Sir Robert Winston has done more research on the human body and brain than your cousin.

Yet most of us believe our cousins, our friends, or others who know close to nothing about their brains.
In an ongoing study of the human brain, Sir Winston studies children.

Children and creativity 🙂

You may find this brief report interesting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/parenting/tv_and_radio/child_of_our_time/progguide_series7prog3.shtml

Bird’s eye view or ground level to learn a new skill?

There’s little doubt that layering is critical for learning.

But how does one go about layering?

Should you learn small chapters of information and keep repeating them several times?
Or should you go through an entire body of knowledge and then repeat it several times?
Should you take in a birdy’s view? Or get to ground level?

There’s no easy answer to the question.
Because layering may be caused at one level, by learning everything from one end to the other. And layering may be caused by repeating one action over and over.

Let me give you an example:
I go for badminton, and am coached to improve my game. And for the entire hour of coaching, I hit one shot over and over again. So I’ll hit the same shot maybe 300 times or more in an hour. Or a variation of the same shot with subtle improvements.

But then I go and play 6-8 games in a row. And then I have to play a whole variety of shots, and deal with a variety of opponents. Some who are so good, they drive you up the wall. And some who are so bad, they drive you up the wall.

The good ones, because they make you think and move quickly.
The bad ones, because you have to force yourself to concentrate despite the silly errors that slow the momentum. So the layering happens at various levels. Both through intense repetition. And then through actual duration of play.

And at both levels, there’s a distinct improvement. So not only does the next coaching session improve as a result of the game, but the next game improves as a result of the coaching practice.

And this brings us to an understanding of what’s happening in the brain
At first the brain is all flustered. What it needs is a matter of stability. Some people get that stability by reading the entire material and then digging through the specifics. Some people need to focus on the specifics to move ahead.

So how do you decide?
You can’t.
You have to do long periods of repetition (as I do in my coaching sessions).
And short bursts of multiple learning (and I do in the game).

Alternating between the two allows your brain to learn and apply at different levels.
And speed up learning like never before.