The Power of
Mindful Learning sets forth a theory of learning that argues that learning should be taught conditionally and not "overlearned".
If you do not have time to read the book:
The Power of Mindful Learning
by Ellen J. Langer
Project by Scott Allen, Karen Connaghan, Karen Elinch, Christian Greer, Sari Jensen
Visit the link below to read the summary:
http://cadres.pepperdine.edu/ccar/ar/c7/Connaghan/MindfulLearning.htmHere are a few lines I like:
Performing a skill over and over again so that it becomes second nature may lead to thoughtless or mindless interaction with the skill or concept.
The students that were given the information conditionally had a tendency to be more creative than the students that had the information presented in absolute form.
Creating novelty or differences in learning activity will help students to learn better.
Looking at things in different ways is being mindful: it's varying the image.
Turning work into play...virtually any task can be made pleasurable if we approach it with a different attitude.
By applying mindfulness approaches, a task can be tolerated, even enjoyed.
One way is to pre-interpret and shape ideas into bits that relate to our interests and curiosities.
The second way is to allow students to change their own attitudes by taking the raw information and finding their own meanings.
Forgetting allows a similar experience/sensation to be experienced anew, perhaps with a new perspective based on your life's changing experiences.
Remembering the overview while forgetting painful details enables one to experience and enjoy the present without fear.
Learning can be more difficult if we must first unlearn data in order to learn new data or processes.
You become what you expect yourself to become.
Your memory and forgetting can be positive -- the ending results are yours.
When we are mindful we:
View a situation from several perspectives
See information presented in the situations as novel
Attend to the context in which we are perceiving the information, and eventually
Create new categories through which this information may be understood.
Intelligent thinking is a process through which we sort, select, and assess the appropriate strategies and procedures to apply to a novel task.
Being mindful means that we implicitly know that there is no one absolute standard for action.
Uncertainty creates the freedom to discover meaning. Data considered to be a source of ambiguity enables the observer to become more observant.
