Why should I learn to learn?

Having spend a yet another day without as much as stopping before dropping I've decided that instead of summarising an article as I meant to I'll ramble something here. It's not as good idea as the article thing, but it's 6 hours 'till I have to wake up. Something has to give.
So today the question is why to learn to learn? I mean isn't it good enough to learn something - aren't we naturally good learners as humans? Answer is that yes - we do actually learn pretty well implicitly and it is not entirely clear that we learn better directedly than when learning implicitly. Still... sometimes it is better to learn something very spesific as not every skill is equally useful and compound interest from learning to learn can outweight temporary set-backs even if purposeful learning is not as efficient as implicit learning. If it is possible to become better learner that is.
So if we can learn to learn and we can learn to generalise our learned ability to learn to general context we are just a lot better off than if we just had learned a yet another set of facts.
We could have learned implicitly some facts about our learning capacity through learning something else purposefully, but true limits and non-obvious facts about our learning would not have become apparent to us. It is only through learning theory and practise we come close to what we can truly be.

Not time enough for love

After a long time it is hard to tell a real memory from a memory of a memory of a memory of a real memory. That’s what happens when you think about the past: You edit it and rearrange it, make it more tolerable.
(from Time enough for love)

So I've been reading about levels of processing and consolidation theories[1][2]. Sadly I haven't had enough time to think about those theories enough to write about them and a lot has happened today after I read about them. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have enough time to read about Eysenck (1979 & 1980)[3][4] - I'm pretty sure it is pretty different from those two theories so it should be easy enough to remember.
Honestly - tomorrow I'll have enough time to read classics with thought. Or not, but there's still hope and I'll write more tomorrow.

ps. Levels of processing theory is framework by Craik and Lockhart for thinking about memory formation based on idea that more deeply you think about something more likely it is that stronger and better memories are formed. Consolidation theory is basically idea that memories become slowly fixed but their formation can be interfered by formation of other memories.

[1] Levels of processing: A framework for memory research, Craik and Lockhart (1972)
[2] The psychology and neuroscience of forgetting, Wixted (2004)
[3] Depth, elaboration and distinctiveness, Eysenck (1979)
[4] Effects of processing depth, distinctiveness and word frequency on retention, Eysenck (1980)

Random thoughts on learning, part 1

Open source thoughts for sale - You have learned nothing until you have learned a process.

I envision this project as recursive process of learning which I will improve after every iteration as my understanding grows.

I think that this learning project has to address several questions of interest:
What is it to learn? What should we learn? How should we study each relevant subject? How does our memory system work? How do we motivate ourselves to continue our study? How do we know we are learning?

Learning is not just about learning efficiently - it is about learning what to learn and what not to learn. One cannot learn everything for we have very limited lifespans. So the relevant question in learning is question how to learn to learn what to learn. We should have good view of what we can know about each relevant subject - we should decide based on our understanding what to learn next and we should understand our decision making process.

My current plan

My first idea was to use an instructional cycle as it is described in An introduction to cognitive education [1]- it consist of Assesment, Preparation, Instruction and Evaluation phases -. as basis of my learning project. As it is described in the book it is not really applicable for this project directly and I had a plan about how I would use it as guide to my learning. Instead as I was reading about proximal zone of development I encoutered concept of the zone of reflective capacity which is concept developed by Tinsley and Lebak.[2] Their Expanded Reflection Cycle for Transformative Professional Learning (from their Edge conference paper [3]) seems to be somewhat closer match for what I am looking for. As the name implies it is expanded version of standard learning cycle consisting of Planning, Acting and Reflecting. It expands on the reflection part of the cycle and show how teachers can work as peer group in their graduate projects to support each other in their learning. Collaborative reflection helped teachers to expand their skills and find more material to study and implement in their classroom teaching.

I modify their model of learning cycle for my purposes where my peer group consist of those I enlist to participate to this learning project with their own learning projects. We probably won't videotape our learning projects but we will try to document our learning through excercises we choose for ourselves in collaboration with our peers. When we are encoutering problems we try to share our concerns with our peers and try to understand our relevant situation through learning theories. Readings will be about relevant subjects in psychology, cognitive science and learning sciences for me (mostly - thought I foresee some need for brushing up my math and cs skills).

My next excercise is to try to summarise what are relevant ideas from cognitive psychology that I think I would benefit from reading more about at this part of the project.

Oh and if someone wants to join the fun they can contact me at thememeist@gmail.com

[1] Adrian F Ashman and Robert N.F. Conway An introduction to cognitive education, Theory and Applications (1997)
[2] Tinsley, R. & Lebak, K. (2009). Expanding the Zone of Reflective Capacity: Taking separate journeys together. Networks, 11 (2).
http://journals.library.wisc.edu/index.php/networks/article/view/190/211
[3] Tinsley, R. & Lebak, K. (2009) edge conference paper. A Collaborative Learning Model to Empower Teachers to be Reflective Practitioners
http://www.mun.ca/edge2009/displaypapers.php?id=30

An Introduction

A little learning is a dang'rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
- Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, Part II

This is a blog about my learning project about all things related to learning. Few months ago a friend of mine decided to start his own learning project - he told me exitedly about how he would learn and evaluate his learning purposefully. It did seem interesting project back then and now that I have more energy left for random projects I decided to imitate him. Of course I will do things my way - I will randomly compare my progress to my friends progress and I will comment once in a blue moon his different goals as reason our different progress in our endeavour.
I'm a student of the human nature and I aim to describe hopefully a succesful process of learning about my learning process. My apporach is first to describe how I see my current understanding and to explain it in psychological vocabulary - then I will try to explain relevant studies in psychology, cognitive science and learning sciences. I will also try to improve conception of my learning based on what I read and describe. If this strategy seems somewhat meta-ish there is a reason for that - I love everything meta.
In my next post I will explicate my goals for this blog as a continuing process of goal directed learning.