One way we use the cognitive processes in our daily lives is with learning. Learning is not just something we do in school or in formal settings. We learn every day. Sometimes our very survival depends on how well we can learn. That may mean unlearning our learned limitations and regaining confidence in our ability to direct our own learning.
In today’s world, someone who doesn’t know how to learn is left behind. By exploring your own learning process and determining your natural learning style, you can find the best ways for you to learn. Then you, not the instructor or the situation, are in charge of your learning.
Learning is broadly defined as change. The focus can be on what we learn (the product of learning) or on how we learn (the process). It is about how we change and how we adapt, grow, and develop. This adaptation, growth, and development occur from the inside out.
All eight cognitive processes play a role in our learning. We enter a learning situation with some perceptions already formed and some judgments already made. We are more open to certain kinds of information and more inclined to organize that information in certain ways.
What if we all could learn how we learn? Then if some kinds of learning were harder than others, we could find the source of that difficulty rather than rejecting what is being taught or feeling bad about ourselves for not learning.
Take Charge of Your Learning
We are born to learn. Learning is how we grow and develop. It is how we adjust and adapt to an ever-changing and demanding world.
When we look at learning, we need to examine three factors:
- What—the content or skill to be learned
- How—the learning context
- Who—the learning style of the learner
When all of these factors are congruent, the result is effective, efficient learning. When they are not congruent, at best we have a high energy cost, and at worst we have no learning.
To take charge of your own learning, capitalize on lessons from the past to plan for the future. Think about the cognitive processes we just explored, as well as your descriptions of your best and worst learning experiences. Answer the following questions and then think of your preferred learning pattern to anticipate what will make your next learning experience better.
Your Learning
Experiences |
Best Learning
Experience(s) |
Worst Learning
Experience(s) |
• What was being taught or learned?
• What cognitive processes seemed to be activated by the content or task? |
|
|
• What was the context of the learning—instructional techniques being used, atmosphere, environment, purpose, behaviors and mannerisms of the instructor (if there was one), behaviors of others, and so on?
• What cognitive processes seemed to be encouraged by the environment? |
|
|
• How well did your preferences in your learning style match or mismatch the content and the context?
• What cognitive processes did you have to stretch to use?
• When the learning involved processes other than your preferred ones (leading or supporting roles), what helped you learn in spite of everything? |
|
|
What learning conditions do you need to arrange for yourself in your future learning experiences?
REMEMBER: If the content or the context is going to require you to operate from other than your leading or supporting role processes, be patient with yourself. Allow extra time. Be extra forgiving. Get a coach. Ask for what you need. Often an instructor can provide it, if you only ask for it.
Learning and the Cognitive Processes
Adapted
from Linda V. Berens and Dario Nardi, Understanding
Yourself and Others®: An Introduction
to the Personality Type Code (Telos
Publications, 2004) *Used with permission.
INFORMATION-ACCESSING PROCESSES—Perception |
| Se |
Extraverted Sensing: Experiencing and noticing the physical world, scanning for visible reactions and relevant data
What is really happening? What are the facts of the situation? What is changing in this situation? What action can I take now? |
| Si |
Introverted Sensing: Recalling past experiences, remembering detailed data and what it is linked to
What do I already know that I can build on? What usually happens in this kind of situation? How does what is happening here remind me of some problem I have previously solved? |
| Ne |
Extraverted iNtuiting: Inferring relationships, noticing threads of meaning, and scanning for what could be
What inferences do I need to make? What meanings do I need to perceive? What hypotheses can I generate? |
| Ni |
Introverted iNtuiting: Foreseeing implications, conceptualizing, and having images of the future or profound meaning
What are the implications for the future? What do I need to conceptualize? How will so-and-so respond if I do such-and-such? |
ORGANIZING-EVALUATING PROCESSES—Judgment |
| Te |
Extraverted Thinking: Organizing, segmenting, sorting, and applying logic and criteria
How is this situation structured and organized? What logic and criteria apply? How can I break something down into its component parts and organize, arrange, and coordinate it for more efficient results? |
| Ti |
Introverted Thinking: Analyzing, categorizing, and figuring out how something works
What principles do I need to apply? What models are operating here? What techniques or approaches can I apply? |
| Fe |
Extraverted Feeling: Considering others and responding to them
Whose needs do I need to consider? What is important to these people? What is appropriate in this situation? What is good for the group? |
| Fi |
Introverted Feeling: Evaluating importance and maintaining congruence
What is really important here? What is of value to me and to the purpose? What values are at stake? What values have been violated? |
Adapted
from Linda V. Berens and Dario Nardi, Understanding
Yourself and Others®: An Introduction
to the Personality Type Code (Telos
Publications, 2004) *Used with permission.
|
