#083 What your brain likes: learn effectively, learn with pleasure

Learning and acquiring information used to be essential to survive in the wild thousands of years ago. Luckily, we still have this urge to learn something new, and our brains learn in a similar way as they used to. However, nowadays systems of education can suppress this urge. So how to make the process of learning more pleasurable and create an environment conducive to learning? It's Kasia speaking and I try to explain in a nutshell how to do it, how our brains work and why some methods of learning work out and the others still don't. Hope you may look at the process of learning from a different perspective once you've listened to what I'm gonna say in this podcast. You may have experienced different approaches and methods during school years and I believe some of them were more and some of them were less pleasurable.

I will even dare to say you may be coping some of the behaviours and methods while learning and be wondering why they still don't work, why they still don't bring any results, why the ways you learn are not effective. You may find out how to take a different approach and finally start seeing the results of your hard work and effort put into learning. And of course, everything I say here is said from a perspective of a language learner and a teacher who reads a lot of interesting and comprehensive books on various topics. I am not a specialist. I am not a specialist in a field of neuroscience.

So I am not a biologist nor neurologist nor anyone who specializes in this field of neuroscience. And I try to present everything in a very simple language as I would like to have it explained to myself. A stimulus to create this podcast were books that I read, where my students' experiences with learning, where some of my experiences with learning, where some experiments that I read about. And if you want to dig deeper into the topic and read about some experiments and learn more scientific data, I highly recommend it to you, of course. Just, you know, just do it. So, without any further ado, let's see how everything works.

So, there is no other way as to relate to evolution and infancy time to show and prove it to you that the ways we learn something in adulthood are not so much different from the ways our brains acquire information as babies. Actually, the ways we learn something as adults perfectly reflect the way human brains have learned things over centuries. Evolution. Natural selection. Learning is an inseparable part of revolution. It guarantees survival. If you didn't learn and you didn't obtain information, you didn't survive. In a very big nutshell of course, but it was as simple as that. Natural selection may represent a kind of learning algorithm. Look, if our ancestors hadn't observed the reality and nature, hadn't learned from their mistakes and hadn't drawn proper conclusions, probably I wouldn't be speaking to you right now and I wouldn't be wondering what if.

And our species wouldn't have survived at some point in the human history. So, as I mentioned, learning is an element of evolution and learning is in our nature and no one can deny it. Learning at every stage of our lives should be natural. However, the obstacles we may come across are quite often created by the systems we live in. The systems which sadly kill our urge to learn and the way our brains like to learn, which I'm gonna explain in a bit. Now, let's focus on babies. It is falsely believed babies' brains are tabula rasa. So, it means the babies are born with no ideas and thoughts and they start learning from the moment of their birth. Those who claim it couldn't be more wrong.

A baby that comes to this crazy world already has a brain with a knowledge, a knowledge inherited from the evolution. There's been an experiment which was based on magic. Metaphorically, of course. So what do I mean by that? New born babies were shown some objects. Those objects disappeared in a magical way and it was a kind of an illusion, of course. It wasn't a real magic. However, what is crucial here is that the babies were surprised when they realized the object somehow disappeared. When and where could they possibly learn it? In the mother wombs? Of course not. It is a knowledge that evolution gives us. Another fascinating fact is that babies react faster when they hear the language or the music they heard while still being in the womb.

What's more, how do babies know what their face looks like or the parents' faces or human face in general? They weren't given a mirror in the womb. Children can easily perceive facial expressions and facial features and react to sad and happy facial expressions. They even react faster when somebody smiles at them. It's super dark in the womb. How do they know all of that? This is an inborn knowledge. You may find a lot more research and evidence on that. So if you're interested in it, yeah, just dig into it. What also needs to be mentioned here is the sensitivity period that begins at birth And it continues to my knowledge up to the age or four or five, I guess.

And during this period, toddlers, babies and later on children acquire knowledge like sponges. And the way they, and the speed they do that differs a lot From the period when we are teens, we are young adults and adults. The structure of the brain is partially responsible for that, however, it doesn't mean that we cannot learn new things when we are older. The way we learn during the sensitivity period can beautifully reflect the way our older brains learn and I will come back to it, but right now, to the point. During this sensitivity period babies are able to recognize all phonemes they hear, hence they can learn various sounds and acquire the correct pronunciation and develop an accurate accent faster and easier than when we are older.

Also, a crucial fact here worth mentioning is that our articulatory system is still developing at that period, hence it is easier with the pronunciation and accent. Another crucial fact during this sensitivity period is To acquire the syntax of a language. So what do I mean by that? It is essential to speak to children from the very beginning of their lives in, let's say, proper manner, proper way, proper sentences. So I mean full sentences, not in a childish way. So children will know how to create sentences like grammatically correct sentences from very early stages of speech development and then when they are a bit older.

Unfortunately, the ability to acquire syntax and grammar structures shrinks over the years when we get older. That's why it may be harder to learn tenses or other grammar structures that don't appear in our mother tongues. However, it is not impossible. We just need to put more effort And practice into it. And when it comes to vocab acquisition, it may stay at the same level as when we were kids. Nevertheless, it may still require more effort. But here's good news. The excuse, oh, I am too old to learn a new language or it's too late, for me, is invalid. The neuroplasticity, or it's also called brain plasticity, is bigger at a young age, but we never lose it.

What's more, the synapses we developed at a young age can, let's say, freeze, but they leave a mark, they leave some kind of a trace in our brains. And even when we don't speak a language, the foreign language that we learned, or we don't speak a language as often as we did in the past, we may wake the synapses up again and we may still develop new ones. So, apart from waking up the frozen ones, so we can learn at every stage of our lives, so sorry, no more excuse for you, yeah? You're never too old to learn something. And now, curiosity. Curiosity is a crucial matter which needs to be discussed here.

Learning via curiosity is something that is inborn and we learn this way by nature. Unfortunately, this curiosity is very often suppressed and killed by the society and systems of education. And now, examples. How were you treated at school or maybe outside? Not especially when you were attending the classes. So how were you treated then, when you asked too many questions? Were your questions answered? Were you encouraged to develop some extra knowledge or were you told things like curiosity killed the cat or don't ask too many questions or it's not the topic we're discussing today and so on.

So if your questions were answered, if you are in the first group, you are the lucky one. But very often, unfortunately, these very common phrases appear so often and are a big part of society. May have heard them as kids everywhere. And what's also very essential is that kids usually need to know the answers to questions which seem to be useful. From the other's perspective it may look different, but remember, children have a different point of view. And look at the species and evolution. Do you think I would be speaking to you right now if million years ago our ancestors hadn't been so curious?

I think I wouldn't. So as kids we are curious and consequently we want to check everything, so we learn through experience as well. And what is also extremely crucial here is not giving up and assessing the results of our actions. A simple example, learning to walk. When we learn to walk, we don't give up, do we? No, nope, we don't. We assess, we process, we analyze. Okay, I fell down, so I need to try again. I need to stand up, try it another way, and again, and again, let's try again, over and over again. And I check the results, and I learned through experience even years after I learned how to work in a completely different field of knowledge and learning.

So that's why feedback, of course given in a proper way, And regular checking your results and skills during learning or during learning a language is very important. As a teenage or adult student, you may ask yourself questions like, is it useful, where I needed to survive in particular situations and so on. And it is okay to ask such questions. Can you spot the similarities? And curiosity itself is a power, is a drive, an urge that mobilizes us, motivates us. It forces us to explore more and more and it's similar to a libido or hunger. Impulses that force us to take an action.

And why is it so? When the needs are fulfilled, we are given either tangible rewards, as it is with a sex drive or hunger, or intangible ones when we learn, so it is information and dopamine. And those guaranteed survival. This is who we are. Learning, getting information and developing, so then getting some dopamine or these tangible awards, guaranteed survival. That's why. This is who we are. As species, we like learning. And today we're checking social media non-stop to check maybe there is something new. Or we are gossiping, which is also a result of evolution, by the way.

But here we are! We are given some dopamine and information as an award. And by the way, apart from gossiping in the past, we had to share experiences with each other to survive. But it is connected, like sharing information, gossiping, checking what's new. Everything is something that we have been learning over centuries. And because we have been given these awards, And it is natural to do it. So now let's get into the importance of the roles such as teachers, mentors and parents. Every child is a small chemist, a small architect, physician, mathematician, polyglot.

Supporting the kids through growing up not only will help them develop more curiosity and shape a great attitude towards learning, but it will also let them shape a better brain. What do I mean by that? The more we learn, the more synapses appear in our brain. Also the synapses duplicate. If the process of learning lasts long enough, the structure of our brains changes. Brain cortex is thicker and the neural connections may be stronger. Furthermore, a brain of a child being brought up in a bilingual or multilingual family may have a better aptitude for learning another foreign language, of course, and, probably, due to the brain plasticity trained from the early stages of life.

So how the brain will develop also depends on the environment, that is upbringing, parents' attitude and examples they are setting and years at school. So who we will become depends on these factors. Are we growing up in a family that talks with us or are we being brought in an orphanage, unfortunately, where we are not being given a lot of attention and love? Are we loved, are we respected and understood or are we socially excluded because of our origins, race or religion? Do we have teachers who respect and encourage us to develop or are we attending school that kills our creativity? If we don't speak with kids from the early stages of our lives or there is no one to talk to us before we develop our speaking skills,

If we feel insecure, not loved or respected, we may grow into a person who cannot find themselves in society in adulthood. So curiosity is one of a few factors conducive to learning. What else is conducive? Emotions. The most important events and experiences which evoke the biggest emotions in our life, either negative or positive, are recorded in our synapses. Some of us may have a better situation memory, some of us a worse one, however I bet you can perfectly remember what you did, what you were wearing, what you talked about or what you talked to, like who you talked to during the most important days and events in your life.

I myself can easily recall 9-11 and the moment I saw on TV two towers in New York City falling down because everyone was so stressed about it, was so crazy about it and it was on TV everywhere. Or I can remember the days I met the most important people in my life. What they were wearing, what we talked about. Yeah, I think even like the song that was on when I had very important or emotional conversations in my life. So emotions should be also an inseparable part of learning. The way the knowledge is conveyed may influence memorizing and understanding some concepts. If the atmosphere during the classes is stress-free and in turn there is a lot of laughter and students are provided with hilarious, ridiculous and absurd sentences or examples, the probability of remembering more in the class increases.

Also the way the teacher describes concepts, so basically in a very encouraging, fascinating and not dull way, may result in a better understanding among students. I believe everyone can recall at least one teacher who could explain the ideas in a way students could either get it quite fast or simply enjoy the topics that were discussed. It is scientifically proven that laughter facilitates learning, and when we learn with a positive stimulus, we can memorize faster. Laughter also increases curiosity. Imagine learning something being given jokes or ridiculous examples. Wouldn't you feel tempted to learn more? And what if it's a taboo topic or a shocking example?

Our brains love that. This way our brains will immediately create a new neuronal connection and some associations with a given concept if the example evoked a lot of emotions. And there is more to that. Once a connection like that has been created, we need just a tiny stimulus, such as a word or a phrase, which will trigger a cascade of memories. And I can illustrate you with an example. Of course, it never happened, it's just an example, yeah? Just imagine, imagine me explaining to you past perfect tense.

And the sentence that I'm giving you is I had drunk, so past perfect, I had drunk five milkshakes, so I was struggling with diarrhea all day yesterday. And diarrhea and the concept of diarrhea is a ridiculous example, plus it is a taboo topic. But as I said, it never happened. Anyway, after a month we would refresh the tense structure, In the class, and the use, and so on. And I am almost 100% sure, of course, it's not 100, yeah? That at the sound of the word diarrhea and past perfect, your brain would recall everything you remembered so far about this tense. Or at least it would ring a bell. So, shocking examples, swear words, cursing, ridiculous examples, they are good for your brains, your brains love it.

Next factor is sleep. It's an indispensable factor in our life. We cannot survive without sleep. And also, when we talk about learning, it's a crucial factor to process, to analyze the material we have covered. To powiedzieć po prostu, że podczas śniadania rzeczy, które nauczyliśmy się, idą w długopuszczalną pamięć. I musimy dawać naszym organizmom wystarczającą ilość śniadania, aby dobrze się rozwijać i nauczyć. Next one is nutrition. And I believe it is obvious. We need to have a balanced diet and provide to our organisms all the nutrients they require. And I read about the case in one of the African developing countries.