"The illiterate of the twenty first century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." - Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock.
Just a couple of centuries back, education was limited to those with privilege.
Today, we have access to information literally at the tips of our finger tips.
That was an obscenely short summary on the evolution of education, here's a fun read of its detailed history.
In fact, we're being bombarded by too much information, most of the time today.
Jonathan Levi leverages on Dr Malcolm Knowles' work in Adult Learning and presents the key tools that adult learners can use to learn better and more efficiently in today's fast paced world.
5 Conditions to learning
Although we tend to envy children for being 'better' learners, Levi suggests that adults bring their own advantages to the table when it comes to learning.
In fact, these conditions make us better learners.
1 - Experience
Unlike children, adults have a pool of experience and knowledge to draw from. We can learn better by linking, comparing and contrasting what we're learning with what we know for greater learning impact.
2 - Motivation
It's difficult to get children to learn something that they're not interested in, it's almost impossible to force learning onto an adult.
On the flip side, adult learners who are internally motivated are way more driven to learn. Find ways to motivate yourself to pick up a skill.
3 - Active Learning
Adult learners prefer to actively practice and observe the impact of their new gain skills or knowledge. It's best to incorporate projects into your learning journey.
4 - Objective driven
Building on the previous condition, we also tend to be more motivated to learn if there's an immediate problem we need to solve.
5 - Ownership
In line with our need for internal motivation and objectives, adult learners prefer to take ownership of their learning journey instead of being spoonfed from a textbook. Give yourself the permission to jump between modules or chapters!
Levi's book
The book is broken into three main portions:
- the theory behind how adults can learn better (i.e. the 5 conditions)
- tools that help you learn better - namely, memorisation techniques and speed reading
- impact of healthy on learning
I'm not convinced on the need for speed in learning. However, the memorisation techniques in the book sounds interesting. I'll be giving them a go.