Neuromyths and memory: how do we learn?

For this new WeTestEd video, we decided to venture into the cognitive sciences and especially the neurosciences.

“I learn better by listening than by reading.”

“Oh yeah ?”

“Yeah, I have a hearing memory.”

We all said it one day. We would learn better through one meaning in particular. Thanks to Didask, I realized that … Well it was a lie. A neuromyth.

So how does it work?

It’s quite long to explain, so the goal here is to vulgarize as much as we can. So let’s go. First, it is important to understand that, on the contrary, the treatment of information is carried out by all senses and through different actions.

Also, the more we go through different formats of information and different kind of activities we do around a subject, the more we learn from it.

This is called Active Learning. that is to say, to put it simply, the engagement of a person on a subject mobilizing his cognitive capacities in several forms (reading, hearing, action, speaking, discussion etc.).

So, you should think about changing activities during class!

Obviously, hiring someone into an activity and about a topic is difficult. There are various recipes to promote it, we will talk about it very soon.

Mike and Sofia learn to play the guitar…

Take the example of these two characters.

Mike wants to learn how to play the guitar. He has one hour a day to practice. He plays on his guitar every day and repeats the chords he seems to need to master the basics of this instrument.

At the same time, Sofia also wants to learn how to play the guitar, but she only has 15 minutes a day during which she can actually play her instrument.

Nevertheless, she will spend a greater part of her time, on the way to the university, for example, to listen to music, to read between two courses of tutorials and the structures of the notes … Reading, action, hearing, thinking …

A month later, Mike will have learned to master a number of chords and will certainly have learned a song.

BUT, Sofia, she will be able to play a song certainly, but also to listen to the music to learn a lesson, she will be able to improvise using the chords she learned.

Conclusion

Learning and memory are areas teeming with neuromyths like the one mentioned at the beginning of the article.

It is important, in order to ensure quality learning, not to fall into the different panels and to know not only a little brain function related to memory.

What must be remembered is that learning is done by being active and by analyzing different faces of the same subject.

In the same way, we approach different facets via different formats. The goal is then to make these formats as engaging as possible in order to maintain a general active learning state.