3 Paradoxes of the Learning Process

Learning in real life is much different from the way you learned in school.

Becoming fluent in any topic is like learning a language. It happens in stages, unfolding slowly over time.

Here are 3 paradoxes of the learning process.

(1) Learning Is Not a Linear Process

I’m not sure that this is much of a paradox, but it can feel like one for those who are trapped in a belief system that learning is linear.

Under this belief system, each piece of knowledge or skill logically builds on what came before.

There are certainly areas and subject that can be like this. For example, to learn how to read, you need to first learn the alphabet, then learn how to put letters together before you certain words. Only then you can string together words for sentences and then for paragraphs.

Many subjects in school are taught in a linear model, facilitating the belief and expectation that all learning follows this path.

The truth is that most learning follows a more complicated, circuitous path.

Understanding and Confusion

In practice, learning often follows a route of increased understanding followed by increased confusion, progress followed by regression.

Learning is Not Binary

Rarely is learning a binary of “did you learn it or not?”

Instead, learning happens in layers. We reach a limit to our absorption and understanding before we must integrate. With time and repetition we deepen our understanding of nuances that we couldn’t even see before.

Learning Involves Unlearning

Also, learning often involves unlearning something we had learned previously. This is especially true in a world where we might learn things from the internet or from self proclaimed teachers, who are perhaps spreading misinformation because of their incomplete understanding.

What we hear repeatedly is what gets embedded in our mind. But just because you hear something repeatedly doesn’t mean that it’s true or accurate. When you learn about that topic, you may need to unlearn things that you’ve had previously learned.

(2) The More You Learn, the More You Realize How Little You Know

In an ideal world, the more we learn about a topic, the more confidence we have in what we know. The actual experience is often the opposite of this.

Especially with complex topics, the more we learn, the more we realize how little we know. Each new layer of learning reveals how much more there is to a subject than we previously grasped.

The consequence of this phenomenon, especially for people who love to learn, is that we might constantly feel like we don’t know enough or like we will never master a subject.

We might discount how much we do actually know.

This also sets up the third paradox.

(3) In Order to Truly Learn Something You Have to Teach It

In school, we measure how well we have learned a subjects with tests. This creates the illusion that if you ace a test you must have learned a lot or be knowledgeable.

The best measure of how well you know something is not whether you can correctly answer questions about it.

The best measure of how well you know a topic is how effectively you can teach it to others.

Teaching a topic forces you to confront the limits of your knowledge and reveals places where your understanding is incomplete.

The impulse for ethical students and teachers is to retreat back and learn more before teaching.

But the path to deepening knowledge is actually the opposite of that instinct: to teach what you know and use the teaching process to identify your next areas of learning.

Remember that you know more than you think you do, and there are always people who don’t know as much as you know.