Study Skills 1 Essay: Learning Techniques and Mind Mapping

This essay delves into the multifaceted realm of learning, exploring its various types and the cognitive processes involved. It begins by defining learning as the acquisition of new knowledge, skills, and behaviors, and then categorizes learning styles into visual, auditory, and kinesthetic approaches, emphasizing the importance of catering to individual preferences. The essay then transitions to modern learning techniques, highlighting the impact of social networking, underground education, lesson study, problem-based learning, and technology integration. It underscores the significance of understanding brain function in learning, explaining how different brain regions contribute to memory, reasoning, and sensory processing. Mind mapping is also discussed as an effective tool for organizing information, improving memory, and aiding in information retrieval. The essay concludes by emphasizing the continuous nature of learning and the importance of utilizing diverse techniques to enhance the learning experience.

Study Skills
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Table of Contents
Essay................................................................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Essay
Learning is a process that enables individuals to acquire new understanding, behaviour,
skills, knowledge, preference, value and attitude. The ability to learn is incorporated in machines,
humans as well as animals ((Troussas, Giannakas and Voyiatzis, 2020). There are also seen some
kind of learning in different plants. Learning can be divided into various different types
according to the cognitive learning style there are three different types of learning which is
visual, auditory and kinaesthetic.
It is also known as VAK learning styles. It is necessary that the learner is observing
different images which will help them to store the information in a better way. Different
diagrams, pictures and charts are used in this process. On the other hand auditory learner is one
who prefers to learn through listening the information that is being presented. It is often seen that
hearing one’s own voice and repeating something back is very helpful to retain information. The
third style is kinaesthetic learning which refers to physical experience. It is often seen that some
learners respond better when they can feel or touch an object which is a learning prop.
When taking the learning methods and approaches in current environment there are a
number of different ways which have been developed in order to teach. The students and
individuals are now learning through a number of different views of educators and the modern
trends in education and providing them with a number of different approaches to learning. Below
mentioned are some of these modern techniques and approaches for learning used in today’s
environment:
Social networking: In the present scenario social networking is a great approach which is used
by learning as there are 70 million updated blogs tracked every day on social media network.
This or a catapult for students which is bringing them to learn various modern communication as
well as traditional educational ways. It is believed by a number of educators that with the help of
this medium students can engage in learning and also develop all the basic skills they need.
Underground education: Underground education is when teachers are choosing the real-world
scenarios rather than using classroom for teaching students. Students cannot learn to survive
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when they are learning in classroom. So it is necessary that underground education challenges
are provided by students in order to make sure that they can live and breathe in the real life. It is
necessary for teachers to teach students the real-life scenarios and concepts so that they can
become whatever they want to.
Lesson study: Lesson study was an approach originated in Japan and is applied to style of
teaching at a number of places now. Lesson study is conceptually promoting the idea that
teachers are the one who can change the style and also it is required by students to learn
according to teachers (Hsu, Chen and Hwang, 2020). It is the most commonly used style and
approach of learning throughout the world. The collaboration between teachers and changing
need of student is kept in mind in order to meet the requirement of learning through this
approach.
Problem based learning: When taking into consideration tertiary education there is problem-
based learning which is getting popularity in a number of areas such as Australia. Students are
not provided with a various problem of real world in order to make sure that they are working
together to find a specific solution to this problem. Examples can be taken of different nursing
programs with this teaching style is embraced by a number of educators who are providing
challenges to their students in order to make sure that they are working positively for real
problems they can encounter in their workplace in future. This approach of learning is
considered to be invaluable by a number of educators as they feel that the learning and student is
more while using this method.
Learning with technologies: Another major approach of learning in this new trend include
learning through help of various technologies. With the help of technology is the teachers and
also increase their students in order to innovate and bring in new technologies and ideas for
visibility and adaptability rule of learning.
Constructivist learning: It is assumed that humans only understand whatever they are
constructing. In this concept of learning the students are creating their own environment for
learning and also activity in this environment are held by students. They are taking participation
in these activities in order to gain knowledge. Also, creating one’s own learning helps in
understanding the mistakes and correcting them next time. However constructive learning is not
seen to be stable by a number of different educational systems.
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Place Based learning: This kind of learning is helping students to understand their heritage,
culture, opportunity, landscape and various experiences which also help them in foundation of
different study of language arts, social studies, mathematics and science. It is a great way to
make sure that students in school or community are able to participate in social and local works
and also their curriculum emphasizes learning social values and beliefs.
The major seat of learning for an individual is human brain. Recently the neuroscience
researchers have gone inside the brain and observe how the learning in an individual actually
occurs. There are various technologies such as diffusion imaging used in order to understand the
science behind brain and ways in which brain captures the information and helps individual in
learning.
The learning is taking place in brain which is due to psychological concepts. The brain
is working as a dense network of various finer pathways that consist of a number of different
neurons. There are three basic parts present in brain that a stem, cerebellum and cerebrum.
Cerebrum is most important part when it comes to learning as this is where the high order
functioning such as memory and reasoning for an individual occurs. Each area in this part is
specializing in different functions such as hearing, site, touch, short-term memory, reasoning,
language and so on. These are major abilities which are important for learning in an individual
and only this part of brain can support such learning ((Huang, 2019). It can also be stated that
learning is inherently requiring acquisition of different resources and information that a new. In
order to conduct this the brains propensity is to focus on new activities and learn them. It can
also be said that the capability of brain is too high to understand for a human as it is developed in
such a way that people start learning from the very moment they are born. This is out of curiosity
that brain is driven to learn and search for unusual environment and information. It is also seen
that the past memories are impediment to the future learning’s due to which various
contradiction in previous information also occurs in brain. It is often seen that as a human grows
and learn more things through experience they start relying upon the past knowledge they have.
There are also a number of researches conducted on brain in order to understand different
mysteries of learning. The learning professionals are continuously working to derive learning
methods which can help the brain to learn naturally and in a better way.
The numbers of researches which have been conducted on brain are recommending a
number of different ideas for educators to use during learning. It includes increasing the
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frequency through maintaining regular practice and fluency in learning process. They are also
appealing to engage emotional patterns during learning which can be beneficial for the learner. It
has also been recommended that when engagement in learning is increasing it will successfully
help an individual to learn throughout their lives without any extra efforts. It have also been
analysed that learning is necessary to tap into an individual’s brain in order to increase their
curiosity and intrinsic motivation. The researchers conducted on brain suggest that all the senses
of human should be actively engaged in learning which will create great learning for learners.
Mind mapping can be a diagram which is used in order to make sure that all the
information and visually organised. A mind map is created in order to show hierarchy and
various relationship amongst different pieces of information. A mind map is usually created
around a single concept or Centre and it is drawn on a blank page in order to make sure that all
the representations of ideas, words or phrases are adding up to a single topic. Major ideas will be
directly connected to the central topic whereas other ideas will be branch of the central topic.
There are a number of benefits which abroad by mind mapping. It includes arrangement of
various information in the form of pictures, words etc ((Hwang, Hsu and Hsieh, 2019). There are
a number of memory improvement techniques and mind mapping is one of them. It helps in and
coding the various phases of memory. The storage of memory process can also be fulfilled with
the help of mind mapping. On the last phase is retrieval through mind mapping which helps in
recognition of various information that have been experienced previously by an individual.
The effectiveness of mind mapping can be understood by various concepts and diagrams
which are used in mind mapping. One can specifically use different ideas and draw their mind
map according to themselves. Storing information with the help of mind mapping is easily as
students or a learner can understand various ways to link different information to a similar topic.
There are a number of ways such as using pictorial formats, words or pages which can be used
by different students or learners as per their comfort. Mind mapping is also a great way to
construct activities such as summarising through writing or making out outlines of different
topics. The result of mind mapping however can be inconsistent as different people use it
differently. It is also been analysed that the students of low ability are more benefited by mind
mapping when considering the students of high ability (Costa, Souza and Castro, 2020). This is
because the student of low ability required storing and retrieving of information more than that
of high ability.
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Other than storing the information mind mapping is also helping successfully to
retrieving the information by a learner whenever required. It is often seen that while a lecture is
conducted students find it difficult to memorise all the information that is provided. This is
where mind mapping comes in to help and they can prepare their notes with the help of this tool.
Whenever the students or learners require recalling the lecture or the learning they have gone
through they can use the mind map and retrieve whatever information they have stored in it. It is
an important aspect of mind mapping as the mind map or diagram is to be created in such a way
that later on the learner can take proper use of it while revising the information they have
received.
In present scenario there have also been a number of mind mapping software developed
which are helping to organise huge amount of information through combining different
organisation and their hierarchal structure. The software packages are extending the basic
concept of mind mapping and also allowing different individuals to use their thoughts and ideas
and link them to computer and internet.
With the help of the following mentioned information it can be concluded that learning is
a process that is continuous and goes on forever. There are a number of components included in
learning which are necessary for an individual. The new trends in learning and approaches for
learning include learning through social media, new technologies, underground education, self-
directed learning, social status, constructive learning and so on. Brain is an important factor
when learning is considered for individuals and the functioning of brain in order to understand
the capability of learning have been discussed. Mind mapping is an important factor which is
used by individuals for learning. There are a number of ways in which mind mapping can be
used by learners to enhance their learning and store as well as retrieve the information during
learning process.
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References
Books and Journals
Costa, R.D., Souza, G.F.and Castro, T.B., 2020. The theory of learning styles applied to distance
learning. Cognitive Systems Research, 64, pp.134-145.
Hwang, G.J., Hsu, T.C. and Hsieh, Y.H., 2019. Impacts of different smartphone caption/subtitle
mechanisms on English listening performance and perceptions of students with
different learning styles. International Journal of Human–Computer
Interaction, 35(4-5), pp.333-344.
Huang, T.C., 2019. Do different learning styles make a difference when it comes to creativity?
An empirical study. Computers in Human Behavior, 100, pp.252-257.
Hsu, T.C., Chen, W.L. and Hwang, G.J., 2020. Impacts of interactions between peer assessment
and learning styles on students’ mobile learning achievements and motivations in
vocational design certification courses. Interactive Learning Environments, pp.1-13.
Troussas, C., Giannakas, F. and Voyiatzis, I., 2020. Collaborative activities recommendation
based on students’ collaborative learning styles using ANN and WSM. Interactive
Learning Environments, pp.1-14.
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