Newsletter 036: Tuning in to the Rhythms for Learning

Greetings and salutations!

A quick note: I have created short courses for eight different people on “learning how to learn.” I believe that deeply understanding how to learn is the most important part of life, helping you gain agency and wisdom in every part of life. To access the short courses, visit The Learning Engine’s website!

Now, onto this edition of the newsletter — which will focus on rhythms in learning!

Ideas

Let’s begin with a quote from Miyamoto Musashi (arguably the most well-known samurai in the Japanese tradition) from his writing in The Book of Five Rings:

In the years since I encountered this quote, I continue to return to this idea: Rhythm is the important part, with speed relative to the rhythm. Though the tempo may change with many different factors, every part of life has a rhythm — including learning.

Factors for Rhythm in Learning

There are a few different factors for rhythm in learning.

Characteristics of the Learner:

• Physical readiness — What is the strength and stamina of the learner?
• Mental readiness — How long can the learner focus? What are the background knowledge and skills for the learner?
• Emotional readiness — What is the learner’s openness to feedback? What is the learner’s emotional response to the activity?

These three characteristics will determine the amount of time that a learner can do the activity; the amount of time available will change the rhythm for learning.

For example, there is a massive difference in each of these characteristics between a 7-year-old amateur soccer player and a 28-year-old professional soccer player. Both of these players are capable of improving at soccer, but they need different rhythms to manage their physical, mental, and emotional characteristics and create the conditions for learning.

Schedule for the Activity:

• Time of day — When is the learner participating in the activity?
• Duration — What is the amount of time for the activity?
• Number of sessions — How often is the learner participating in the activity?

There are many interesting ideas on how the time of day affects learning and performance, coming from the natural tendency to have times during the day where we have more or less energy. Attempting a challenging activity when we have less energy makes the activity feel more challenging; conversely, doing a challenging activity when we have more energy helps us push through the challenge more effectively.

The second two bullet points — combined with the characteristics of the learner — work together to create a rhythm for learning. There is solid research evidence on the practices of spacing and interleaving that suggests having shorter and more frequent activities is better for long-term learning. Returning frequently to the knowledge and skills for an activity helps learners create robust and well-connected conceptual models; taking time between activities allows time for the brain to organize and connect the knowledge and skills.

Type and Intensity for the Activity:

• Type — What are the physical, mental, and emotional requirements?
• Intensity — How does the intensity change within the activity?
• Feedback — What is the short-term, medium-term, and long-term feedback from the activity (or set of activities)?

The type and intensity work together: Some activities are physically exhausting over a short time, creating a high and quick intensity; other activities are physically exhausting over a long time, creating a low and steady intensity. Even activities that are less physically demanding — studying for a subject or working at a computer — can be mentally and emotionally intense, leading to different rhythms for learning.

Feedback also affects the intensity of the activity because the outcome for the feedback can be positive or negative. We have to be mentally and emotionally read to receive the feedback, then adjust our knowledge and skills to use the feedback for learning. Feedback cycles within a single activity and for sets of activities create rhythms for learning, which can be used to modulate the intensity.

By thinking through the activities that you lead and participate in, you can understand the rhythms — both within one activity and across a set of activities. Gaining an understanding of the rhythms will help you create better conditions for learning, allowing you to learn more efficiently and effectively!

I’ve created a Model for Learning, which explains and predicts parts of the learning process. Work yourself through the model, remembering specifics for each part and the connections in the model; what are your questions or comments?. For a much deeper explanation on the process of learning, check out this essay: That’s How Learning Works?!?! A Comprehensive Model for Understanding the Learning Process.

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Stories

Here are a couple of stories about the rhythms in learning.

Story 1: From the time I started playing organized sports, I’ve always been full-speed as an athlete. No matter if we were doing a warm-up drill, an activity in a practice session, or playing a game, I was always going full-speed. There are both upsides and downsides to always going full-speed, but one interesting point is that I did not totally understand the rhythms of learning. By always going full-speed I missed some of the subtlety that is found when going at different speeds; I believe that changing speeds would have helped me gain a deeper understanding of different parts of sport.

Story 2: I’ve worked at a few different schools, each with their own schedule. Some schools had students in the same class at the same time of day; for example, I had students in physics during first block (8:30 am to 10:00 am) each day. When teaching the same physics lessons there were always interesting differences between the students in the first period of the day versus students in the last period of the day. The students in first period were usually more attentive and willing to work on challenging physics problems, but students in the last period were tired from the day and less willing to work on challenging physics problems. Other schools had rotating schedules, with students having physics in the morning one day and then in the afternoon a different day. This rotating schedule showed how students could be active in one of the classes and then lethargic in a different class, especially when the class was after lunch (haha). These experiences with different schedules — and learning in my personal life — have made me very aware of the time of day for learning, plus the importance of designing a schedule that works for you.

Questions

1. How does the quality of the rhythm by the leader (teacher, coach) affect the quality of learning by the learners?
2. What are your physical, mental, and emotional characteristics for topics that you are learning?
3. What are the physical, mental, and emotional characteristics for your learners relative to every activity?
4. How does the schedule for each activity relate to the rhythm for learning?
5. The activity and set of activities too fast, too slow, or correctly hitting the rhythm for learning?
6. How do the type, intensity, and feedback relate to the rhythm for learning?
7. What are some past experiences that have been too fast, too slow, or correct for the rhythm for learning?
8. What are you doing now that is working or not working? If what you are doing is not working, how can you change one or more parts to better match the rhythm for learning?

Learning happens when we share what we are thinking, so I would love to hear your answers! Also, you can use these questions as conversations starters with friends and family — hearing their answers and having a conversation would be great!

If this newsletter resonated with you, please share on the socials and with someone who you think would also benefit; I would greatly appreciate any help in spreading these ideas!

Thanks for reading this newsletter — and all the best!

Nathan