Chapter Iii: Managing and Caring For The Self A. Learning To Be A Better Student
Chapter Iii: Managing and Caring For The Self A. Learning To Be A Better Student
Chapter Iii: Managing and Caring For The Self A. Learning To Be A Better Student
0 10-July-2020
This part on managing and caring for the self includes topics about learning to be a better student
and discusses the function of the brain and its influences on learning. This also includes
metacognition and self-regulated learning and their role in forming learning strategies that students
may employ.
1. Understand the physiological and psychological aspects involved in the learning process.
2. Identify the different learning strategies based on existing researches.
3. Develop ways to become an effective learner.
We have known since antiquity that the seat of learning is the human brain. But it has only been in
the last decade that neuroscience researchers have been able to go inside the brain and observe
how learning actually occurs at the molecular level. New technologies like diffusion imaging have
opened up the brain’s inner workings and allowed scientists to “see” what is going on inside the
brain when people are engaged in learning. More sophisticated experiments with the brains of
laboratory animals are stretching the bounds of our understanding further.
To comprehend the way learning occurs in the brain, you have to understand its physiology.
The brain acts as a dense network of fiber pathways consisting of approximately 100 billion
(1010) neurons. The brain consists of three principle parts – stem, cerebellum and cerebrum –
as shown in Figure 1 below. Of the three, the cerebrum is most important in learning, since this
is where higher-ordered functions like memory and reasoning occur. Each area of the
cerebrum specializes in a function – sight, hearing, speech, touch, short-term memory, long-
term memory, language and reasoning abilities are the most important for learning. Figure 1:
The Human Brain
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Once processed in short-term memory, our brain’s neural pathways carry these memories to the
structural core, where they are compared with existing memories and stored in our long-term
memory, the vast repository of everything we have ever experienced in our lives. This process
occurs in an instant, but it is not always perfect. In fact, as information races across billions of
neurons’ axons, which transmit signals to the next neuron via synapse, some degradation is
common. That’s why many of our memories are incomplete or include false portions that we make
up to fill holes in the real memory.
Neuroscientists have long believed that learning and memory formation are made by the
strengthening and weakening of connections among brain cells. Recently, researchers at the
University of California Irvine’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory proved it. In
experiments with mice, they were able to isolate and observe the actions of the brain while learning
a new task. Researchers found that when two neurons frequently interact, they form a bond that
allows them to transmit more easily and accurately. This leads to more complete memories and
easier recall. Conversely, when two neurons rarely interacted, the transmission was often
incomplete, leading to either a faulty memory or no memory at all.
As an example of this, consider your daily commute. You don’t really need to think consciously
about how to get to work, because it is a trip you have taken so many times that the memory of how
to navigate is ingrained. The neurons that control this memory have communicated so often, they
have formed a tight bond, like a group of old friends.
Contrast your daily commute with the experience of driving to a location you have never visited. To
make this trip, your brain has to work much harder. You need to get directions, write them down or
print them and then pay extra attention to road signs along the way. In this case, the neurons
involved in navigating to this new destination have not shared synapses frequently before and so
they communicate incompletely or inefficiently. This requires forming new connections within the
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brain, which results in greater conscious effort and attention on our part.
This research has important implications for learning, especially regarding how we acquire new
knowledge, store it in memory and retrieve it when needed. When learning new things, memory and
recall are strengthened by frequency and recency. The more we practice and rehearse something
new and the more recently we have practiced, the easier it is for our brain to transmit these
experiences efficiently and store them for ready access later. This process is called fluency.
Another recent study at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology,
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that the structural core of the
brain receives sensory information from different regions and then assembles bits of data into a
complete picture that becomes a memory of an event. This memory is strengthened by multiple
sensory inputs. For example, if we both see and hear something, we are more likely to remember it
than if we only hear it.
If we experience an emotional reaction to something – fear, anger, laughter or love – that emotion
becomes part of the memory and strengthens it dramatically. In recalling memories, subjects who
had experienced an emotional reaction were far more likely to remember the event and with higher
accuracy than those who simply witnessed an event without any emotional attachment. That
explains why highly emotional events – birth, marriage, divorce and death – become unforgettable.
What does this neuroscience research suggest about learning? We need to ensure that learning
engages all the senses and taps the emotional side of the brain, through methods like humor,
storytelling, group activities and games. Emphasis on the rational and logical alone does not
produce powerful memories.
A third recent discovery at the University of Michigan’s Biopsychology Program confirmed that the
brain behaves selectively about how it processes experiences that enter through our five senses.
The brain is programmed to pay special attention to any experience that is novel or unusual. It
does this by making comparisons between the new information brought through the senses and
existing information stored in our brain’s long-term memory. When the brain finds a match, it will
quickly eliminate the new memory as redundant.
When new information contradicts what’s already stored in memory, however, our brains go into
overdrive, working hard to explain the discrepancy. If the new information proves useful to us, it
becomes a permanent memory that can be retrieved later. If this new information does not seem
useful or if we do not trust its source, we are likely to forget it or even reject it altogether, preferring
to stick with the information we already possess.
Since learning inherently requires acquisition of new information, our brains’ propensity to focus on
the novel and forget the redundant makes it a natural learning ally. In fact, our brains are hard wired
to learn, from the moment we are born. Our native curiosity is driven by our brain’s inherent search
for the unusual in our environment.
On the other hand, past memories can be an impediment to future learning that contradicts
previous information. As we age and gain more experience, we tend to rely too much on our past
knowledge. We may miss or even reject novel information that does not agree with previous
memories.
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BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR CHANGES
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change its physical structure and function based on
input from your experiences, behaviors, emotions, and even thoughts. It used to be believed that
except for a few specific growth periods in childhood, the brain was pretty much fixed. Now, we
know that’s not true. Your brain is capable of change until the day you die.
Your brain forms neuronal connections based on what you do repeatedly in your life – both good
and bad. Worrying about every little thing. Cruising online pornography. Picking at your fingernails.
Hitting the gym. Meditating. Your repeated mental states, responses, and behaviors become neural
traits.
To break bad habits, you really have to change your brain. When it comes to changing your
behavior – and in life, in general, you’ll have more success if you make friends with your mind and
brain and put them to work for you. You can change your behavior – even those hard-to-break
habits – by building alternate pathways in your brain.
When you first try to adopt a new behavior, you have to enlist your prefrontal cortex, the thinking
brain, and insert conscious effort, intention, and thought into the process. When you’ve performed
the new routine enough times for connections to be made and strengthened in your brain, the
behavior will require less effort as it becomes the default pattern.
The amount of time it takes to modify behavior depends on what you’re trying to do and can range
anywhere from 3 weeks to months or even longer. The relationship between adopting a new
behavior and automaticity (acting without having to think about it) is much like climbing a hill that
starts out steep and gradually levels off. In the beginning, you make some really impressive
progress, but the gains diminish over time.
Metacognition is often referred to as “thinking about thinking.” It is a regulatory system that helps a
person understand and control his or her own cognitive performance.
Metacognition allows people to take charge of their own learning. It involves awareness of how they
learn, an evaluation of their learning needs, generating strategies to meet these needs and then
implementing the strategies. (Hacker, 2009)
Learners often show an increase in self-confidence when they build metacognitive skills.
Selfefficacy improves motivation as well as learning success. Metacognitive skills are generally
learned during a later stage of development. Metacognitive strategies can often (but not always) be
stated by the individual who is using them. For all age groups, metacognitive knowledge is crucial
for efficient independent learning because it fosters forethought and self-reflection.
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Metacognitive Strategies
When metacognitive strategies are applied, one can become better learner. One can control not
only thoughts but also actions much more effectively.
1. Self-Questioning
Self-questioning involves pausing throughout a task to consciously check your own actions.
Without questioning, one may not be aware of faults.
The following questions may be asked to improve one’s self:
2. Meditation
Meditation involves clearing the mind. It could consider as a metacognitive strategy because
meditation aim to:
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3. Reflection
Reflection involves pausing to think about a task. It is usually a cyclical process where one
reflect, think of ways to improve, try again then go back to reflection.
Reflection is metacognitive only if it consciously reflects on what your thought processes
were and how to improve upon them next time.
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7. Writing Down your Working Most people will recall in high school math classes their
teacher saying: “I want to see your working so I know how you got to your answer.”
This teacher is ensuring you are employing the right thinking processes and can show
others how you went about thinking about the task.
When you become expert at a topic you tend not to think about your thinking. We sometimes
call this “unconscious competence”.
8. Thinking Aloud
The benefit of thinking aloud is that it makes a person really think. You have to talk through
what your brain is doing, making those thinking processes explicit.
Teachers will often ask students to speak out loud about what they’re thinking. It not only
helps the student be more conscious of their cognitive processes, it also helps the teacher
identify areas where the student is going astray.
9. Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers, also sometimes called cognitive tools, help to consciously improve the
thinking processes. It is useful in:
• Organizing our thoughts.
• Creating connections between things we know.
• Thinking more deeply about something. Visualizing processes and
procedures.
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When planning ahead, one often have to think about how to go about a task. It is
referred to as “plan of attack”.
13. Planning Ahead
Planning ahead involves thinking about what to go through in order to complete a
During the planning phase, decisions may be made such as:
• Deciding what strategies you’ll use when your task, competition or
begins.
• Tossing up a range of different thinking skills you might use when
approaching a task.
• Reminding yourself not to make the same mistakes you made last
• Preparing some tools that will help you keep your thinking on track
preparing graphic organizers.
learning (SRL) refers to the process a student engages in when she tak
responsibility for her own learning and applies herself to academic success (Zimmerman
Self-regulated
regulated learning involves not only attaining a detailed knowledge of an ability, but
-awareness, self-motivation, and the ability to behave in a way that it’s
Selfskills such as self
you to apply what you learned appropriately.
Regulated Learning
Cycle of Self-
Planning: The student plans her task, sets goals, outlines strategies to tackle the
creates a schedule for the task
1.
In the planning phase, students have an opportunity to work on their self-assessm
pick the best strategies for success.
learn how to
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2. Monitoring: In this stage, the student puts her plans into action and closely monitors her
performance and her experience with the methods she chose.
3. In the monitoring phase, students get experience implementing the strategies they
chose
and making real-time adjustments to their plans as needed.
Reflection: Finally, after the task is complete and the results are in, the student reflects on
how well she did and why she performed the way she did.
In the reflection phase, students synthesize everything they learned and reflect on their
experience, learning what works for them and what should be altered or replaced with a
new strategy.
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Identify your strengths and explain how can this help you to achieve your goals.
Identify your weaknesses and come up with possible solutions on how to overcome them in order to
achieve your goals.