what we’re trying to achieve by doing the activity we’re learning about.
Hmm, doesn’t work so well for abstract or conceptual subjects through does it. That’s why the OU systems module puts so much emphasis on drawing upon our own experiences as a way of bringing to light the various abstract notions and ideas being introduced. But I benefit grestly from ‘seeing how it’s done’ because I’m a very practical learner. I learn best by observing someone else doing it, then doing it myself, then repeating to consolidate what I’ve learnt. Again, this highlights th extent to which technical STEM subjects are far more accessible to me.
The Pattern Revealed:
But as Dr Oakley points out in her course, seeing a worked example allows us to “see the KEY FEATURES” and “work out the UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES” at work in the subject or example. And, importantly, to “figure out WHY the STEPS are taken the WAY they are”. This is an important pattern (key features, underlying principles, steps taken & in which order & for what reason) for me to try to replicate with the more difficult abstract subjects.
One thing Dr Oakley cautions us against is focussing too much on WHY we’re doing a particular step (ie why it works). Instead we should focus on the CONNECTIONS BETWEEN all the steps taken in a given example, so that we can see the WHOLE in operation. (This is quite a systemic idea in and of itself: seeing the connections and inter-relations between the parts in order to better understand the whole.) What this means in essence (focussing on the CONNECTIONS between steps) is that we should focus on WHY is this step following that last one – what RESULT comes from doing this thing immediately after having done that thing.
So here is the Pattern Identification Process which is important in allowing us to ‘chunk it up’:
- identify the KEY FEATURES
- identify the UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES
- observe the STEPS taken and the ORDER in which they’re taken
- uncover the CONNECTIONS between each of the steps (eg the connection between steps 1 and 2, between stesp 2 and 3, steps 3 and 4, and so on),- which is to say, uncover the REASON why step 2 follows on from step 1, step 3 from step 2, and so on
A good analogy for the Pattern Recognition Process is to navigate yourself on a road trip from A to B using a map as a guide (=underlying principles) and by picking out recognisable landmarks in the landscape as you go along (key features) which helps you to get to your destination by allowing you to pick out the most efficient sequence of roads/turnings to follow (the steps and their order) which gets you from one landmark to the next (connections between the steps & the reason for their order).
Chunking Follows Pattern Identification:
To continue to road trip analogy, chunking will now be a simple matter of splitting the journey up into the individual navigable sections (which you might have entered as n waypoints into your GPS or SatNav system). Now you can focus on getting from your starting point A to waypoint 1, then once arrived you focus on getting from waypoint 1 to waypoint 2, and so on. Until eventually your final chunk will take you from waypoint n to your final destination B.
Mastery Arises Out of Tying it Together:
Dr Oakley takes the analogy one stage further: by paying close attention to the landmarks and waypoints along the journey, eventually you’ll be able to discard the map altogether and navigate yourself by tyour enriched understanding of the ‘lie of the land’. Here the chunks (or neural networks) have been united together into stronger and stronger links and relations, such that your understanding of the subject (familiarity with the territory, knowing the lie of the land) is so great you have achieved mastery of the subject being studied, or gained unconscious competency of the skill (navigating without aid of the map, able to make up new routes ‘on the fly’). This later stage of mastery is akin to Ison’s most competent level of practice performance as expressed by the juggler mataphor introduced in his Systems Practice book (Ison, 2010).
Doing is Real Learning
This level of mastery results in, not just an understanding of the concepts or ideas, but the ability to apply them yourself to solving a particular problem or creating a desired result. We can say then, that knowledge is one thing, but the correct contextualised application of that knowledge is where real intelligence shines through. Here we reflect back Ison’s (ibid) idea of praxis, which is both a theory-informed-practice and more: an ability to both apply the knowledge and to reflect back on how and why we are applying the knowledge in that way, and to see if there are better, more appropriate or meaningful ways we can apply the knowledge.
Furthermore, it’s the continued application of a theory or chunk of knowledge that leads us to mastery and competency. That act of doing strengthens the underlying neural pathways and ensures the learning ‘bed in’. Many studies have shown that students retain knowledge and achieve deeper levels of comprehension when they not merely passively study a subject but actively engage in some kind of doing, that is, some kind of applying that learning in a relevant setting or context.
The value of doing (applying, practising with the newly-acquired knowledge) is not just about memory-enhancement, but also about making that chunk (the neural pathway) available to multiple different contexts or settings; or rather, to allow one to easily see which settings or contexts the chunk would fit appropriately into.
Context is Everything
Context forms a third strand of the chunking process where we can take the initial chunk of learned knowledge and stepping it outside of the problem setting in which we first encountered that knowledge. In effect we’re applying the underlying principles or essence contained within that chunk, which allows us to combine it effectively with other similar chunk-essences to make it useful in a much roader range of possible problem settings than the one originally encountered.
In this way, we can extend our application of knowledge, and build stronger links between related knowledge chunks. This further strengthens the neural pathways. It’s about seeing this chunk as a part of a much bigger and more complex picture, like a piece of the jigsaw puzzle which can fit in certain places but not others in the whole jigsaw puzzle.
In Ison’s (ibid) Systems Thinking terms, the chunk is like a tool or technique (a Method) and how all the different chunks get built up together to see the bigger picture can be thought of as one’s Framework of ideas and concepts. The Method on its own is of no use without the wider Framework in which it can be operated appropriately and successfully, and that appropriateness (or otherwise) of the Method is dependent entirely on the particular Setting or Situation in which one is trying to apply it. You don’t use a hammer to crack open a walnut (or at least, not if you want to keep the walnut in one piece).
Bottom Up vs. Top Down Learning
Chunking or learning knowledge/ideas/principles/techniques in their individual pieces, can be thought of as a bottom up learning process. Here we break a complex subject down into its smaller and more easily-handled constituent parts. Learn and practice each part, initially on its own, then later on in increasingly more complex combinations. Here our goal is to learn, understand and strengthen that learning/understanding through repetition and practice, so the neural pathways are strengthened leading to greater powers of recall.
Contextualisation or seeing the big picture can be thought of as a top down learning process. Well-assimilated chunks can be combined in new and novel ways which are appropriate to their setting. Here we can see everything we’re learning and where each of the individual chunks fits in that overall picture.
Both processes are vital if we are not just to learn and recall, but to gain true mastery. Here again we can equate this to Ison’s juggler (ibid).
How Do You Get at the Big Picture?
A simple tip includes reviewing the contents pages and chapter titles first before starting reading a book. Then, before you dive deeply into each book section or chapter, skim-read through all the chapter’s sub-headings and images/figures to get an overview of what that chapter will be about. Dr Oakley refers to this as a ‘Picture Walk’.
By seeing the lie of the land in this way, neural pathways are being to be laid down in the brain – which can be an aid both to understanding and remembering. It is also a less focussed or structured way of reading or studying which naturally allows for the kinds of random and lateral connections which happen during the diffuse thinking mode. This can further help to get a sense of the big picture, by seeing ways in which the book or chapter contents relate to already-studied subjects. Here too neural pathways begin to be laid down, creating connections between multiple different chunks or ideas.
A more detailed skim-read might follow, where the beginning of each main introductory section and first paragraph in each sub-section is read plus the final concluding paragraph or section. (This is the Ison approach introduced in TU812 – what he referred to as a ‘Top-and-Tail’ approach.)
This can then proceed to a high-level study of the book or chapter. The key here is to learn the major concepts or ideas first. Ways to get at this information – in a well-constructed, organised and presented book – will be through important figures/illustrations, tables, learning outcomes lists, key concept lists, chapter summaries or abstracts, and so on. This study will be done in focussed mode, but will take place at a higher level so as not to get bogged down in too much overwhelming detail.
Only then should one go back and fill in the granular details by reading the whole book or chapter through, as time and need allow or dictate. Following this method means that, even if you weren’t able to cover every last detail (or you tried to but it didn’t stick or make sense on first engagement), you will still have a very solid grasp and understanding of the big picture, what all of the major chunks or ideas/concepts are, and how they all fit together into a coherent whole.
Don’t Fall Into the Perfectionist Trap
Another important tip is to keep on learning and moving on in one’s learning (or reading, or studying some material). Don’t wait until you have learnt, understood, remembered every single little thing 100% perfectly. If stuck, moving ahead a little to a new section can help you to break out of a rut or blank mind syndrome (which can happen all too often, unfortunately). The key thing (as stated above) is NOT to get bogged down in too much detail, too soon. And perhaps not to get bogged down in too much detail ever again! That won’t lead to understanding and retention anyway, so why even bother trying. I can confirm from the heavy duty details in the TU812 module (especially Part 2) that this is definitely the case. How I wish I had learned how to learn with Dr Oakley BEFORE I’d started that module!
Summarising Chunking
Chunking takes place in three key stages:
- Learn the principles or ideas behind a new piece of knowledge, in bite-size pieces, thus creating a chunk (or new neural pathway) – in this way, complex subjects can be broken down into smaller parts, then built back up again into more complex wholes by starting from ground level, or first principles, and stacking them upwards. This is the HOW of knowledge – how to use a particular tool, technique, concept or idea. This stage requires the learner to be commit focussed attention so that they will understand the basic idea or technique involved.
- Apply the newly learned chunks by relating them to other already known and understood chunks of learning. Here is yet more focussed attention, and the time needed for continued practise in order to achieve retention of, and mastery over, the material . Stages 1 and 2 work best when alternating (interleaving) with some space left between sessions, which further aids knowledge retention.
- Gain the context of the chunk, that is, learn the when of using the newly-acquired knowledge chunk – when is it most relevant or appropriate to apply this chunk, and conversely, when is it not appropriate? And further, see how several different chunks fit together into a unified whole – a whole which may change over time. This is the WHEN of knowledge -when to use a particular tool, technique, idea or concept, such that it can be applied most appropriately. Contextualising often happens best in the diffuse thinking mode, as here we are taking what we’ve learned and relating it across to new and novel or unfamiliar situations or settings.
References:
Ison, R. (2010) Systems Practice: How To Act In A Climate-Change World, Springer, London.
Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects, University of California, San Diego. Taught by: Dr Barbara Oakley & Dr Terrence Sejnowski. Available at: Coursera.org.