Are You a Secret Ace Learner? Are you familiar with the 80/20 rule? There are many versions: a) Eighty percent of the work is accomplished by 20% of the personnel. b) Eighty percent of sales are produced by 20% of the salespeople. c) Eighty percent of learning occurs informally and outside of school. d) Eighty percent of what you read is irrelevant or redundant. e) Twenty percent of class room work has personal value for you, the rest, Nada! Lets use the Reporters system, 5 WH + How. 1. When? Learning occurs daily is single chunks (groupings), when we are unaware and operating in the twilight-zone using mostly our right-brain. Examples: asking a co-worker, associate or fellow-student how he did something; hitting the Internet and getting a definition or explanation. 2. Where? You learn daily while socializing with friends and associates over coffee, at the water cooler, on a trip. Its often subliminal and non-conscious learning. 3. What? We learn based on whats on our plate. Somebody told you how to use your TIVO. Few of us bother with the printed directions, theyre boring and complicated. If it bothers you you ask. 4. Why? You set the agenda for learning, not a teacher or director of training. Your Why is always personal and unique to your needs and requirements. 5. How? You ask competent folks, call an expert, or run to the Net for answers on the Intranets and Help departments. We collaborate with other knowledgeable people. We look for a community resource to help us. Big Deal! We have been brainwashed that learning must be by an expert pouring knowledge into our ear, or a professional guiding us in school or a training class. The reality is that learning is a constant in our lives, and includes minor and major personal improvements. Many of us are unaware and deny vehemently that we are learners and lifelong scholars. Learning to us means a formal environment with desks and chairs and the instructor up front. One expert who got it right is Allen Tough, of the University of Toronto, who called lifelong learning Episodes of Information. He calls our learning the Iceberg method, where 6/7th of it, is hidden and informal. Is our way important, and does it generate personal growth? Dr. Tough says we create our own system of information processing, and it is practical in the extreme. The second specialist who recognizes that adults are -auto didacts-, self-taught by learning from others, is Patrick R. Penland, University of Pittsburgh. He specialized in library operations, and found that regular visitors trained themselves to become experts by trial-and-error, cause-and-effect, and stimulus/response. Dr. Penlands research in interviewing 1,501 participants contradicted the prevailing beliefs that people did not become lifelong learners because of transportation problems in getting to the classes or library, and having financial problems paying for learning. Four Key Reasons Almost 80% of the interviewees listed the #1 reason they hated learning in classrooms and company training programs as: Desire to set my own learning pace. They want personal control and to not be treated like a first-grader. The next three most important reasons for rejecting formal learning were: 2. Desire to use my own style of learning. 3. I want to keep the learning strategy flexible and easy to change. 4. I didnt know of any class that taught what I wanted to know, and wanted to structure my own learning project. There is a Solution We have met the enemy and he is us!, said Pogo. Maybe not, it could be the Educational Establishment, which worships absolute control over learners. Do you want to be micromanaged at work or in the classroom? It is stressful and demeaning, and causes anxiety when control is in the hands of another. Tell me, who is the boss of you? The answer is on the Web, at the library, and self-help programs. Who taught you to walk, to ride a bike, type, drive a car and surf the Net? If you said your father or mother or a driving school, youre wrong. You used trial-and-error to become a typist, a driver and use the Internet. When you fell down, you did not quit, but got up and persevered. Same with hitting the brake instead of the accelerator, and screwing up spelling. Remember when you couldnt use Edit, Select All, and the Copy button on your computer? You made mistakes, and improved and forgot those errors by remembering your successful events. Endwords In order to be an auto didact and teach yourself, you need a specific state-of-mind, emotions and behaviors that change the odds in your favor. Do you have strategies and techniques to learn or will you have to invent them? If you saw the headline in the New York Times, Triple Your Reading Speed, Double Your Memory Guaranteed, and checked it out to your satisfaction, wouldnt it help you become a lifelong learner if you could save hours and learn from books, articles, reports and the Internet? Speedlearning 100 graduates read and remember three chapters, memos and trade papers, in the time their peers can finish even one. Is that a competitive edge to put you on the fast-track for promotions and success at school and in your career? Choose. Its your life to make exciting and productive or not. We all require pig-headed persistence and determination in the face of stubborn resistence and adversity. Calvin Coolidge, 30th U.S. President See ya, |
