It’s a widely accepted truth that our education systems are ripe for change. The question isn’t if we need to improve, but where we should focus our efforts. The debates rage on: should we inject financial literacy into the curriculum? Is coding and STEM the golden ticket? Or should we be nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit from a young age? While each of these areas holds value and a foundational understanding is beneficial, they represent a symptom, not the root cause, of our educational challenges. The core issue is this: We Never Learned how to learn effectively. Our current system is heavily weighted towards content delivery, mistaking the acquisition of specific knowledge for genuine learning mastery. We operate under the flawed assumption that mastering particular subjects guarantees a successful and fulfilling life.
This belief system pushes students towards specific fields deemed ‘important’ or ‘high-paying’ at a given time. Today, it’s maths, computer science, and perhaps data science. Two decades ago, different fields held sway, and two decades from now, the landscape will undoubtedly shift again. I myself fell prey to this narrow thinking. Growing up in post-apartheid South Africa, I laser-focused on mathematics, chasing the actuarial science path, then perceived as the pinnacle of financial success.
To truly revolutionize education and unlock human potential, we need a fundamental shift in perspective. We must move away from content obsession and embrace the process of learning itself. The goal shouldn’t be just to fill students’ heads with facts about economics, physics, or history. Instead, we must empower them with the meta-skill of learning how to learn, fostering an understanding of their individual learning styles and optimizing their personal learning journey.
Let’s delve into what “learning how to learn” truly means, explore its transformative power (as it has in my own life), and understand how it can benefit you – whether you’re a student navigating academia, a professional aiming for career advancement, or an entrepreneur forging a new path.
Unpacking “Learning How to Learn”: It’s Personal and Powerful
Learning is inherently subjective. At its core, it’s about forging connections – linking new, unfamiliar information to our existing knowledge base. This connection is deeply personal, shaped by our unique experiences and prior understanding. Therefore, grasping how you best create these connections is the key to unlocking your learning potential. This principle applies universally, whether you are striving for academic excellence, accelerating your career trajectory, or embarking on a significant life change and career reinvention.
For most, learning has been a passive, almost accidental process. We never learned to consciously cultivate effective learning strategies. We followed prescribed school routines – reading chapters, writing essays, solving problem sets – and equated this with genuine learning. When exams loomed, the strategy was often rote memorization: highlighting textbooks and hoping information would magically embed itself in our minds. Perhaps some practice exams were thrown in, or more likely, frantic cramming sessions the night before, fueled by caffeine and desperation. We were desperately missing the foundational skill of learning how to learn.
“Learning how to learn” is about gaining conscious awareness of the learning process itself when tackling a new subject or skill. It’s about understanding your optimal learning modalities and identifying the most effective techniques tailored to you. It’s about developing a structured approach to achieve competence, even mastery, in any chosen field. Crucially, it’s about cultivating the autonomy to teach yourself new things, independent of rigid syllabi or prescribed textbooks.
Mastering the art of learning how to learn transcends the value of any specific subject knowledge. It’s akin to discovering a magic lamp and wishing for infinite wishes – a multiplier effect that amplifies your ability to acquire any skill or knowledge you desire. It’s a skill of exponential power.
Why Learning How to Learn Should Be a Universal Skill
Empowering Every Student with Learning Mastery
A significant portion of my academic achievements can be attributed to grasping the principles of learning how to learn early in life. This skill was instrumental in my success at prestigious international competitions like the International Junior Science Olympiad and [International Physics Olympiad], despite my background in a resource-constrained South African public school. It smoothed my transition to the demanding International Baccalaureate program at United World College Costa Rica, and ultimately paved the way for my Computer Science degree from Princeton University, a top-ranked institution.
Coming from a South African education system that lacked emphasis on learning methodologies, the rigor of the International Baccalaureate forced me to refine my learning approach. I quickly recognized the immense value of learning how to learn, as it promised to free up study time for other pursuits – friendships, exercise, and personal interests. I proactively explored techniques like speed reading to optimize my reading efficiency for SATs and assignments, and mind mapping to create visually structured notes that facilitated concept connection and enhanced memory retention.
Learning how to learn is a lifeline for students drowning in inefficient study habits. Instead of resorting to longer study hours and sleep deprivation, students can learn to understand their learning goals, develop strategic study processes rooted in learning and memory science, and achieve better results in less time. The outcome? Improved grades, enhanced time management, and significantly reduced stress and anxiety.
Traditional schooling often dictates a learning pace geared towards the average student. By learning how to learn, students can become active agents in their own education. They can proactively identify knowledge gaps and leverage available resources to strengthen their understanding. This self-directed approach was pivotal in my own high school experience:
“I no longer relied on the pace of learning set by my teachers and began to own my own learning process: reading ahead and teaching myself upcoming Physics and Chemistry topics on weekends and evenings.”
– Excerpt from South Africa. Costa Rica? Princeton!: My educational journey as a global citizen
Furthermore, many students develop limiting “fixed mindsets” around subjects they find challenging or have had negative experiences with. The common refrains, “I’m not a math person” or “I’m not a writing person,” are manifestations of this fixed mindset. Learning how to learn can be the catalyst for breaking free from these self-imposed limitations. Developing learning competence fosters a powerful sense of self-efficacy – the belief that one can learn anything. While mastery in every domain might not be attainable, becoming the best version of oneself in any area is within reach, a far cry from stagnation. This confidence, born from mastering the learning process, extends far beyond academics, empowering individuals to approach any new subject or challenge without fear of complexity or failure.
Lifelong Learning: A Necessity for Adults in a Rapidly Evolving World
The skill of learning how to learn remains invaluable in my adult life, particularly navigating the dynamic landscape of technology startups in the United States. Its benefits extend beyond personal growth, profoundly impacting my roles as a startup founder and technology professional.
As a startup founder, learning how to learn enabled me to rapidly immerse myself in complex and evolving fields like cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, digital privacy, and data ownership. Upon joining Timescale, this skill facilitated the acquisition of new programming languages and expertise in time-series databases, DevOps, the Internet of Things, and a multitude of other domains.
Learning how to learn has also been a career accelerator. At Andela, an African tech and education startup, I leveraged this skill to help software developers learn new technologies more efficiently. Later, as a Developer Advocate at Timescale, my role involved learning emerging technologies and educating other developers through blogs, tutorials, videos, and presentations. Often tasked with teaching technologies I had recently encountered, I could quickly develop sufficient expertise to deliver comprehensive training sessions to audiences in the US and Europe, confidently addressing their questions in real-time. A prime example is my Grafana dashboarding tutorial series Grafana, which has, at the time of writing, assisted over 63,000 individuals based on its view count.
For adults, mastering learning how to learn unlocks the power of reinvention. It eliminates the feeling of being trapped in an unfulfilling job due to limited training, providing the adaptability to acquire new skills and pivot careers. Instead of fearing technological advancements and market shifts, learning how to learn empowers you to seize new opportunities and navigate the world with a current, adaptable mindset, rather than being constrained by outdated perspectives.
