How Learning Happens
Estimated Time: 1 hour
What happens in your brain when you learn?
Have you ever considered how learning happens? And specifically, how your own learning happens? What actually occurs in your brain when you learn how to correctly write a for loop in Python or differentiate between boolean operators?
As mentioned in the Motivation section, learning is about growth and change. So let’s start by exploring how your brain changes over time.
Note: The detailed neuroscience of how the brain works is beyond the scope of this course, so in this section, we will only be doing a shallow dive into how the brain learns. If you are interested in going deeper and learning more, Grasp by Sanjay Sharma and Luke Yoquinto is a great introduction into the topic.
Reflection: Neuroplasticity in Action
With use, our brains have the ability to improve, expand and grow. The concept of neural pathways in the brain explains how we can learn something and get better at it. When you are doing something for the first time, it is usually harder compared to when you have done it several times (i.e. practiced it) because you don’t have strong neural pathways in place yet. With each repetition of the activity, your brain creates a stronger pathway that makes it even easier to do the task with reduced effort compared to the initial attempts.
Most people describe learning to code as a difficult process. This is because there might not have been prior neural pathways developed for coding. Even when you have learned to code using a different programming language, learning a new one might sometimes have some level of difficulty. However, it will be less difficult because you have built some neural pathways for programming in general.
So what does this mean for you as you embark on your computer science journey?
When you are struggling to learn a new skill or understand a new piece of knowledge, remember that this is how the brain works in the process of learning anything. Everything is hard until it becomes easy. So be confident in your learning, trust your brain, practice the skill to develop your neural pathways, and be patient with yourself as your neural pathways develop. Furthermore, when you are learning something new, being able to connect it to knowledge or skills that you already have will allow you to leverage already existing neural pathways.
This also means that it is important to learn consistently. So, instead of practising your coding skills in a single 4 hour block one day per week, it is better for you to practice in four 1-hour blocks spread throughout the week. This consistent and routine firing of your neural pathways will make them stronger, which will ultimately make it feel less effortful.
Another important thing to remember is that you should be practicing the skill that you want to get better at, as opposed to just taking in knowledge about that skill. You don't strengthen neural pathways for riding a bicycle by reading a book on how to ride a bicycle. You do so by actually going out and trying to ride a bicycle, over and over again. This principle is true when learning any new skill, including coding.
One mistake students often make when studying is to just read through the material, and assume that this passive studying is helping them develop their skills. Instead, you should be practicing the actual skill, and getting feedback on what you can do correctly and what you can't yet do correctly. For example, this means that when studying for your Programming 1, focus your energy on completing the practice questions and projects, don't just read the lesson materials.
Remember, it might be difficult at the start, but with the strengthening of the neural pathways in your brain through practice, you will increase your comfort and mastery of the subject.
Everything is hard until it becomes easy.