| I ain’t no scientist who has discovered the secret of learning but being a keen learner myself, I would like to jot down few of my observations out of my own experiences. |
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| Everyone has their own style of learning but the key points remain the same. I feel learning is two dimensional and to keep things in perspective there are few things I, as an instructor should follow and there are few things you, as a student should follow. |
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| The best of way of learning anything is to apply it practically with the real life scenarios which you can see or feel. If I ask you a question, do u remember what’s Newton’s second law of motion is all about? I know you are thinking but if I ask you what’s Newton’s 3rd law of motion, there you are you remember it instantly, don’t you? Have you ever given it a thought why you remember the 3rdlaw and not the 2nd law, even though you have learned both at the same time? I don’t need to explain the reason, what I want to stress here is you can never learn a module by just attending classes and going back home and reading some books. Even if you learn something this way, you would forget it like you forgot the 2nd law. |
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| I would want you to learn something to remember but not to forget. This is the same reason why I would be stressing a lot on practical application of the concepts we discuss and learning by putting the concepts into practice. This way things stick in your head for a longer time and helps you in gaining command over the subject. |
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| So , as an instructor , I should be taking care that you get as much practical exposure as possible and most importantly, I should be available with you not just in the class but when you are actually developing the objects or doing the assignments as that is when you are actually learning and may come up with your doubts. |
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| I strongly believe that when you attend a session for 3 hrs, you are trying to understand something but not learning. You actually learn when you develop an object using the concepts you understood in the class. There is a big difference between understanding something and learning something and I should be available when you are attempting to learn so that you don’t bump into dead ends and help you overcome the hurdles, which would speed-up your learning process. |
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| Now as a student what you should be doing? I read an interesting article sometime back which I would like to share here. |
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| Our brain stores things in 2 ways, one which is temporary (or short term) and the other is permanent (or long term). This explains why we have memories which are permanent and few which we forget after a while. The interesting part is when you read something it remains in your brain for 3 days and if you read the same thing again within 3 days it remains in your brain for 7 days, now if you manage to read it again in 7 days it remains for 3 months and so on. While reading something if you can visualize and make a picture of it in your mind it helps in retaining if for a longer time as while recollecting it you just recollect the picture and the puzzle unfolds. |
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| It also helps if you try to remember something in a rhythm or a pattern as while recollecting, you just remember the rhythm and the content unfolds. This explains why we remember the lyrics easily but not those Q&A which we always struggled to remember in school.. |
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| It also helps if you involve more than one sensory organ to store something in your brain. To demonstrate this, if I tell you my mobile number you will not remember it but if you dial my number a couple of times it just sticks in your brain. How we can apply this in learning ABAP? The bottom line is you can’t learn or remember the concepts by just attending the classes; the actual learning is when you develop the objects. By simply typing the code will go a long way in storing that in your memory for long. |
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| I strongly believe learning is an art in itself and the same applies to teaching. I believe teaching involves a lot of passion and skills. If you can’t express something you know then it doesn’t matter how much you know but unfortunately the training profession is taken for granted and everyone feels that, if you are not getting a job anywhere then work as an instructor. Conversely, if someone has loads of experience doesn’t mean that he can be a good trainer. |
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| In yesterday’s news paper Azim Premji rightly said “Our education system suffers due to lack of quality teachers”. I’m not saying there are no good teachers but I feel very few choose this profession out of passion. |
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| And most of us, especially in India, have this ‘chalta hain’ type attitude where we learn to compromise or adjust for everything. We pay our electricity bills on time but we can’t question anyone if there is a power cut for the whole day. No one is bothered to inform us when we can expect the power to resume. We pay our mobile bills on time but can’t do much if the call doesn’t connect even after 10 attempts. All we do is to become more patient and master this take it easy attitude. I am not sure about you but I am frustrated with this. I pay you money for something and if you can’t meet my expectations or standards than simply return my money and I'll look elsewhere. But how many of us actually do this? |
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| Many of us have joined an institute for some training or the other at some point in time or the other. We attend a demo and based on that pay the fee and join the institute. Few weeks into the course, if you feel you are not getting what you have expected, what options do we have? Many of us would simply discontinue the course and save time but isn’t it unfair that we don’t have an option to get back our money because we are not happy with what we are getting? Are we not well within our rights to expect what should matter is how much we learn rather than how much they earn? |
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| After writing all this, I don’t think I need to explain what my objective in setting up this blog is. All I want to focus is on how much you learn and when this is taken care of, everything else falls in place and it’s that simple. |
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| I wanted to keep this article short but few things needed an elaborate explanation. The best way to experience this is to come and be part of something new and I promise, your time or money won’t be taken for granted. |
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| Thanks a ton for reading and wish you luck in whatever you pursue!!! |
