Learning as an experience

How is it possible that some information lies dormant in our brain and other information simply disappears? The answer lies in the learning process. As Brown (2014) states, "Learning that's easy. It's like writing in sand: here today and gone tomorrow". It is therefore essential to develop more effective and lasting learning processes.

There are many theories that try to explain how the learning process unfolds, but isn't the solution to this problem to create holistic approaches, that is, learning experiences that look not only at cognition, but also at body, mind, and emotion? To do this, we need to introduce moments and activities throughout the process that help learners create meaning.

Let's imagine a classroom with 20 executives who are seeing each other for the first time. Why are they in that classroom? Some because the company suggested it, others because they are motivated to learn about a specific subject, others because they want to keep up to date. The reasons are different, but there is something that unites all these people: learning. Imagine being part of this group, in that room for the first time, with people you don't know and with whom you will spend the next few days. Would you rather have a classroom space to introduce yourself or could that be disregarded?

Making a learning experience meaningful involves giving the learner comfort, creating moments where they feel they are in a safe space, by introducing activities such as an icebreaker.

Let's imagine now that we are on the third day of an intensive training course, tired, already with little capacity for retention and attention. Someone asks you to stand up and, to the sound of the music, move your body and whenever the music stops everyone stops as well. After two minutes they return to their seat to continue the learning journey. Will the retention capacity increase? Most likely, yes.

It is up to us to decide what kind of learning experiences we want to create and in what environments we want our participants to learn. In reality, we will always learn; learning is for life, but as it evolves so must do our practices.

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Bibliographic references: Brown, Peter C. (2014). Make it stick: the science of successful learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts :The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.