Week 4 - How to be a better learner

Its the last week of the course and we are looking at the advanced aspects of learning.

From one of this weeks videos, I went wandering online and found an interesting article by The Mind Training Company (Link) and the wonderful diagram made from Wilder Penfield's studies, one of the fathers of modern Neuro science. They wrote:

"highly skilled neurosurgeon, Wilder Penfield, mapped thousands of sites in the cortex by way of ESB research on hundreds of live patients. The technique allowed Penfield to create maps of the sensory and motor cortices (homunculus) and show their connections to the various limbs and organs of the body. It was as a result of his groundbreaking work in the treatment of Epilepsy and the development of the Montreal procedure to reduce, and in 50% of his cases, cure its symptoms, that Penfield produced detailed mapping of the brain. Below are diagrams of the sensory and motor homunculi and how they relate to these organs, as found by Penfield and a pictorial representation of the human body if the limbs were in proportions directly relative to the size of the cortex area that governs their use. Penfield was awarded the Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical science in 1950."

Unknown artists impression of Wielder Penfields work

This was of interest because of beauty of the work he did, of course there is more to it as new studies are finding but it takes people like Wilder Penfield to get us going, to see this beauty and be inspired by it.

This weeks videos started us of looking at:

• The importance of exercise, not just for the cardiovascular benefits, but also for the growth within the Hippocampus. Of course you may have read on week one that it also helps with the 'Diffuse' mode of thinking.
• Practice makes perfect. The importance of practice to imbed good learning is critical, along with retrieval to ensure that it's used.

In terms of the exercise I noted above, I had a great 'Diffuse moment' the other day. While on a wonderful walk with my wife on the beautiful Sussex Downs a thought popped out at me from nowhere about a problem I had been thinking about at work. I was so excited that I had experienced this that I chatted to my long suffering wife all about it, 'I got my Diffuse moment, I'm so happy'. The trouble was that I talked so much about the moment that I forgot the thought I'd just had. Oh well, cant win them all.

I was chatting to one of my Son's about metaphors, as I was telling him about the one we have been learning about, (Slots in your working memory). He felt that this wasn't a clear enough explanation of what happens when you are working on a problem. We chatted for ages and finally settled on a metaphor we both liked, so here it is:

When we have a  new thought it can be likened to water gently trickling down a sandy hill, the water makes a small faint grove in the mountain, as you continue to work at it more water trickles down, making the grove a little deeper and can even allow it to meet up with other groves, previously leant. The more you gently think about it the deeper it becomes. But beware, if you try to take in too much it is like pouring a bucket full down the hill, it just washes over the top of it all and doesn't create a grove at all, it can be overwhelming. A steady trickle is best, giving it time to dry a little is also not a bad thing as well as allowing it to join other channels.

We went on to understand that people learn by practice, not by just being told. Doing it deepens the learning and the learner can stumble along enjoying the experience.

WE CAN ALL CHANGE OUR BRAINS - positive thinking, exercise and a mindful approach all help.

The complexities of the brain and our understanding of how it works will be moving quicker with some of the advances I am reading about at the moment. How this new learning can be applied to improve the lives of those who have a learning difficulty such as Autism is of great interest to me. This course had lead me to look at new and old aspects  of research and ponder over the implications that may find ways to help both myself in my explanations of cognitive behavior in a positive and constructive way as well as apply this new understanding to my role of teaching others to support vulnerable people to have the best quality of life we can offer. Wonderful.

I've been reading up more on our working memory, Linda Walker, one other staff on the course I have been doing, gave me a few links to some articles and papers to look at this some more. On an interesting blog by Rene Liesefeld called 'the number Seven is not Magical, but Cognitive Capacity Limitations Are Real and Relevant'. (Link). He discuss that we have four slots in our working memory, this refers to our capacity to hold information at any one time. These 'Slots' are still being debated but the evidence is growing that supports the four slot capasity idea. The relevance of this in my work is very significant. People need to be able to grasp a lot of complex understanding when it comes to working with people who have a learning difficulty and present them with Challenging behaviour. At the time when they experience the challenging behaviour it can be very stressful and we are expecting them to quickly respond in a positive and empathic way.
I don't think I will ever stop adding to this blog about learning, but this course, now nearly over has been an amazing journey, one I never imagined it would be and would like to thank all those involved with it.

Week 3 - Memory

Friday 24th October 2014

This week has been all about Memory. Some great video lectures and some very interesting bonus videos.

On my way home from Wales today I heard a great program on Radio 4 Extra called 'Thanks for the memory'. It was Nicholas Parsons discussing and pondering over what memory is and how it works. here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0076xqg it discussed some of the issues and tools outlined in this weeks coursework and also some interesting stories from those who have had difficulties through illness.

From this weeks Videos something leapt out at me when Dr. Terrance Sejnowski was discussing the intricacies' of our memory system. He showed us a diagram (Below) of how it is that are memories are not static but fluid and changing things.

Image taken from: http://www.hfsp.org/frontier-science/awardees-articles/function-memory-reconsolidation-function-time

The process of something entering into our short term memory moves to our long term memory through 'Consolidation'. From this inactive state it is reactivated by our short term memory. Then comes the interesting bit, it is reconsolidated back into our long term memory, but it is subject to the conditions in which you recalled it and can have slight changes.

Ever had that time when you have been arguing about the time you did so and so and John was there. The other person is adamant that John wasn't there and after some time of toing and froing you end up realizing that you were wrong. Well this is that reconsolidation in action, maybe last time you recalled that deep memory John was in hospital, on your mind and somehow he got put into that memory.

While I was looking for the article that contained the above diagram I bumped into another article entitled 'Rescuing sensory integration in mouse models of autism', it can be found at: http://www.hfsp.org/frontier-science/awardees-articles/rescuing-sensory-integration-mouse-models-autism As I work with some adults who have Autism it was interesting to see that they have discovered that the insula, part of the brain plays a big part in sensory difficulties. What we describe as 'Self stimulatory' behavior appears, as we had thought, a means to shut out or cope with this sensory difficulty. But I digress.

With regard to the above diagram about the Consolidation-Reactivation-Reconsolidation process I really wanted to remember it. So I adopted a technique discussed in one of this weeks videos called the 'Memory Palace technique'.
It involves using a place you know and visualizing the things you want to remember in it, try to use all your senses in your visualization and walk through where the things are. What they look like, feel like, smell like etc.

Well I imagined myself in the garden, taking out a few reconstituted building bricks (Memories) out of a recycling bin (Short term memory), I can smell the brick now, all cementy, and not too heavy. holding them together (Consolidation) and throwing them into a skip (Long term memory)(I hear the metal clang as they land in there, not much in my memory tee hee). I then take them out of the skip and run around, active with them, through the trees (Reactivation), eventually chucking (Chunking) them back together into the skip, a couple of leaves (adjustment to memory) and all (Reconsolidation). Not quite a Palace, but still, it worked.

I made that up about three days ago now and can still remember the diagram well by using my sensory filled story. Cool, it works, but I've got to keep on practicing it to get it really logged in, (Deepen the memory so that it lasts).

Week 2 - Chunking

Like riding a bike
I'm just getting around to posting about week 2 of the course and will post over the next few days updating this blog as I go along.

This week was all about 'Chunking', a process of using the 'working memory' to learn, and over time, with practice creating a chunk of information learnt. The best way I can describe this is when learning to ride a bike;

You start off learning without any previous experience, you learn various aspects as you go through the practice of riding. these separate elements, or memory traces of learning, the balance, the peddling, the braking and so on, are being wrestled with in your working memory, the focused mode, and with practice become 'Chunked' together, they form a larger chain of neurological skills that are intrinsically linked together. With spaced repetition they become stronger and even link to previous skills you may have already gained, such as breaking when you were being pushed on your toy go-cart. This happens when you go into the diffuse mode, as you may remember when learning anything like riding a bike, sometimes it doesn't seem to get any better, but then you have a break from it, even a good nights sleep, and hey presto, it seems to go better the next day. This collaboration between the focused and diffuse modes are critical in gaining the long term learning. Eventually you get so good at riding you bike you don't even seem to have to think about it any more, it has moved into the storage warehouse of your long term memory, that you can easily access. It's just like, ehumm, riding a bike.


Unknown artist's wonderful diagram of how to ride a bike

With the incredible advances in Neuro science, more is being reviled to us all the time as teams of talented and committed people work on particular aspects of the brain and it's function. Drawing relationships between their findings and what we experience/see etc. are always of interest to me, particularly when it comes to learning and learning difficulties.

It was also clear within this weeks lectures and discussions that some things are not conducive to good learning, such as;

• Stress
• Hunger
• Distractions
• Procrastination
• Ill health

The two underlined in the above list I added myself and were not in the course video, but from experience of working with people who have difficulties in learning they should be there, and the list could go on. I thought about these things in my learning, particularly when I was at school and how the environment and culture of my secondary schooling was not good. Schools and colleges these days are better at understanding how children best learn but still have a long way to go to give everyone, despite their learning aptitude, disability, upbringing and cultural/religious beliefs, a fair chance to enjoy and benefit from learning.

It works
I was at a meeting on Tuesday with managers who support people with learning difficulties. In my role, I was leading the meeting and things were going well. Then it happened, someone asked me about learning, more specifically about how we learn.

Well I was off, with surprising confidence it went a bit like this;

• I started by drawing a picture of the brain on the white board and indicated the prefrontal cortex, the working memory
• I then indicated the rest of the brain and described the long term memory, the warehouse.
• I was rolling now, and drew in the slots of the working memory citing a paper I had read discussing the size and nature of this memory
• I was getting short of time but pushed on, using the analogy I wrote above, I explained how things moved from the working memory, Chunked and related to other things you have learnt. I gave some examples of my childhood antics that required similar skills which they enjoyed, maybe at my expense.
• The best bit for me was when I got onto relating this to the people we support who have a learning difficulty. It fitted so well that all the things that stop us from learning apply to them equally, despite damage and access problems to parts of their brains. We talked about stress, Distractions, setting up the engagement oppertunity so that they would be successful (making tea was my example and giving just the right support so that they could do as much as they can and still end up with a nice cuppa).
• We went on to talk about repetition and rewards. It was fantastic, it all fitted together and the group really responded to my enthusiasm with actions to do back at the homes they manage.
• We went a bit over time but it was fine, they all fed back in a 'round' at the end with positive comments about the meeting and are looking forward to the next.

For me, I was amazed at how much had gone in, how I felt comfortable with their questions on learning and it's flow. The only shame is that I didn't take a picture of my scribblings so I could post it here, but I know it will happen again.

I am intrigued by the idea that we only have 4 slots in our working memory and why 'Chunking' works. On my journey through various articles and papers on this I came across this one: 

When four is not four, but rather two plus two

MIT neuroscientists redefine the limits of visual working memory.
They discuss that not only may we have around 4 working memory slots but also that they are linked to the two hemispheres of our brains, two on the left and two on the right. A quote from this article by Emily Finn, MIT News Office 
June 23, 2011,
'The researchers tracked visual information as it flowed from the parietal cortex, where sensory input is initially processed, to the frontal cortex, where higher-order structures encode it for memory. “We found that the bottleneck is not in the remembering, it is in the perceiving,” Miller says. Essentially, working memory for more than two objects in the same visual field was doomed from step one.'

There seems to be more that needs to be investigated here and particularly in 'what is being processed', what I mean by this is that this study is based around a shape with a colour in it, what if it is a picture of something familiar and unfamiliar, would this still be the case? In terms of learning, and particularly in relation to 'Chunking' it would be good to give ourselves and those we maybe teaching the best opportunities to take things in, so we could consider this study as an opportunity to improve how we pass information to others.

When I put 'Chunking' into Google I came across this web site: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/chunking-method-definition-examples-quiz.html where Chris Clause gives some clear everyday examples of the process and also a quiz to try. It reminded me that we 'Chunk' all the time and got me to thinking about how they use it within advertising. I've been playing 'Spot the Chunk' when seeing or hearing an advertisement, and found this has really helped with my understanding and recognition of Chunking, (as well as being very irritating to my wife).

Week 1 or Weak one?

Week one of the course begun and I got straight into watching the video lectures and something struck me right away, I like video lectures.

I used to attend lectures at university, some amazing people telling us about amazing stuff, (I was doing a Diploma in applied psychology for adults with learning difficulties) but although I passed with flying colours, I struggled. While I was making a note, or even a drawing of the concept being discussed I would miss the next bit. My dyslexia doesn't help, needing more time to write or note take and struggling with the PowerPoint presentations (the words wiggle about and make me miss read, my eyes become tired very quickly under these high contrast conditions and frustration kicks in).

Now I realize, if each lecture had been videoed, I could have attended, to get the feel, the overview, and ask questions. Then I could watch it back to make notes, take in, ponder and apply all the stuff I have learnt this week. This revelation hit me right away, as I paused, rewound and re-watched the lectures.

Below is a sample of the video lectures, this one is the summing up at the end of the week.

                      Dr Barbara Oakley, 2-10 Summery of week 1, Coursera 2014, Online video. mp4

We started off gently, looking at the 'Focused' and 'Diffuse' modes. This was done using the analogy of a pinball machine, one where the bumpers are tightly spaced and the ball (Thought) hits a small group (Small neuro pathway), this is the 'Focused' mode. (See illustration below). The 'Diffuse' mode is illustrated by the bumpers being more widely spaced allowing the thought to move more freely.



Focused and diffuse thinking, image © Kevin Mendez, 2014.

Okay, at this early point in the course I was thinking that this was a bit lame, but it didn't take long, particularly when they started to give scientific explanations and research papers to deepen this simple analogy. (I'll post some links to great papers I have read later)

Incidentally, the coin shown in the diagram importantly illustrates that you cant be in the two modes at the same time, (can only see one side of the coin or the other).

In the third video lecture, we found out that after Edison had focused on a problem that he was stuck on, he would relax in his chair with some ball baring's in his hand. When he fell asleep the balls would drop and wake him, immediately going back to the problem he was trying to solve. By focusing and then going into the Diffuse mode, he would be able to have the problem accessing other parts of his memory to be more creative in his thinking. Cool. So all my staring into space when working on a problem is just me getting into my diffuse mode, (ehhhhum). But what I have found is that when a tough problem has me stumped, taking a bit of time out to watch the tree blowing in the wind, or a squirrel darting around the lawn, really helps. Even better for me is a little walk, I seem to be most creative then.

One bit this week I really liked was in Video lecture 3a, where Dr Terrance Sejnowski showed us a picture of a Dendrite with newly grown synapse formed on it after learning. The actual growth of new synapses, amazing.

A dendritic branch protruding from an apical tuft neuron sprouts a bounty of new spines (filled arrows) and loses a couple (open arrows) 24 hours after mice learn a new task. Sleep deprivation prevented these new spines from cropping up.

From this paper: Yang G, Gan WB. Sleep contributes to dendritic spine formation and elimination in the developing mouse somatosensory cortex. Dev Neurobiol. 2012 Nov;72(11):1391-8. Epub 2012 Jul 13 PubMed

For this to happen it takes:

• Practice - Focused practice helps the working memory move to the long term memory
• Sleep - Getting enough sleep helps the brain 'wash out' all the toxins built up during the day

(We haven't looked at diet yet but I'm sure it will be added to this list)

So now I was starting to see a physiological and empirically based rational for the approach to learning that we are being shown, now they had my attention on this course and I was already starting to think of implications for my work, (discussed later).

We went on to look at 'Procrastination', something my wife is saying I do on a regular basis, (which reminds me, I must do the mopping when I've finished this), and we were introduced to the Pomodoro technique. I've been using it while I study for this course, and I must admit (but don't tell my wonderful wife) that it works well. It didn't seem to transfer so well to more mundane things but for focused thinking it works a treat.

After looking at the importance of PRACTICE, hardening up that Neuro pathway and getting it into your storage area (long term memory), we went on to looking more closely at Memory.
I'd not thought about having a 'Working memory' and a 'Long term memory' for a long time, but way back somewhere I had covered this before, but because I hadn't used it much it was fading away. It was great to revisit it and I've already used it in an explanation relating to a particular behavior that someone was showing at work. In the summing up video I posted above you can get the gist of it.

We also looked at the importance of sleep and exercise in terms of learning and Neural development, I found some great research that supports this further on brainfacts.org along with a stunning picture:

They found that as fledgling cells in the hippocampus grow, the mitochondria undergo significant changes to support these cells. Specifically, exercise — which is already known to boost the creation of new neurons — increased the number and position of the mitochondria present in these cells, a key reminder of how behavior can affect ongoing brain development.

By the end of the week I managed to get 100% in the quiz and was really enjoying it.

But what can I apply to my work setting from this weeks learning?:-

• The use of Analogies - The power of having a mental picture that you can identify with is extremely useful. I'm just about to go to a meeting to discuss 'Observation' (Managers observing their teams working with the people they support and giving feedback) I've come up with three observation modes/areas that I want to discuss and developed a visual analogy to help with this.

Observation modes (In a care setting) - The Helicopter, Binoculars and the Microscope - By Bob Iles

• The importance of exercise - Sometime the people we support have difficulty processing what is being asked of them. I now have another reason to suggest that taking a break is 'cognitively speaking' a good thing to do. It can not only give them time to process but can help them to go into the 'Diffuse mode' to see where the request/demand best fits. Go back to it after a walk or leisure activity.
• Sleep and problem solving - Some people that we support have difficulty with what is happening in the future. To help with this we develop things like orientation boards, a place that with words and/or pictures they can go to with Staff to see what is about to happen. I always recommend changing the board the evening before to give the person time to 'digest' what they will be doing tomorrow. I now know that this is the right thing to do in terms of the brains ability to go over the issues in a 'Diffuse' way.
• The Pomodoro technique - I've been finding this useful myself and am pondering over the intensiveness of some of the Behavioral psychology training I deliver. I'm asking people to concentrate for a couple of hours at a time on tricky content and am thinking about this in terms of 25 minutes chunks. I'll be discussing this at our next team meeting where we can change the format of our training.

So, week one has been great, there has been so much to think about and too much to put in this post but I hope I have given you a good flavor. I've discovered that I am not as weak in learning how to learn as I thought but have a long way to go. Roll on Week 2.

Getting Started

I've never blogged before but after reading other people's that are associated to the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) that I'm doing, called 'learning How To Learn', a Coursera course by the Uc San Diego, i saw it as a great way to log my learning and do my final assignment at the same time. What fun.

Link to the course: https://class.coursera.org/learning-002

A Bit of Background
I'm at least 48 years old with a wonderful wife, two wonderful children (now all grown up) and a lust for life and learning. I'm currently working with a Charity who supports people with a Learning difficulty, I've been with them for over 24 years now and still enjoy my working life a lot. I have the role of a Practice Development Advisor which means that I work across a large area of southern England visiting places where we support people and meeting with the Staff and managers who support them.

Why I Started this Course
I love learning new things, it seems to keep me more interested in the world around me, it's also true the other way around, the world around me keeps me interested in learning. Working with mostly adults who have Learning Difficulties also drives me to understand more about how we function from day to day and what are the important things in life.
When I spotted this course it seemed just the right thing to do right now. As I had a difficult time at school in the 1970's I never really got the hang of learning, most of it washed over me, except for the practical subjects like Art, Ceramics and Carpentry.
I didn't know what to expect, how I would do, how hard it would be or even if I had the capacity in my life to do it.

What I would like to do with the learning from this course is apply it to my job. I work with our amazing staff teams and managers to give the best possible support to (mainly) Adults who have a learning difficulty. It involves training, discussions, meetings and most fun of all, problem solving when behaviours that challenge us arise, which is quite often for some teams. So I'm 'Blogging' to this end.