You’ve been wanting to learn to play a new instrument or to use new software for a new job since the year began. You’re trying, but it’s not a resounding success. You tell yourself it might be too late to learn new skills or master new technologies. Think again! You do have everything you need to keep learning!
Our brain constantly changes, adapts and evolves based on what we’re learning, our environment and what we do. Your brain’s malleability is possible thanks to something called neuroplasticity. These changes alter how our neurons communicate with each other throughout our lives. This communication, activated by processes, affects memory and supports learning. Each time neurons activate and communicate with each other, their connection strengthens. Our new experiences, whether it’s at work or in a language class, multiply the links between our neurons and let us learn throughout our lives. At Novaconcept, continuous learning lets us help our clients reach their goals by creating training programs adapted to their needs.
Neuroplasticity and Learning
Neuroplasticity is an ability that highlights the capacity to improve and learn. Let’s use a concrete example to understand the concept of neuroplasticity better.
Imagine that you just arrived in a new city. You need to drive to the grocery store. The first time you leave your home (point A) to go to the grocery store (point B), you keep your eyes glued to your GPS. The next time, taking your eyes off your phone is easier. After a while, you feel more comfortable, and you almost know the route by heart. It becomes automatic for you, meaning neuron A and neuron B talk to each other just as easily as you make the journey from point A to point B. One day, though, you’re going to the grocery store, and the street you usually take is closed. You’re surprised and decide to take a new way there. You need to focus and find a new path to the grocery store. A new connection between neurons A and B is born!
As you can see in this image, practice is key to keeping the route in your head while paying attention to everything around you. This also applies to your learning! The more you practice, the more your neurons talk to each other. They strengthen each other and make learning easier. On the other hand, if you’re learning something new, you neurons will need to work harder to communicate. Moreover, if you stop practicing, little by little, the communication slowly breaks down and disappears from your memory.
Lack of sleep, anxiety and lack of motivation are barriers to new connections between neurons. When these barriers stack up, we find ourselves in cognitive overload. These factors can make your learning more difficult.
How can you avoid cognitive overload and optimize your learning?
Have you ever tried to read a book while listening to the radio? It’s pretty hard! This is because working memory has a limited capacity. As soon as you reach this limit, your brain stops learning. We call that cognitive overload. Even though there are factors that we can’t control when we’re in a learning situation, there are still things we can do to reduce our cognitive load:
- Have a development mindset: understanding that we develop skills through perseverance and effort and that there’s always room for improvement.
- Reduce distractions: turn off phones, turn off computer notifications and close the door.
- Begin the training by taking a few breaths to reduce our level of stress.
- Take breaks.
- Go back to old training courses. Attend other training on the same topic and practice new and old knowledge to create strong bonds between them.
At Novaconcept, we believe in everyone’s neuroplasticity. Our role is to remove as many barriers as possible to make it easier to acquire new knowledge! We can help you master your learning and make your continuous development easier. Our expert instructional design and multimedia production teams developed several strategies to streamline learning. When we create training, our experts ensure information is structured to develop good neural networks in your brain. We use a variety of teaching approaches to activate your neurons and we create thoughtful and quality graphics.
Lastly, it’s together that we’ll continue to learn effectively.
Sources :
Blog Post | Neuroplasticity (alicedilemma.github.io)
La-neuroplasticite-au-service-de-lapprentissage.pdf (aqep.org)
After watching this, your brain will not be the same | Lara Boyd | TEDxVancouver – YouTube
Neuroéducation : comment maximiser le potentiel du cerveau de ses élèves | UQAM
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