This month's columns include:

• Learning How to Learn
• The Learning Process Methodology
• The First Step is WHY
• Something to Think About
• Announcing the SELF-PACED Teaching Workshop
• AI Mastery Course UPDATE (and participant view)
• The Best Resource We Can Possibly Offer
• Monthly Self-Growth Tip: Planning Makes Room for the Magic
• How Magic Happens (and Happy Halloween!)

Learning How to Learn

(AKA: The Learning Process Methodology or LPM)

30 years ago, we at Pacific Crest challenged two groups of students with learning something new. The first group were seniors ready to graduate from college. The second group were first-year college students. When the challenge was finished and the dust settled, the results shocked us. The seniors knew much more than the first-year students but had done NO BETTER AT LEARNING NEW INFORMATION than the first-year students.

When it comes to learning, most of us have figured out a few strategies that work for us. We break out our highlighters, we take notes and review them…we may even quiz ourselves. There are many variations on this theme, some of them quite creative and useful.

Many of us joke that it would be so much easier just to put a difficult textbook under our pillow so our brains can absorb the information we need while we sleep.

While this idea is always good for a smile, it is unfortunate that most of us still suspect that finding ways of putting our brains in proximity to information is how learning happens.

That challenge 30 years ago set our course as a company. We have spent the years since focused on learning as an intentional process that not only can be taught to individuals, but that can be improved. You can learn HOW to Learn and how to get better at learning.This isn’t the key to learning math. Or a foreign language. Or even a new career or hobby. What we can offer are the keys to learning itself: learning better, faster, and with higher retention. The doors you choose to open with those keys are up to you.

Because our learning methodology ("The Learning Process Methodology") is generalized, it can be used to design curricula, lessons, learning activities, and training programs that work. It's the backbone for all our curricula and courses.

We named it the Learning Process Methodology (LPM to its friends)

but it’s really just How to Learn in 14 steps.

Methodologies are multiple-step models for complex processes¹ and learning certainly qualifies. But the LPM is the generalized series of steps for learning nearly anything…all you need to do is perform each of the steps. They won’t all be easy, but they WILL ensure you learn (or help others learn) whatever you (or they) want.

For the next bunch of newsletters, we’ll dive into each step individually. We’ll be sure to include the perspectives for learning something yourself as well as helping your students learn.

A recent article in The Guardian, Pay attention! 12 ways to improve your focus and concentration span, offered Find your ‘why’ as one of the ways. We're sharing the contents of this tip because it addresses the same issues of motivation and relevance...without motivation to focus and concentrate, learning simply won't happen.

A strong sense of purpose, says Eloise Skinner, author and psychotherapist, “gathers our attention on a singular focus” and helps us to avoid getting distracted. To find that purpose, Skinner recommends trying the “five whys” exercise – developed in the 1930s by Sakichi Toyoda, a Japanese industrialist and inventor – in which you examine your reasons for wanting to do something until you find the core one.

You might, initially, ask yourself why you’re filling out a spreadsheet, for example. The answer could be because your boss has told you to do so. Why? Because it’s part of your job. Eventually, you’ll reach your core “why”, which in this case could be that “this work supports my family”. Write it down so you can return to it when you feel your focus dissipating.

When it comes to helping students learn, activities need to communicate this same sense of WHY to students who won't necessarily have the knowledge necessary to figure out just how focusing and concentrating on topic X, Y, or Z relates to their core WHY.

Dr. David M. Hanson (multiple award-winning Research Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Stony Brook University) shares how to create the “Why” for a Process Oriented Guided Inquiry learning activity (i.e., active learning activity).

Begin each activity with a section titled “Why.” This section should put the activity in context for the learner by addressing three questions: What will the student learn? Why is it relevant to the subject? Why is it relevant to the learner? The first sentence clarifies the title and further defines the content of the activity. The second sentence defines the general importance of the activity and describes how it fits into the course. The third sentence provides justification for the activity from the perspective of the individual learner.³

Each of the learning activities in our books, student courses, and professional development institutes or workshops uses this same approach to building learner motivation for learning...we know why to use WHY!

Something to Think About...

We have polished the old standards and added aspects of gaming to quizzes, challenges, and learning checks so participants will enjoy themselves even as they grow and develop as educators.

Available

Jan 1, 2025

($295)

This workshop still mirrors an active learning, guided inquiry course, but without the requirement of working with a team. You’ll still have the opportunity to interact with a facilitator and benefit from the contributions of other participants, but in your own time and at your own pace. The workshop will renew your enthusiasm for teaching and help motivate you to mentor the growth of your students and yourself.

Activities include the following with lots of additional quizzes and challenges:

17 people took advantage of the discount and joined

this 9-week course beginning on October 2.

While it’s too late to join this cohort, we are looking for future opportunities to offer similar training and are working to integrate specific AI tools where they can best support learning and growth. Dr. Grady (Leading with AI) is helping participants understand how AI tools can make some types of work more efficient, but without the guidance from a professional and experienced coach, you could easily be wasting energy and effort.

Here’s what Steve B, a current participant, has to say about his experience in the training program:

I am a retired faculty member interested in harnessing the power of AI to enrich all domains of my life including faith & spirituality, family relationships, shared journey with my spouse, growth coaching, ongoing research & scholarship, leadership within various communities, and self-care (physical, mental, and emotional). I have had some aha moments in my previous interactions with ChatGPT in the wake of recent Self Growth Institutes sponsored by Pacific Crest and was inspired by David Leasure’s keynote talk about the bright side and dark side of AI at the 2024 PE Conference. My goals in registering for the Black Belt course were to (1) increase awareness of ways AI tools can help me creatively address obstacles surrounding my life goals, (2) acquire skills in creating meaningful applications that can be shared with others, and (3) engage with a network of AI collaborators who share my passion for personal and professional development. This is a brief report on my mindset and progress in the middle of the second week of a nine-week course experience.

The course is led by Dr. Grady Batchelor who has over three decades of experience in organizational leadership, innovation, digital transformation, and AI. He is currently president of Leading With AI, LLC. His enthusiasm and accessibility match his impressive credentials, elevating my expectations for ways I can productively apply AI in all aspects of my life. The first week of the course was devoted to brainstorming eight personal competency areas under which we identified eight deliverables/tools that had potential to increase personal capability and satisfaction. This was identified as an AI Role Plan and its creation used an AI application that served as a co-pilot in crafting personalized competency definitions, articulating purpose for each AI deliverable, sequencing deliverables based on personal priorities, and comparing the return on investment for each tool. The second week delved further into prompt engineering to clarify my thinking about areas of personal curiosity as well as uncertainty, incorporating a wide range of input/output options (text to text, image to text, voice to text, text to voice, and text to file), and establishing standard operating procedures that are a strong starting for more formalization in custom AI applications. An important discovery is that I don’t need a detailed roadmap to start, just a commitment to share what I already know (and don’t know), thoughtfully consider AI generated interpretations and suggestions, adaptively refine the line of questioning, and ultimately make prudent decisions based on the wisdom emerging from my AI interactions as well as side discussions with other course participants. My biggest advancement so far is overcoming my fear of technology black holes and embracing new ways to solve problems in the face of perceived risks or inadequacies. My vision is to use my elevated AI knowledge/skills to more successfully unlock opportunities for personal growth surrounding my weekly activities.

Did you notice the superscript numbers scattered throughout the newsletter? Those are links to modules in the Faculty Guidebook. Here they are again, all in one place:

1 2.3.7 Learning Processes through the Use of Methodologies

2 2.3.8 Learning Process Methodology

3 2.4.14 Designing Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Activities

4 2.3.1 Introduction to Process Education

3-year term for personal use: $39.95

Learn more about the Faculty Guidebook at www.facultyguidebook.com

Planning Makes Room for the Magic

Life's truly magical moments are usually not planned; they just sort of happen.

The key to their magic lies in us noticing them.

Paradoxically, being present for and open to noticing these moments is often a result of planning other aspects of life! Think about it: If you’re worried about what you’ll do at a meeting you have scheduled for tomorrow, the chances you’ll even SEE the magical moments today are slim indeed. If you do the work to plan, schedule, and script the aspects of your life where you can maximize your effort and productivity, you won't spend today distracted with worry about tomorrow. That leaves room for noticing today's magic!



Speaking of which...