Teach Yourself How to Learn By Saundra Yancy McGuire, Summary

Introduction: Teach Yourself How to Learn

Continuous learning is a big part of my life, and I want to evolve and grow every day. I bought Teach Yourself How to Learn because I had known Saundra McGuire virtually for a few years. We've corresponded by email and I’ve also interviewed her.

I loved Teach Yourself How to Learn How to Learn. The book is meant for students, however, it contains a lot of information that professionals can use. Teach Yourself How to Learn is a self-help book on cognition and learning. It’s filled with many strategies that the author draws from her experience and research as a science professor.

You can train metacognition like you train a muscle to improve learning and become smarter.

I appreciated Bloom’s Taxonomy and Saundra McGuire disclosed that the secret to better and more effective learning is a conscious shift from ‘study’ mindset to ‘learning’ mindset. That is, a shift from the first two levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy as you’ll see later, to levels three to six. To change your learning, you have to change the strategies that you use.

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Summary: Teach Yourself How to Learn

Teachers are focused on teaching content not on how students should learn. And herein lies a big problem. They assume that students know how to learn. You may have poor learning skills because no one has ever taught you how to learn.

People are drowning at work with the sheer volume of information they have to consume each day. To remain successful, professionals have to constantly update skills. You may see learning the 10 skills the World Economic Forum says you need to thrive as doing non-required work, since you do not have to “turn in an assignment.” To learn any skill or master any subject, you have to understand the logic of a discipline. Bill Gates also says this.

Metacognition

The secret to better learning is metacognition, which is thinking about your own thinking. It’s the ability to:

• Think about your thinking.
• Be aware of yourself as a problem solver.
• Monitor, plan, and control your mental process.
• Judge your level of learning

You move from passive employee to proactive employee. And you move from passive student to proactive learner. While studying, ask yourself, “Am I understanding this material or simply memorizing it?” Have precise goals when reading to learn:

• Apply reading strategies to books.
• Review notes.
• Reorganize notes.
• Give mini lectures to a friend or an empty chair.
• Create a practice quiz.

When the brain is trying to learn something new, it tries to relate it to something it already knows. You can control learning and thinking. The best way to learn about metacognition is to use Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

• Hierarchy of learning levels.
• From shallow to deep learning.
• From rote memorization to the highest levels of understanding to application.

1. Remember: You have memorized the information, but you are unable  to interpret it or put it into your own words.
2. Understand: You can put the information into your own words and explain it creating  analogies and examples people can apply to their lives.
3. Apply: You can use the concepts to solve real problems that you have never seen before.
4. Analyze: You can  take a new concept that you just learned and break it down into its component parts.
5. Evaluate:You can look at two different processes others propose and determine for yourself which one is likelier.
6. Create: You come up with your own ideas about solving different kinds of problems or designing different processes to achieve the same goals.

4-Step Formula to Learning Bloom’s Taxonomy

1. Study vs learning, passive vs active – memorize, understand and apply.
2. Study harder or teach a class
3. Bloom’s Taxonomy.
4. What level in Bloom’s Taxonomy operating at. (Unfortunately, most people stay at Levels One and Two)

Preparing to “teach” the information is a learning strategy because it forces you to anticipate the questions you’ll be asked.

Intense Study Session

1. Set specific goal
2. Do active learning tasks
3. Take a break/have a reward
4. Review

This works well for an intense reading session. For instance, you’re reading intentionally to solve a workplace or business problem. When you take a break you restore energy and motivation and allow your brain to absorb the information.

Rest after learning is critical for memory formation. After the break, evaluate what you learned from the study session. You cannot effectively problem solve by looking up information. You solve problems by thinking critically using information stored in your brain.

10 Strategies to Optimize Academic Performance

1. Previewing
2. Preparing for active reading
3. Paraphrasing
4. Reading actively
5. Using the textbook even if it’s not required.
6. Going to class and taking notes by hand
7. Doing homework without using solved problems as a guide.
8. Teaching course material to real or imagined audiences.
9. Working in pairs or groups.
10. Creating practice exams.

You don’t have to use all the strategies to see an improvement in your learning. The author however recommends using the reading and homework strategies because they are so powerful.

3-Step Active Reading Strategy

Step One: Previewing

The brain likes to see the big picture so preview the chapter first.

• Look at section headings
• Bold print
• Italicized words
• Diagrams, graphics, images.

Things make more sense when you preview first.

Step Two: Previewing on Steroids

Come up with questions the reading will answer.

• Why are you reading the text?
• Formulate questions you want the reading to answer.

You’ve given your brain an assignment so it will be looking for the answers when you’re reading.

Step Three: Paraphrasing the Right Way

Read only one paragraph at a time, stop then put what you’ve read into your own words.

When you read the next paragraph, stop, put it in your own words, but incorporate your first paragraph. After you’ve read the third paragraph, put it in your own words and incorporate what you’ve read so far. This allows you to break things into bite-sized pieces.

Flashcards, Maps, and Outline

Incorporate the first two activities with taking notes, jotting down questions, creating a flashcard, mind map and outline.

Work on example problems and assessment questions to better understand the information and increase your comprehension.

Take notes by hand in lectures because it forces you to paraphrase. Sit in the T-zone of the lecture so you can see the professor and all materials. Always do your homework and work on example problems before you look at the solution. Check your solution against the one in your textbook. If you got it wrong, read the relevant sections of the book.

Deep learning takes place during this investigation process. Do your homework next working on two or three problems at a time. Treat the questions like a quiz. Solve the problems independently so you don’t learn to rely on others. Using homework to assess your learning is a powerful strategy.

Teach the information to a real or imagined friend to identify gaps in your understanding of the topic. Fill in the gaps by looking at the information again.

When you work in groups you teach each other and you also learn from each other. Additionally, when you work in groups, you can judge your own learnings. Create a mock exam using syllabus, lecture notes, homework assignments and quizzes. You can deduce problem types and topics that will appear on the exam. Create an outline of an exam. You can use questions in the textbook.

Testing reinforces, deepens and enriches learning. To create a quiz you can use memorize.com

Strategies to Boost Motivation, Positive Emotions and Learning

1. Use learning strategies. Revisit strategies already mentioned – metacognition strategies and study cycle.
2. Adopt a growth mindset. Work on having a growth mindset. Monitor your self-talk – are they mainly negative and self-destructive? Reframe your negative self-talk to a more positive one. Do this gradually.
3. Rest, Nutrition, and Exercise: Eat healthy, exercise and get enough sleep each night. Figure out the minimum amount of sleep you need.

Time Management

Tip One: Keep Calendar Showing Major Events

• Keep a calendar for the next three or four months
• Make sure you schedule major projects (learn new skills), reading time.
• Can show 16 to 20 weeks.
• Include due dates of personal and work projects.

Tip Two: Keep Weekly Calendar

Have hourly schedule

• Work time
• Reading time
• Volunteer time
• Study session
• Appointment with self

Tip Three: Learn to Say You Have an Appointment

This is a great tip to not getting forced into an appointment.

Tip 4: Start Your Homework as Soon as it is Assigned

• Prepare for your next exam each and every day.
• When you start early you can devise a learning strategy.

Tip Five: Prioritize Your Needs and Wants

• Don’t over schedule.
• Get to know yourself.
• Create a test preparation schedule.
• Use learning strategies from Day 1
• Determine the types of questions likely to be on exam. Create a test and work on it.
• Organize information by preparing charts, outline, or a study guide.
• Makeup practice test notes from notes and textbooks.

Try the Strategies and Have Fun

Underlying Principles

• Believe you can succeed.
• Determine what’s expected from you.
• Have a selection of learning strategies.

Test the learning strategies to identify which ones work best for you.

Scientific method to test which strategies work best for you.

• Make observations.
• Pose a question.
• Create a hypothesis.
• Draw conclusions based on results.
• Revise the hypothesis according to results.
• Design new experiments.
• Continue the process.

Conclusion: Teach Yourself How to Learn

Although Teach Yourself How to Learn was written with students in mind, it's a self-help book that any professional can benefit from digesting. If you want to master a skill, the updated Bloom's Taxonomy can put your learning on steroids.

Next Steps

Wondering what to do next, you can do all of:

1. Buy my new book, Leadership Reading: Spilling the Tea on How Top Leaders Read

2. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

3. Join the Art of Learning Membership Site

4. Download Unlock Your Genius Power Reading Tips Sheet

5. Buy me a cup of coffee!

If you want access to my Bookish Notes, please consider joining my membership site, the Art of Learning.

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