Category Archives: Learning Theory

How Many Books Must a Person Read to Be Educated?

Posted on 11 August, 2022 by alfin2101

For Dangerous Children, I recommend reading between 5,000 and 10,000 books by the age of 21, including the books read to them as very young children. Books provide children with vocabulary as well as proxy knowledge of the larger world … Continue reading →

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If We Cannot Solve Our Problems on the Same Level of Thinking that We Created Them then What Do We Do?

Posted on 9 March, 2021 by alfin2101

One of the largest problems needing to be solved is that most of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful elites do not want real problems to be solved at all. “A great crisis is a terrible thing to waste,” as … Continue reading →

Posted in Cognition, Knowledge, Learning Theory, Philosophy | 2 Comments

Electrical Brain Stimulation and Enhanced Learning

Posted on 23 October, 2017 by alfin2101

By implanting neural sensor arrays into the brains of monkeys, scientists in Malibu, Montreal, and New York have begun to discover why tDCS electrical brain stimulation seems to boost learning. By measuring the brain’s response to tDCS while in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Brain, Learning Theory | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Mind the Brain

Posted on 20 October, 2017 by alfin2101

The better you can understand your brain, the better you can understand your own mind. And understanding your own mind is an open door to self-liberation and freedom. Short of that, every human being is a slave to mindless habits, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cognition, Human Brain, Learning Theory, Optimism, Philosophy | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Advanced Brain Training Helps Make Dangerous Children a Potent Force

Posted on 6 January, 2017 by alfin2101

The following article is adapted from recent postings on The Dangerous Child On “Videogames” That Help Dangerous Children become more Dangerous Adam Gazzaley’s (MD, PhD) talk on optimising the human mind using advanced tools of cognitive neuroscience begins at about … Continue reading →

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How Do Brains that Evolved for Hunting and Scavenging Learn Advanced Science and Maths?

Posted on 13 April, 2016 by alfin2101

The human brain was initially used for basic survival tasks, such as staying safe and hunting and gathering. Yet, 200,000 years later, the same human brain is able to learn abstract concepts, like momentum, energy and gravity, which have only … Continue reading →

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Futurisms

Posted on 15 July, 2015 by alfin2101

The Seasteading Institute is moving ahead into the second phase of its project to build a working residential seastead: A coastal nation may be interested in offering to host a floating community in their territorial waters and allow substantial political … Continue reading →

Posted in Discovery, Future, Human Brain, Learning Theory, Robots, Space Future, Technology | Tagged | 2 Comments

Expectations Can Make or Break a Person

Posted on 27 August, 2014 by alfin2101

The human brain is often referred to as a “prediction machine.” From as early as the womb, human brains make predictions based upon experience. Predictions create certain “expectations” which may be either met or violated. Predictions are first made in … Continue reading →

Posted in Childhood Development, Human Brain, Learning Theory | Tagged | 2 Comments

Welcome to Minerva University; No Lectures, No Tenure, No Affirmative Action

Posted on 15 August, 2014 by alfin2101

A new type of university is opening in San Francisco this month. It will provide no lectures, offer no tenure, and affirmative action is banned. It utilises the best methods of pedagogy that world-renowned cognitive psychologist Stephen Kosslyn has found … Continue reading →

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“Everything You Think You Know Just Ain’t So:” And That Ain’t the Half of It

Posted on 22 June, 2014 by alfin2101

The human brain attempts to impose order on the world it perceives. The brain “makes sense” of its observations by grouping them together in ways that seem to help predict the future and guide actions for best results. Most of … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything You Think You Know Just Ain't So, Human Brain, Knowledge, Learning Theory | Tagged | 2 Comments

The 21st Century Will Belong to Those Who Do the Work

Posted on 18 May, 2014 by alfin2101

Finding skilled workers who are willing to do the work is becoming a challenge in the 21st century. Outside of the homeschooled, it is becoming more and more difficult to find disciplined and conscientious learners and workers. Everyone wants to … Continue reading →

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How Teenaged Brains Turn the Corner

Posted on 28 January, 2014 by alfin2101

You know how things suddenly “click” into place when comprehension hits? The eureka! moment is a moment of brain synchrony that comes with a touch of pleasure and a transient sense of well-being. But not all brains arrive at the … Continue reading →

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Big Surprise! Gender Gap in Physics (and Math) Persists

Posted on 11 November, 2013 by alfin2101

No matter how hard feminist “scholars” try to explain away the gender gap in high level math and physics aptitude, the underlying reality will not go away. In a new synthesis of past work, researchers found that women consistently score … Continue reading →

Posted in Cognition, Human Brain, Learning Theory, Sex Differences, Testosterone | Tagged | 2 Comments

A Basic Outline on Learning

Posted on 24 October, 2013 by alfin2101

“Children do not need to be made to learn”, Holt maintains, because each is born with what Einstein called “the holy curiosity of inquiry”. For them, learning is as natural as breathing. _John Holt in “How Children Learn” There are … Continue reading →

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Learning about Learning: A Few Key Insights

Posted on 7 October, 2013 by alfin2101

Our first learning insight comes from Judy Willis, MD of UC Santa Barbara. Willis practised neurology for 15 years before becoming a schoolteacher and educational researcher. Dr. Willis provides an important insight into the motivation of young people when they … Continue reading →

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John David Garcia’s Contribution to Advanced Early Childhood Curricula

Posted on 9 September, 2013 by alfin2101

John David Garcia (died 2001) was an independent thinker, inventor, author, and philosopher who wrote, taught, and worked from his home in Oregon. Of all of his books, Creative Transformation has had the deepest impact on most readers. Some of … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning Theory | 2 Comments

Teach Them to Teach Themselves

Posted on 7 September, 2013 by alfin2101

The key to a better future is new generations of dangerous children who have learned to teach themselves. We expect adults, graduate students, and more mature university students and adolescents to be able to teach themselves. But we do not … Continue reading →

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Overlearning: Physical Skills vs. Facts

Posted on 6 September, 2013 by alfin2101

Dangerous child training is first about competence. Some children — having achieved competence in one field — will want to achieve competence in other fields. Other children will want to go further beyond competence, toward mastery in a single field. … Continue reading →

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Early Childhood Music Training

Posted on 4 September, 2013 by alfin2101

Early childhood training in music has been associated with increased IQ scores, mostly on the verbal scales, but some studies also find improvements in spatial reasoning. Early music training was also associated with improved reading skills and phonological development. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Dangerous Child, Learning Theory | 1 Comment

A Few Words on Mental Calibration

Posted on 3 September, 2013 by alfin2101

In the beginning we learn simply from experience, using basic instincts and forming non-verbal associations. This early learning becomes an automatic and unconscious basis for further learning and a growing consciousness, which allows us to consciously learn skills that are … Continue reading →

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Getting Started Early: Sensitive Periods of Childhood Development

Posted on 12 August, 2013 by alfin2101

The human brain undergoes periods of massive growth, followed by periods of pruning and selection between neuronal groups — beginning during embryonic development and continuing through the first few years of life, and again around adolescence. The brain reaches its … Continue reading →

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