Learning to Learn...The Metacognition way!

Since the 18th century and with the advent of Industrial Revolution, humankind has been experiencing frequent and innumerable “Eureka moments”. Over the period of these 250 years, each learning event has aided the subsequent exploration in advancing the speed, quality and precision of the process of Learning. Be it the upgrade of the Telegraph poles to Digital Telephony, or the journey from the Television Stations to the OTT platforms or Human intelligence orchestrating and enlivening Artificial Intelligence (AI), the preceding learnings have always played focal roles in the progression.

In all these transformations, our ever-augmenting brains have always looked for ways and patterns to make the Learning processes more conducive and to make the outcomes long lasting. As byproducts of the human quests, we have come up with brilliant Learning Strategies. Our Education systems have endeavored to tap into these strategies through Pedagogy (Mostly Child Learning Strategies) and Andragogy (Mostly Adult Learning Strategies) approaches for years now. 

Since time immemorial educationists, in the field of Conventional Education, have been designing learning strategies to reduce the learning curve and to make the learning processes most effective. They have devised techniques like-

Mnemonic Solutions: Creating retrieval cues through Visual, Spatial and Semantical designs for memory association. Using knuckles to remember the no. of days in the months, using hands and fingers to form Planetary Mnemonic, forming Acronyms to recall from the Periodic table are some of the examples of popular Mnemonic tools.

Avadhanam: Avadhanam, is an age-old practice in India devised to fortify Procedural memory by multi-tasking- reciting Sanskrit shlokas, poems, attempting quiz, solving puzzles and math calculations- all at the same time in particular patterns to practice dividing attention and bringing it back at the highest levels of concentration.

Methods of Loci: To strengthen the Cognitive Capabilities ancient Greeks and Romans used Methods of Loci (Loci = ‘Places’ in Latin), a memorization technique where they used to form imaginary Memory Palaces or locations and place various distinct imaginary objects around it to connect those later through memory lanes and mind mapping to enhance their recalling ability.  

Retrieval Practice: Recalling and listing down information as much as possible without the help of any learning aids.

Interleaving: Mixing and Switching topics, ideas and looking for common links to veer through the topics.

Dual Coding: Combining information with visuals or acoustics for better recalling and retention of knowledge and concepts.

Several brilliant models have also been constructed and are being further reinforced in the segments of Vocational, Unconventional and Professional learning. Inductive and Deductive Teaching methods invoke and utilize human awareness and cognition at various stages in ideating pioneer thoughts or solving novel conundrums. Simulation based learning methods have opened up new horizons for outcome oriented Accelerated Learning. Instructional Designing Principles have led the Online Learning space in redefining learning environments and learning techniques. With all these remarkable accomplishments, our learning Ecosystems are transcending to levels from where they would only get refined further.

Recently, there have been a lot of buzz around 'Learning' across countries and industries. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the priorities of the business leaders overnight and shifted it towards Learning/ upgrading skill in order to sustain through the VUCA. Virtual learning platforms have recorded unprecedented growth in their subscription, the learning hours have increased manifold.

Yet, pandemic or no pandemic, human clairvoyance has always been pushing boundaries and discovering new ways to embrace and adapt the mysteries of the Universe. In the recent years, Learning Scientists and Cognitive Psychologists have devoted themselves in the research of Metacognition, which in their term and in the context of 'Learning' connotes- Learning to Learn or Thinking to Think! A field of research that is consolidating all those learning techniques and many more, cultivating those further in order to formulate even better ways of learning and learning retention techniques. Prestigious universities around the globe have been investing bright minds and huge money on this for the past few years. It would be interesting to experience how these discoveries add a great deal of further acceleration to our ever-shrinking learning curves and give variations to our Learning Evolution trajectory. Time to brace ourselves…