Learning How To Learn

by Paolo Busante

I worked as a 4th grade teacher at international schools in Guatemala and Mexico before deciding to become a massage therapist. For six years, I taught my students a broad range of topics, from long division to the American Revolution. But most importantly, I also taught them different strategies that can help them learn all of those things. I believe that learning how to learn is a key skill that can help people grow and succeed throughout their lives. It can not only help them better understand a topic they’re studying, but it can also enable them to retain that knowledge for a longer period of time. For that reason, I made sure to use that skill in my own life, especially in my classes as a massage therapy student.

First, I always make sure to space out the days when I study in order to avoid cramming the night before a quiz or a test. Instead of attempting to learn everything at one time, I only study certain parts of a general topic and then later try to connect them all together as a whole. Doing so allows me to develop a deeper and more systematic understanding of specific concepts that I’m learning and how they’re all related to one another. It also makes studying less stressful. Additionally, if I end up getting confused about something, then I would have time to ask my professor or classmates for extra help on that topic.

Second, I use a variety of learning modalities to better understand and to remember what I’m studying. For example, when I was learning about the muscles of the erector spinae group, I would start by first looking at their pictures in my anatomy textbook. Then, I would close my eyes and visualize what I just saw while palpating and naming those muscles in my own body. I would move my fingers along each muscle’s origination point and insertion point and also perform the actions that those muscles allow me to do. Afterwards, I would draw a picture of the muscles that I just touched and visualized and then label each one of them. After taking a short break, I would test myself by going back to my anatomy textbook, covering the muscle labels, and then pointing out and naming each muscle in the erector spinae group, along with their respective origination point, insertion point, and actions. If I have a difficult time recalling certain muscles, I would try to learn them by looking at different pictures from other sources or by watching videos of people talking about them.

Third, I try to make a topic that I’m studying more meaningful by connecting it to something else that’s familiar to me. Making that type of connection helps me to internalize and to retain the information that I’m learning. It can also serve as a useful reminder whenever I have a difficult time remembering something I’ve studied. For example, when I was learning about the abdominal muscles, I thought about a video that I once saw of a fitness coach teaching different types of abdominal exercises that people can do at home. Throughout the video, he kept pointing out and naming the abdominal muscles being specifically targeted by each exercise he was performing. Connecting that video with what I was learning in my anatomy class made the abdominal muscles easier for me to understand. And whenever I couldn’t recall the name or location of an abdominal muscle, all I have to do is think about that video to help me refresh my memory.

Lastly, I believe that time management is a crucial skill that can help students succeed in their coursework. Massage therapy school can be challenging, especially for people who have lots of work and personal commitments outside of their classes. Juggling different tasks and responsibilities is surely difficult, but not impossible to do. Developing time management skills is an effective way for students to address that issue. Planning for a time to study, and being able to do so consistently, is an important step for students to take to avoid getting behind in their classes. Notably, students should also use time management to plan for times when they can take care of themselves. Even though planning and managing the time to study is important, having the time to rest and to recharge oneself is equally as valuable.

The various learning strategies that I’ve learned and used have greatly helped me in all of my massage therapy school classes. And even after I graduate as a massage therapist, I recognize that I still have more to learn to grow in this profession. I will always be a student since I believe that learning is a continuous, lifelong process. It can be difficult to have to study something new and unfamiliar, but learning how to learn can empower students to overcome whatever challenge they may have to face. It can help them to further develop as individuals and to reach whichever goal that they wish to achieve.