Meaningful Learning
In my experience, there isn’t one set way that people
learn. Just because I need to take notes
and read back over the chapter to fully grasp the material doesn’t mean that
the person sitting across from me learns the same way. She may grasp everything just by listening or
by drawing a mental image of the material in her head. I do, however, think that people generally
learn by relating the subject back to something that they already have prior
knowledge about or to anything that interests them. Doing so will minimize the disequilibrium the
learner feels when trying to grasp a new subject so he or she will not be
discouraged in the process. And if the
subject matter doesn’t seem relevant to that person’s goals, the student will
not have the motivation to learn about it.
Also, at least for me, learning is a trial and error process. If you don’t get it right the first time, try
again. You can not only learn from your own
mistakes but also from the people around you.
