HOW HUMAN BEINGS LEARN

I just had a very interesting discussion with my friend, it started with my playing a game of “FreeCell” on Windows. (I do this almost every day, I feel it is like push-ups for the brain, especially when I first wake up.)

I was telling her that the game teaches a moral lesson, i.e., the value of persistence. (I have played hundreds of games, there is never been a game that I could not solve if I stuck with it long enough.) Surely here is a game – like chess – which can be used to teach children useful life lessons! (Maybe, maybe not?)

Another aspect is that I often let her play the exact, same game that I have played … she will often solve it in an entirely different manner than I will solve the same puzzle. This lead to an interesting (and lively) discussion, that women use one side of their brains more than a man, or at least this is what scientists believe. Perhaps {some} women make better managers than men, exactly because of the capability of greater use of the right side of the brain.

This now led me to have an interesting thought. What about a scientific study? People could spend all day solving puzzles – like FreeCell – that maybe have more than one method that leads to an acceptable solution. Could anything valuable be learned, about how humans think … by studying our thought processes while we solve such problems? Another aspect of this train of thought … it is exactly this type of thinking, (how humans solve problems); that led to the creation of the first chess programs. It may also be a useful step in the eventual creation of true ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE!

The Five (5) Basic Ways a Human Being Learns

Pattern recognition. –  (One of the first ways we learn anything!) Just about all professional educators recognize this one. Oh, they give it fancy names (terminology), and steep the whole thing in the stupidity of Freudian mysticism; but they all recognize this is one of the basic ways that we learn anything. One of the ways I use this fundamental technique in chess is to ensure all my students first learn, “THE BASIC MATING PATTERNS.” There are only 20-30 really basic checkmates. These basic patterns form the foundation for EVERYTHING that comes later. (See the book, “Basic Middle-Game Techniques,” by … International {Chess} Master / and Dr. Danny Kopec.)

Repetition. – (Not a favorite of modern educators, to say the least!) This is a fundamental technique to learning. It needs to be brought back into the mainstream of teaching and vastly improved. I have personally found this can be both fun and very educational. It does not have to be the bore that we think (it was/is). More on this later!

Virtual Cognition. – Fundamental understanding of certain ideas. Certain things do NOT have to be taught, they are instinctual. But there are correct methods for enhancing and bringing out an understanding of ideas that are placed deep within our brains before we are born. This is the one area most professional educators don’t even understand, – and for the most part – have failed miserably in any attempt to craft this into an intelligent teaching tool. (A little more on this topic later. I primarily understand how this idea relates to chess … how this method can be used in other teaching fields will be for someone else to discover.)

Association. – Cross-referencing in the brain. Taking things (and ideas) an individual already knows and relating them in such a manner that that a learning process takes place. A very good idea – and one I have used when I have taught chess in the schools – is to take a very foreign or strange idea, and relate it to something the student already knows or understands. This is just PART of the process of association, not the whole idea! But it takes a very intelligent teacher, who can think fast on their feet, to be able to use this particular technique.

Themes. – (The “Building Block,” or “Chaining” technique.) A lot of people will think this is the same as number four above, but it is not. I cannot be very eloquent outside of chess, so I will confine myself to an area of knowledge that I am an expert in. First you lay the ‘groundwork’ of (a both a very simple AND a very complex) an ending, say a KNIGHT + BISHOP (and King) versus a lone King.  You ensure that the basic student has a fairly good grasp of the basic ideas of this ending. (To really Master it can take years!!!)  Then you begin to teach the student a “two-piece” combination. You show the aspiring player a whole series of relatively simple tactical sequences that are grouped together under a general heading of “Two or Three piece combinations.” Then you expand this teaching thrust into the idea of using two or three piece attacks on the enemy King. (You are also using association now, the beginner will have to draw on the knowledge you have already taught him – or her! – and expand and draw that knowledge into a relatively new field.) Then you finish this whole conception by ending with several COMPLETE MASTER GAMES where these ideas are clearly evident.

Bloggers:

Jeyta (Twitter: Jeyta_Paul)

Shubhankar Kumar (Twitter: Shubhankar_me)

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