“When you know something well enough to teach it, that’s when you know you’ve gained that new skill or information successfully…” Anna Meyer
Jim Kwik is the CEO of Kwik Learning and he has spent 25+ years studying the brain and teaching employees how to improve their memory. Kwik has identified four keys to learning any subject, which he describes with the acronym F.A.S.T.
F= Forget. To keep past knowledge from getting in the way of learning something new, we need to forget what we already know. Instead, we should use a curious mindset, asking lots of questions: “Where’s the lesson in this?” “How can I use this?” “Why must I use this?” “When will I use this?”
A= Active. The human brain learns through creation, not consumption. It is not enough to listen to new information or take word for word notes. We need to apply concepts and ask questions about how the new information relates to what we already know and how we’re going to apply it.
S= State. This relates to the state of our emotions. We will remember what we learned if we had a positive attitude while we learned it. We will forget if we’re bored, so we need to put on a smile, sit up straight and force ourselves into a positive attitude through self-talk.
T= Teach. Listen and learn as if you are going to have to teach the new information to someone else later. This will prompt you to ask clarifying questions.
It’s a simple model but it makes good sense to me. What do you think?
May your learning be sweet- and safe.
Deborah
