How To Learn Better | Ulrich Boser | TEDxNashville

[Music] [Applause] [Music] it was the biggest game of my life I was a junior in high school scrawny 16 year old with big hair and bad pimples I played on the high school basketball team and our squad it lacked height and skills I often played power forward and look at me not even 6 feet tall the only thing powerful about me are my eyebrows are enduring rival was please' and they had a future LeBron James named Otis Hill Hill was 6 foot 8 200 pounds he eventually would lead Syracuse to the final 4 is the image of Hill it was a phenom lineman strong sprinter fast he could dunk without a running start when he was in 9th grade in contrast most of my high school team could barely touch the rim with a running start I could barely touch the backboard the big game took place on a Friday night who's in the Pleasantville gym with rows upon rows of fans with cowbells and drums our guard came out on this wild fire streak three-pointers drifters he ended the game with almost 40 points late in the fourth quarter the score was Todd and suddenly coach called me in I hadn't played much that season but one of our players had fouled out and suddenly I was there standing in the middle of the court this is of course the dream to make the big throw the great catch the game-winning touchdown I remember being so nervous that all I could do was just dry my hands on my shorts coach had called the timeout pulled me aside and he made it clear I should contain the guard I shouldn't let the guard go past me don't Jam the kid he said the coach had this raspy voice don't jam the kid 12 seconds left on the clock the guard brings up the ball and I reach in try and take the ball and he blows past me he puts in this layup pleasantville was up seconds ticked away game was over and and we lost experience was this dagger of shame this changed what I thought it meant to be human what I thought it meant to really dream in case you think I'm overstating what happened not long ago I met up with my high school coach and he still had that same raspy voice probably would have been the biggest win in the history of your high school and he left up the whole thing I tell the story because it asked an important question why do we do what we do do we go to school do we head to meetings do we read books in order to become the best and the brightest in order to take home that trophy right whether it's money or power or fame or or are we focused on mastery do we play sports do we head to the office do we listen to podcasts in order to improve ourselves in some way or to create some type of understanding these questions are key to something that I call the new smart I've been studying the new smart the skill of learning to learn for years and I'm going to talk about three skills of the new smart I think they can change your life certainly has changed my life from parenting to work even a basketball I think we're all pretty familiar with the old smart it's a view that dominates our cubicles it's a view that dominates our classrooms and it's all about innate talent it's all about hardwired skills and whether it's math or knitting the old smart is something you have or you don't now the old smart can actually get you pretty far the issue is when you start to struggle then the old smart they often give up after a high school I ended up not playing basketball for years I thought I was just someone who would crumble under pressure the new smart is different it's about development it's about improvement it's about curiosity and creativity it's about critical thinking and real understanding I want to emphasize that the new smart it's really ultimately about this skill of learning to learn the new smart have a set of strategies a set of approaches that allow them to gain expertise in just about anything and we can all join the new smart we can all gain the skill of learning to learn we can all get better at getting better this is important because we live in this world in which learning is a constant think about your average day you wake up in the morning pop open your phone and suddenly you have to figure out what interest rates mean for your future you get into the office and now you have to wonder about technological changing what it means for the future of your profession the research is very clear on this point learning has become one of the single best predictors of the income both for individuals and nations so we're gonna get started to talk about the new smart I'm going to talk about the first strategy this is a crucial strategy it's called metacognition because the new smart they think about their thinking they learn about their learning let me give a quiz question as an example how many people here know how to drive and if you know how to drive just just raise your hand great a lot of people here know how to drive then the follow-up question is how many people here are above-average drivers you just keep your hands up it's great there's an there's an issue here because when I looked across the room most people had their hands up but that can't actually be true right I mean we can't all be above average that's statistically impossible this is a problem of metacognition people are often overconfident most people believe that they're above average in terms of looks most people believe that they're above average in terms of intelligence some overconfidence is is good I would not be over up here talking to you if I was that wildly overconfident but overconfidence is dangerous for learning it leads to weak forms of understanding and the old smart they don't want critical feedback and they certainly don't want critical feedback from themselves when the new smart are learning they try to adjust for metacognition by planning out what they're going to know so they set goals they set targets they want to know how exactly they're going to know something and then while they're learning they ask themselves questions do I know what I know could I explain this to a friend am I really an above-average driver we're going to talk about the second aspect of the new smart and that's patterns when we're learning to learn we want to look for connections we want to figure out how an area of expertise really comes together I have another quiz here for you what is featured in this image if you just raised your hand Avaaz any takers for a Boz I feel like I'm at an auction here great we have a number of tickets for a Boz for a funeral urn and then for an amphora great so it seems like most people said vod's that was actually the easy part of the question the second part is how did you know that that was the Vaz was it memory again raise your hand experience and then analogy great I'm gonna unpack this question a little bit because I believe for most of the people in this room experience was not the answer unless you've studied dozens of Ming Dynasty vases you don't actually have a robust memory of Ming Dynasty vases I don't think experience is the correct answer either this specific Vaz is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say I don't believe that most of you have gone to that museum and seen this Vaz in person I believe that the correct answer is analogy that you looked at the image you noted the colors maybe the shapes maybe even notice the beards on the men's faces and you thought yourself that looks like ancient Chinese art the point here is that analogies patterns they help us think they allow us to problem-solve we don't want to learn facts we want to learn about how facts come together another example is is wine if you wanted to learn wine and you are a member of the old smart you'd be focused on details maybe you'd know the name of a specific grape maybe you'd even know how to spell the word sommelier I'm excited that I actually just pronounce it correctly now the new smart they're different they focus on how facts come together so they're gonna study why is it that sweet wine goes with spicy food why is it that the tannins in red wine interact with the fattiness in cheese you can do this yourself when you're learning compare and contrast look for similarities and differences when you're practicing don't practice the same thing over and over again this is true whether it's tennis or acting mix up your practice so let's say you want to get better at classical music don't spend a whole study session on Beethoven instead play Beethoven and Bach and Mozart then Beethoven and Bach and Mozart you're gonna get a much richer sense of classical music the third aspect of the new smart that I want to talk about is struggle the new smart the skill learning to learn it is about making learning difficult about making learning a struggle another quiz question here let's imagine for a moment you have to learn a set of directions and let's imagine that the stakes are high and the directions are complicated so you have to assemble I don't know 10 IKEA tables before a big party so would you reread the directions you just raise your hand great summarize and then circle the correct answer here it's is summarizing and it's not even close summarizing is often 30% more effective than these other strategies part of the reason is that summarizing makes us look for connections but just as important when we summarize we're working harder we're more active in terms of our learning we're really struggling to understand again you can do this yourself first don't use highlighters I don't care if they're pink or yellow or green they are an old smart tool they're very passive it's certainly you've had the experience we've seen people who've highlighted basically the entire page instead talk to yourself now I'm going to make talking yourself the office people might move away from you but it's a highly effective way to learn one study found that talking to yourself it's like having an additional 10 points in terms of IQ because it's making learning harder you're really struggling to understand that material it slows you down also tests quizzes I know they have a terrible reputation somewhere in between you know rats and and dentists but they are a great way to learn this is why I have been asking you so many quiz questions and I'm going to admit that these quiz questions might be even a little bit confusing because I want you to struggle I want you to learn more the new smart it it changed my it changed my life I started using analogies a lot more they're a great way to spark creativity this is why comedians often use analogies it was Jerry Seinfeld who once said toddlers are like blenders but without a top I also tried to encourage my children to really struggle with learning to embrace the difficulties of learning and so when they were learning math for the first time I encouraged them to learn on an abacus this is what an abacus looks like ancient device predates the invention of the alphabet predates the invention of glass and one of the reasons it's such an effective tools that people actually have to work they move these beads up and down and a number of studies have found it's a great way to learn math and finally I applied the new Smart to myself about five years ago I decided to start playing hoops again I started to play basketball again and at first it was like the oldest hill game all over again I would you know air ball easy shots opponents would target me for steals and so I decided to make learning hard for myself I hired a basketball tutor Dwayne Samuels and it was very clear he made learning difficult for me I was suddenly a 40-something you know trying to dribble behind my back I tried to engage in more metacognition so what videotaped myself to figure out my soft spots I also tried to make sure that I wouldn't repeat my practice so I would shoot a 12-footer than a 10-footer and then a eight-footer to mix up how I learned now the good news is I got better at basketball I started hit three-pointers the bad news this type of learning it's difficult it's embarrassing it's awkward sometimes when I would go to visit my basketball tutor you know most of his other clients were middle schoolers and I would see their parents and I'd try not to make eye contact you know I just so so embarrassing now I never became the best basketball player on the court that was not the goal one of the central ideas of the news money is that we can't continually compare ourselves to the Joneses the goal here is development not dominance my bigger point here is that learning to learn the new smart it's about for more than classrooms about far more than textbooks it is about an approach to existence one that emphasizes improvement one that emphasizes growth this is what I want for my own kids this is what I want for myself this is what I want for the world and we can start this new world today after you leave this talk or leave this building today summarize what you've heard whether it's my talk or David's talk or Ty's talk that summary if you write an email to a friend if you you know call up a relative and summarize what you've learned you've taken steps to met a cognate to think about your thinking you'll have worked harder to engage the material I'll also hope that you've thrown in an analogy or two but most importantly you'll have taken the first step in learning to learn thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 87,952

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Education, Achievement, Behavior, Brain, Classroom, Creativity, Goal-setting, Hack, Ideas, Intelligence, Learning, Life Development, Life Hack, Passion, Personal education, Personal growth, Psychology, Purpose, Self improvement, Students, Success, Teaching

Id: xfrnYBF1LVg

Length: 16min 32sec (992 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 10 2018