Learning Exercises: Imagination

There are several reasons why students do not perform as they should. One of the major reasons is the fact that students were never taught how to think, learn and understand their subjects.

Learning is something we do naturally and thinking is the key to understanding. However, when it comes to studying, we behave rather unnaturally. Why is that?

It is because most of us are not really clear on the purpose of studying. We believe that the main aim of studying is to pass the exams. That is a misunderstanding, right there.

Exams only serve to find out what we have actually understood. This means that understanding the content should be our main focus. These exercises will help you to make the shift from studying to pass exams to studying to understand. I am inviting you to read the previous articles online, because the exercises are written in a particular sequence.

The previous article was on creating a new five-step study ritual:

1. Have a dictionary whenever you are studying

2. Review the content without opening the text book (this will train your mind to remember information at will)

3. Take a 10-minute break after every hour

4. Review the entire chapter

5. Take a walk and imagine teaching what you have just studied to someone else.

This ritual has helped students around the country to understand their subjects and therefore perform better during exams.

Today’s exercise zooms in on the above-mentioned steps 2 and 4. When reviewing the content, resist the habit of memorising words. Previous articles have already explained that memorising does not mean that you have understood something. Instead of memorising, train your mind to focus on the images that come to mind. Imagination is the key to grasping the essence of a given topic.

Albert Einstein (Google him) was once asked to share the best way to make children intelligent. His reply: If you want children to become intelligent, tell them fairy tales. But if you want them to be extremely intelligent, tell them more fairy tales! During his lifetime, Albert Einstein was considered the most brilliant mind there was. Why would a genius advise parents to tell their children fairy tales? He understood the power of imagination.

Do the following from now on and see how your understanding gradually grows:

1. Read the paragraph and make sure you understand each word. (Dictionary!)

2. Close your eyes, relax and see the images which come to your mind.

3. Do not force the images to come. They will come by themselves, because we do not think in words, we think in images. It is natural for the mind to turn anything written or spoken into an image.

4. Summarise the entire paragraph into one image. Here is the magical part: Every time you call that one image to your mind, you will be able to remember the content of the entire paragraph. Once your mind is used to this, you will even be able to remember the exact words without memorising them.

You will do very well during exams because your focus was on understanding. It sounds unbelievable, but it becomes much clearer when you attend my learning workshops.

Shapumba ya Shapumba of Natural

Learning Education Consultancy gives

lectures and workshops on how to

understand any subject, the secret to

extraordinary teaching and self-mastery.

For more information, email

naturaLearningnamibia@gmail.com.

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