#Learning Theory

[hazellark]

There is so so much value in doing things with intentionality. You have to be paying attention. Like, you can't do everything with intentionality, but when you can, try. Do the thing. Repetition is the mother of learning. How do you think people learn? How do you think AIs are trained? No thing out there is instantly perfect.

I get praised for being a good baker. You want to know what got me there? I paid attention in chemistry, thermodynamics, and kinetics, sure. But I also watched tons of cooking stuff on youtube. My parents made sure that I practiced cooking before I left home. When I make something new, I check several different recipes. I try a thing, and see what happens. I failed a cake recipe several times before I figured out how to get it out of the pan whole. It's one of the things that I chose to invest my time in, and understanding is my payoff.

Skill is taking your brain's database of experience and using it to do something. Someone is "naturally" talented at something? In my experience, they are either A. Good at exactly mimicking what they just saw or got instructions for, or B. they see how pieces of information build to the whole and know how to use those little brain legos. Learning by repetition is not going to look the same for everybody. It may go slowly, but brains are made for pattern recognition. Did you know babbling is a sign of language? Babies don't usually just start speaking words, they start mimicking things, making sounds until they're understood and progress from there.

And not everything is worth intentionality. But if you care, build your little brain library in that area. Ruin a cake? What went wrong, in what way did it go wrong, where did it go wrong, and at what point in the process? Does the recipe have tips? Does a different recipe tout a feature that would fix it? Fail a test? Did you study? How, what parts, how much? People have been doing this kind of stuff for as long as we've been around. It's how we figure new things out. And if you can skip some repetition by raiding someone else's brain library by reading, listening, watching, observing, etc., their work, that's fantastic. If you have experience in something similar, start using that information as a jumping point, and work from there. But your brain library has to get filled somehow for you to be able to reference information.

The way you do something the first time might not be the way you need to do it. But you need to know how you did it to fix what you did wrong. Nothing comes from nothing. If you want something, start something. Read a guide, watch a video, listen to a lecture. Make bad art, fail a recipe, win at a chess game, try something new and ask questions about it. If you can tell something is wrong, guess what! You've already started building that brain library! You've got a point of comparison somewhere! Think through the notes your brain has on it and figure out what sources to go back to. Build your brain library sections out.

[bwabbitv3s]

It is weird how much better at communication I got after getting my dog. All the stuff I learned in preparation for puppy training made me a better communication in everything, full stop. I went from a great at communication person to an excellent one. Really before I was one of the go to people when teaching stuff and even onboarding people and got still got better because I got a dog.

Which makes sense as it is learning theory which works on everything from earthworms to lions. I even use it on myself it works so well. I have very tiredly without really thinking thought better reward that to keep up the reinforcement history for that behaviour, about myself.

Okay this is gong to sound condescending on several levels but:

There's a kind of cliche about training a dog - that if you want it to always come when it's called, you should never scream at or punish it when it does. Even if you just spent twenty minutes getting increasingly panicked thinking it was dead in the woods! Even if it had been trampling through the neighbors garden! It is very important that it's direct association is 'stopping whatever super interesting thing I was doing to go back to human = being praised and rewarded'. If the association is instead being screamed at or punished, the dog will be less enthusiastic to stop whatever fun thing it's doing to run to that.

I feel like a great many people would noticably improve their own lives if they started applying the same logic to how they treated other humans.

[captaingimpy]

The Myth of Adult Education: Why the Andragogy vs. Pedagogy Divide Fails

One of the most pervasive myths in education today is that adults and children require fundamentally different approaches to learning. This belief has fueled an entire industry dedicated to “andragogy,” a concept coined to define the supposed unique ways adults learn. But is this dichotomy—adult education versus child education—real? I argue it is not. Instead, this divide reflects social…

[jomo-is-here]

kitty cat likes the stars :)

[hashtagkhabri]

Traditional Math Teaching Fails Students: How Science Can Help Students Thrive

Traditional mathematics teaching methods are failing students, remaining largely unchanged for decades despite significant advancements in our understanding of how people learn. While classrooms may feature modern technology like tablets and interactive whiteboards, fundamental teaching practices and materials haven’t kept pace with discoveries in cognitive science. Research indicates that…

[plagueislost]

i love being late to trends. my new years resolution is to be late to every trend ever. and you know im serious because im even late to new years.

(theres an inverse version of this by @chamiryokuroi , you should go check it out! i started making this before i saw theirs, but i think its cool that now theres both versions)

[kyoshalearns]

Remixing My Language Learning Journey: Crafting a Unique Path Through Japanese Rap

Turning Language Learning into a Personalized Musical Experience

I have so much to write about and I'm really behind but I'm getting back on track. I want to write about my first trip to Japan, some new studying techniques, learning breakthroughs, linguistics research, tasty new Japanese food including more RAMEN…all in due time. First though I want to talk about music.

Music is an excellent tool for language learners to take advantage of because it can provide you with entertaining and compelling input at a high volume. You may have a tv show or movie you like, or even a book or comic, but chances are you won't read that over and over to the same degree that you would listen to one of your favorite songs. So it may be the case that finding music you like in your target language is a big breakthrough, unfortunately however I personally couldn't find anything I liked for a while .

I'm a long time hip-hop fan that was born and raised in the tri-state area on the east coast, near NY. Late 90s and early 00s hip-hop forms the foundation of my music taste, so automatically, even in America I have to do a lot of digging to find the things that I like a lot. I just wasn't very successful in finding Japanese rap that really resonated with my taste. Now obviously there is the vocabulary issue so lyrics mostly won't be able to resonate with me yet, which puts a greater emphasis on beat, melody, and lyrical structuring (vocab will come later with study).

I found some OK songs here and there but for the purpose of language learning you need to like the song a lot, maybe love the song, which will motivate you to listen over and over. A regular level of "just ok" is not enough.

Then one day I got a crazy idea and I started googling. I thought "what if I could just make my own remixes?", what if I could take Japanese vocals and mix them with the kind of production that I prefer? If I could do this I would be able to make all kinds of music custom tailored to my taste that would make me want to listen over and over. Personally I have a mildly musical background and have produced music before but there were some technical hurdles I needed to cross. Thanks to recent advances in audio production tech I was able to find practical methods that allowed even an amateur like myself to operate at SOME level of functional problem solving. I'm not saying I'm churning out the most professionally scrutinized hit records, but I have some, if not rudimentary, ability to realize my ideas.

Since I had that idea, at the time of writing this, I have made close to 50 remixes and am slowly building my catalog. This has been an exciting experience for a few reasons. First I'm getting a chance to engage and learn more about music production (I can speak a lot on this, maybe another post). To add to that, I have learned a lot more about the Japanese rap scene and a lot of the rappers that populate different areas of the country. I started to develop a taste for certain styles and find myself building a much stronger relationship with the artist and music, where before there was nothing. Lastly, and most importantly, the catalog that I am building is highly entertaining to me, I want to listen to it all the time and I am able to get the kind of reps on these songs that are necessary for a language learning scenario. I use YouTube music for music streaming and have a special playlist now just for Japanese rap.

I started putting some of my remixes on YouTube. The song included in this post is featuring a rapper that I really like named Jumadiba, who has a very interesting style that I like to work with.

I think I will do some lyric breakdowns in the future because it is a process to convert these songs into comprehensive input. I basically look up the lyrics and break apart the lines into vocab, that I add to anki and review while listening and practicing. It takes time but so far its the most fun I've had learning new words and I am excited to see where this rabbit hole takes me.

[dannysciencefix]

Cognitive Theory and Primary Science Teaching

Cognitive science is gaining increasing influence in education and many existing and developing educational approaches are described as ‘inspired by cognitive science’. Many of these approaches have been long practiced or described as effective pedagogy without any reference to cognitive science – for example, quizzing pupils on topics has been common even without this being thought of as a form…

[lilacthebooklover]

my ten-year-old sister has been infected with toxic old man yaoi disease specifically of the billford variety. unfortunately, she considers it strange that bill is a triangle & ford is a human. her solution? make ford into a shape too. squares, ovals, oddly shaped blobs. forget humanizing bill– 2D ford is the way of the future <3

[hinamie]

green

[creature-wizard]

Check your conspiracy theory. Does it sound anything like this?

There is an ancient global conspiracy plotting to create a one world government.

The one world government will be headed by a single leader.

The conspiracy intends to make everyone follow a religion it created.

The conspiracy is trying to destroy all true religion/spirituality.

The conspiracy deliberately stirs up conflict and starts wars.

The conspiracy deliberately does whatever it can to confuse, exhaust, and demoralize the people.

The conspiracy creates and/or manipulates art and entertainment to control and brainwash the masses.

The conspiracy uses mind-altering substances to manipulate and control people.

Progressive policies (EG, religious tolerance, equality) are part of the conspiracy.

Communism and collectivism are part of the conspiracy.

The conspiracy manipulates the economy to our detriment.

The conspiracy wants to do away with the gold standard.

The conspiracy wants to do away with the free market.

The conspiracy intends to tax the rich, which is bad because taxes are just legal theft.

Teaching people about the mistakes and atrocities committed by governments is part of the conspiracy.

The conspiracy creates new religions and spiritual movements to further their agendas.

All secret societies (EG, Freemasonry) are part of the conspiracy.

Presidents are manipulated puppets of the conspiracy.

The conspiracy manipulates anyone with a high political position.

The conspiracy grooms world leaders.

Agents of the conspiracy are planted everywhere, in all levels of society.

The conspiracy kills anyone who might expose their plans in ways that no one would suspect are actually murder.

The conspiracy follows/uses the Kabbalah.

Literally all of these were claimed in The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, an antisemitic hoax used by the Okhrana to justify violence against Russian Jews. It was used by Nazi Germany to justify the Holocaust, and today it still serves as the blueprint for most conspiracy theories - even if modern conspiracy theorists try to hide it, downplay it, or rationalize it with another, equally absurd conspiracy theory.

[technically-human]

Classic Stone and Eggman stargazing together, quiet moment like when stone was alone back in the Star Light Zone. Maybe some Eggman surprise at how soft he talks to the bomb badniks? Just super intrigued by their growing dynamic

They're not very good at bonding.

ko-fi

[gammija]

So... why tape recorders?

After hearing about the [ERROR]chivist from Sam, Georgie obviously immediately starts thinking the same thing that anyone familiar with the events of tma is: In what way is this related to Jon? Sam literally quotes the 'all eyes' line, this Archivist feeds off of people's Fear, makes people tell them stories about their trauma, and tape recorders keep following them around! All Jon powers, or at the very least Archivist powers!

...Except, as we learn in s5, while the tape recorders follow Jon and Martin around, despite them being such an Archivist motif from the audiences POV, the tapes are not of Jon, they're not of the Archivist.

In MAG196 and MAG197, it's revealed that the tapes have all along been part of the plan of the Web, to use them, Jon and the Eyepocalypse to spin a web and spread to other dimensions:

So if the tapes aren't and never were an Archivist power, why do they show up for the [ERROR]chivist?

Is it the Web spinning a new plan? It can't be ruled out, but the [ERROR]chivist seems a poor candidate for a new rituals lynchpin. Not to mention that the Fears don't seem to exist in those same categories in tmagp in the first place, or that doing the same thing twice seems kinda basic from a meta perspective.

Really, there is something the [ERROR]chivist is reminiscent of, more than anything else. Not Jon, or Getrude, nor any one character or person from either universe.

With their tape recorders, their gender ambiguity and cloaked form, their most identifiable feature being their eyes, All Eyes, being able to compel statements without even saying a word, making victims relive their trauma not just in spirit, but in body, what the [ERROR]chivist is, most of all, is the idea of the Archivist.

The [ERROR]chivist is the Archivist, insofar as he would exist to the minds of the people in the ruins of tma's post-apocalypse. A vague, watching creature, always tailed by tape recorders, making you spill your guts figuratively and literally before moving on, and those eyes, those eyes, the only feature you remember. It's a role without an actor.

[proselles]

the start of witch hat atelier before u realize how fucked the whole thing is is funny because you'll be reading and coco and agathe and tetia and riche are so cute and the world is so beautiful with so much lore and symbolism and they'll be going on adventures and learning and making new spells and having fun and making magic and smiling and playing pretend and all. They deal with some big issues, but ultimately, friendship prevails, they cook they clean olruggio's there yes there's a big conspiracy but coco's gonna figure it out! everything's gonna be okay!!!

And then you glance out of the corner of your eye. And qifrey is over there and he's like. Having a manic episode

[ayyunah]

Redraw from a piece last yr once again folks and this time with the noceda siblings!