This is for all of you students coping with learning at home and all of your parents hoping to help.
Let’s be honest. The best practice for students while learning at home is this: get the most from the least. The most learning from the least amount of work would serve everyone best. The most learning from the healthiest work would be even better. What if study practices could combat stress and improve our health? Is that possible in times like these?
I have spent 8 years in full-time post-secondary education. The years were long and the days were longer. Mornings began with getting up at 6 am to stare down my notes and nights ended with me staying up until 12 pm to do more of the same. I often rewrote my notes to help me remember but otherwise I sat and stared.
I had no idea what I was missing.
Fast forward to the years when this theatre student (who was notoriously terrible at memorizing a script) was able to perform hours of theatre without missing a beat (ok I missed one or two). How was that so much easier? Simple – the information was attached to movement.
Take another leap in time to an intensive program of 8 hours of learning per day, absorbing incredible amounts of information in weeks. How did I do it? Simple – I rewrote those notes again AND I exercised at regular intervals during studying, attached information to movements, used flash cards, and maintained my fitness routine. I was only doing it to avoid going insane. Little did I know there was a science backing up all of those practices.
Many of these study tips may seem like extra work. Now is the time to redefine what it is to study. To study is to commit information to memory and there are so many ways to do this that don’t require pointless hours of sitting and staring. Your body and your mind will thank you for it.
Here’s a little background information.
We each have a preference for learning information. Theses are broken into audio, visual, or kinesthetic preferences.
What kind of learner are you?
https://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/
Regardless of how you prefer to learn, by introducing kinesthetic study habits you will increase your aresenal of effective study techniques, decrease the time it takes to commit information to memory, and increase your physical and emotional well-being.
Let’s just say that again: the use of kinesthetic study techniques will decrease the time it takes to learn.
Why?
We learn best from what we DO.
So if active learning helps us retain information with less work, I’m in. You?
12 Kinesthetic Study Techniques You can Start Using Today
1) Rewrite your notes – This is not just a visual tool. The act of writing helps you seal that info into your memory.
2) Create flashcards and use them – Flashcards are not just a tool for testing yourself. Writing the cards, flipping the cards to quiz yourself, and laying out the cards in groups are all physically engaging activities.
3) Study standing up – By switching your weight from side to side you are engaging both sides of your brain not to mention staying more alert than if you are sitting.
4) Change locations between study sessions – Forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material (ie. studying the same vocabulary list to the sights and sounds of a coffee shop, the living room, and your bedroom) gives that information more neural connections to support recall.
5) Stretch while studying – Studies have shown that stretching affects the brain by changing your experience of stress. Stretching can regulate your heart rate and blood pressure as well as relieve muscle tightness from tension.
6) Attach learning to movement – Creating hand gestures or tableaus (full body expression) that symbolize a concept or vocabulary or even creating a song about a subject are techniques for using movement to remember. This may seem weird but trust me! This process has no rules. If it is working for you, you’ll know it.
7) Movement breaks while studying – Take a break from studying to do some physical movement. This is shown to optimize brain functions, increase your IQ, and improve your focus. You can google brain breaks on YouTube for ideas or use this list below!
8) Teach someone – This one helped me pass my Neuropsychology final in fourth year Psych. Oy. Sit your parent or your boy/girlfriend down, guilt them into listening, or offer to help another student who is struggling. Talking it out will show you where you lack knowledge and will cement the information in place. Don’t just say it! Add drawings or hand gestures to your teaching to add to your kinesthetic experience.
9) Perform your work – If you have to do a presentation or a speech you must perform it! Visualizing yourself succeeding is important. But there is no substitute for rehearsal. You must rehearse. See these lessons for more help on this process. Film yourself or talk in the mirror for any speech or spoken work.
10) Draw illustrations – To doodle or not to doodle? Do it. Make it relevant, symbolic, creative. Visual aids to learning may be great for visual learners but creating visual tools is helpful to all learners. Doodling while learning may help those with focus issues to absorb.
11) Talk/Walk while study – Get up and move for all the same reasons you should take brain breaks or stretch. But I also feel that when I am walking I don’t feel the same pressure to learn. Create study sessions with friends to talk about the material while you are walking.
12) Create the scene/example – Real life relatable information is easier to recall. By simulating a process that you need to remember (imagine you are in VR) or recreating an example, you have added to your mental arsenal.
Want more?
Here are some researchers that have made significant contributions to the study of movement and the brain.
Rock Star #1 Dr. Wendy Suzuki
Dr. Wendy Suzuki has written and spoken about how regular exercise (30 minutes of aerobic activity, 3-4 times/week) can increase your mood, attention, focus, and memory immediately after exercise and in the long-term while maintaining a fitness routine. Exercise actually builds a bigger brain. For more of Wendy’s brain, read Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better.
Rock Star #2 – Sian Beilock
Author of the amazing must read Choke (one of my favourite resources), Sian Beilock discusses how by practicing under test conditions, studying in a groups where high pressure discussions are encouraged, and writing your worries out before a big test can increase your performance.
I write this because I understand what it feels like to want to do better but your brain gets in the way. We are not all born to learn and study the way we were taught. Learn how to learn your way. Show them all you have what it takes. You are important. I wish you the best on your journey to be who you are meant to be.
Stay well. Stay positive. And remember, regardless of these challenges, learning how to learn is the greatest lesson of all.