As college students, we often wonder what we can possibly do to succeed in our studies, whether that would be making study groups, write everything out and just memorize, make notecards, all with the one condition in mind; it's gotta be as efficient as possible. We want to maximize the information we learn in the shortest amount of time possible, which is great! So how does one do this?
Many times I find myself sitting in an exam, remembering that I studied a certain topic, which is now on the paper in front of me, however I cannot recall what the correct answer is. I've tried to come back to it, to think of the scenario I studied it, and nothing seems to be working. All of a sudden, it's like the clouds parted and down came the answer I've been waiting for, the moment the lightbulb goes off, the "Aha" moment if you will. In terms of neuroscience, the really basic term for this is insight. Back to the whole efficient studying thing, wouldn't it be nice if we can trigger these "aha" moments, if we could just trigger insight on demand?
The National Academies Press published a piece called "Reaching Students, What Research Says About Effective Instruction in Undergraduate Science and Engineering" written by the National Research Council in 2015. This piece was published in an effort to maximize student learning by introducing effective techniques that can be used from the perspective of the instructor.
Before the learning can even begin to occur, it is critical to understand the importance of prior knowledge and how it directly shapes learning. However, you will never have a classroom of students that all have the same prior knowledge, adding a hiccup to our goal. The first point that is alluded to is this fancy word "metacognition" which simply means recognition of what you do and don't know. In order to develop this metacognition, the most effective method seemed to be correlating an engaging activity with every aspect of the class. For example, when reading an article, answering a set of reflection questions that are not meant to be evaluated or graded, but are used more for stimulation of the information being received, which allows students to monitor their own understanding.
Another key point, especially in the field sciences, there is a large gap between undergraduate students and experts, many of which have PhDs in the area, some that are still working in their perspective fields on the side. Experts tend to evaluate and organize knowledge and problems in very different ways than a naive group of college students. The ability of the instructor to understand this concept allows for the growth of the student, or anyone really who has no prior exposure to such work.
So how does any of this tie back in to insight? John Kounios and Mark Beeman conducted a series of experiments and studies that indicated different regions of the brain seem to be activated when someone solves a problem analytically (as one would do on an exam or any task really) and one who does so using insight. One of their conclusions showed that when solving a task, those who were able to correctly solve the problem often used insight rather than analytics.
Overall, Kounios and Beeman made the distinction that could either complete the Hail Mary pass and the win for you, or it will end up picking it off for a loss. The fact that the analytical approach to solving the problem was activated in a different region of the brain than insight, indicated that, for the time being, the two are not related. Meaning, you cannot train your brain to independently induce insight in order for you to secure that 4.0 GPA. However, one cannot confidently say "case closed, tough luck." Because of the continuous advancements and rise in technology and a growing field in neuroscience, don't be surprised if you hear very soon of a study that successfully paired the two. Until then, eureka!
National Research Council. 2015. Reaching Students: What Research Says About Effective Instruction in Undergraduate Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press
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