Learning

Rubber Duck Debugging – Making Problem Solving Child’s Play

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When we hit a wall with a problem, a simple way to solve it is to take a break and explain the issue to a rubber duck. This entertaining concept started from a story in The Pragmatic Programmer book where a programmer would carry around a rubber duck and explain their code to the duck in detail.  You’re stuck with a difficult bug. You’ve already spent a lot of time on it, and the deadline is looming. So, you ask a co-worker for help. They walk …

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Integrating the Zone of Proximal Development, Deliberate Practice, and Flow into Child Education

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Lev Vygotsky introduced the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) during the 1930s as a groundbreaking and counter-educational theory to the child development theories proposed by Maria Montessori or Jean Piaget. Vygotsky acknowledged the benefits of curiosity-driven settings for motor and practical skills but argued that a teacher or a more knowledgeable individual was necessary for specific domains, such as mathematics or writing. He proposed that in such areas, there are learning tasks within a child’s grasp and other tasks that are too far ahead, …

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Nurturing Curiosity in Children through Dopamine Sprinkles

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I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity. I recall the words of my former head of school, already 70 years old, gathering her pupils in her library and saying, “You must cultivate curiosity, for only through curiosity can you learn, not only what there is in books, but what lies around you in the world of things and people.”  Eleanor Roosevelt Defends Curiosity | …

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How to Introduce the Pomodoro Technique to Children

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The Pomodoro technique is a simple, yet efficient study method, developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. This method consists of alternations between 25-minutes of work with five or ten-minute breaks.   First, we turn off all distractions (phones, blocking sites on computers, etc). Then we set a timer for about 25 minutes. Cirillo used this method with a tomato-shaped kitchen timer (Pomodoro means “tomato” in Italian). Next, we focus as intently as possible for those 25 minutes. Naturally, our mind will wander, but we will gently …

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Letters to my Daughter: Learning How to Pass a Test

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So here we are, my dear, facing the test. I showed you all the learning techniques, and you know which methods are efficient, and which aren’t. You know how to take good notes in class, you read your assignments, you do your homework. And most importantly, you know that the most efficient method of studying is self-testing. Minute per minute, you will retain more if you spend one hour taking a test on a topic than studying an hour on the same material.  Long before the …

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Mastering a Crucial Skill for Adaptation: Learning How to Learn

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Muad’Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It’s shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad’Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson. Frank Herbert, Dune  An article published by the World Economic Forum says that we are “in the middle of a global reskilling emergency” as AI will automatize some of our …

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Proven Strategies against Procrastination

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Etymologically, procrastination comes from the Latin word procrastinare, meaning “deferred till the morning” or “belonging to tomorrow “. Naturally, there is a better side of postponing work where we can use purposeful delaying of our work as a creative way to let ideas and concepts grow arms and legs. The difference between meaningful task delaying and procrastination is when a tomorrow to accomplish that specific work never quite arrives.  A common opinion is that procrastination is about poor time management skills or that procrastination is related …

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How Parents Can Instil Good Homework Habits in Children

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It’s not some kids are good, and some kids are bad. Some kids have good habits, and some kids have bad habits.   Angela Duckworth  In another article, I wrote about how we can create or break habits by taking advantage of a habit structure: the cue, the craving, the response and the reward. To recap that article, James Clear presents in his influential book Atomic Habits the following laws for habit-building processes:  How to adapt this framework to teach good homework habits to our children? The …

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