3 Rules to spark learning

Ramsay Musallam is a chemistry teacher that through a life threatening situation learned three methods that when combined can spark and inspire learning.

#1 Curiosity comes first:

There’s a popular saying that states “there are no stupid questions” which sometimes can seem really false. I believe that this statement doesn’t come the topic of the question though, instead it exists because of the desire to learn and be educated. People don’t typically ask questions if they don’t care for an answer, instead, approaching the unknown with such mindset feeds in to our desire to understand and is the catalyst that creates an insatiable appetite for knowledge on that subject.

#2 Embrace the mess:

“The inevitable process of trial and error” was a quote from Ramsay Mullasam when discussing how his surgeon was so confident in his field. An important aspect of learning because of the lessons it teaches, it’s okay to fail as long as you use that experience to improve – and that even if something works, you should break it down to understand why in an effort to make it better (which is better discussed in part 3).

#3 Reflection:

Why do we need to reflect? It’s an important part of remembering the processes, it can give us confidence in our work to find consistency and efficiency. If done correctly there is no wasted reflection, as everyone you’ve done can be viewed as a learning process and has significance that you can extract.

My input:

These lessons are definitely important and are aspects I need to work on. I’m baffled by many things and curiosity helps.

One of the most significant reasons I’m engaging in my lectures is due to this. I don’t know the right answer to everything, if I did what point would there be for me to attend? Instead I’ll answer the question knowing it’s wrong and I’ll learn from it. Another reason I ask questions and answer first (or at least try to) is because nobody likes to be wrong, especially the first person to be wrong – so by being the first it eases the tension and allows others (who probably have better / more significant questions to ask) to speak without worrying about being embarrassed.

That said I at least try to answer the topic or ask related questions, if I were to clown around when I spoke then that makes little progress as well because I won’t be taken seriously and I’ll ruin the academic atmosphere of the lecture.

Reference used

Ramsey Musallam. [2013]. 3 Rules to spark learning. [TED Talk]. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/ramsey_musallam_3_rules_to_spark_learning/up-next#t-285367