Ian Gibbs
Optimising Your Learning: Three Essential Concepts to Bear In Mind
Whether you're studying for exams, learning new skills for your career, or simply broadening your knowledge, learning is an essential...
top of page
Ian Gibbs
The Learnability Man
Blog: articles about education, learning and getting better at things. Use the filters to get straight to what interests you.
Blog: Bienvenido
Search
Ian Gibbs
- Feb 24
- 3 min
Why Your Brain Goes Fuzzy
You might not be familiar with Cognitive Load Theory but you’re very familiar with its practical effects. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT)...
6 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Feb 21
- 2 min
Key Learning Techniques #5: Social Learning
One of the 4 cornerstones of Learning Clubs is Social Learning - the way we acquire new behaviours, attitudes, and values by 'using' the...
14 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Nov 20, 2022
- 2 min
My son did it and I’m proud of him.
I finally succumbed to my children’s pleadings and gave them a phone each, but, much to their disapproval, with parental control. This...
42 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Oct 18, 2022
- 3 min
Student Tip 23: What Did You Do Today?
One of the most annoying questions you get asked when you get home from school is “What did you do today?” Answering this question...
9 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Oct 17, 2022
- 2 min
Student Tip 22: Overlearning
As well as personal learning strategies, I also help people with their public speaking. It’s a useful skill. Giving a presentation to a...
7 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Oct 14, 2022
- 3 min
Student Tip 21: Do It Again
There’s a guy on YouTube called Mike Boyd. Look him up. He’s great. He learns stuff. Not German or Geography but fun stuff like...
1 view0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Oct 13, 2022
- 3 min
Student Tip 20: Jeux Sans Frontiers
Why is it so easy to spend a few hours playing Call of Duty, Minecraft or Fortnite and yet so difficult to grind out thirty minutes of...
1 view0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Oct 11, 2022
- 3 min
Student Tip 19: Two Heads Are Better Than One
You’ve just seen in the previous tip that if you explain something to someone else, it helps you understand it better. You could even go...
13 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Oct 10, 2022
- 2 min
Student Tip 18: Explain It to Someone Else
A teacher once did an experiment with two groups of students. She gave the same homework to both groups but with one important...
1 view0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Oct 5, 2022
- 2 min
Student Tip 17: Picture This
Remember those children’s story books you had read to you when you were little? You know, the ones with all the pictures. Have you ever...
12 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Oct 4, 2022
- 3 min
Student Tip 16: Assume You’ll Forget
There’s a man called David Allen. Lots of people think he’s a productivity guru—a man who knows how to get things done. But when asked...
7 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Oct 3, 2022
- 2 min
Student Tip 15: Something To Do With A Pencil
Maybe you already know this game, but an entertaining way to pass the time on a long journey is to play ‘Things you can do with...’. It...
27 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Sep 28, 2022
- 3 min
Student Tip 14: Don’t Lose Those Nuggets
You probably already know what flashcards are: small rectangular cards with the stuff you want to learn written on the back and some sort...
12 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Sep 27, 2022
- 2 min
Student Tip 13: Trick or Treat?
I’m sure you’re already very familiar with prizes and punishments at school—especially the punishments. But the reason why your teachers...
4 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Sep 26, 2022
- 2 min
Student Tip 12: The Power Of Habit
We are all creatures of habit, and this includes you, too. By this I mean that you tend to do the same thing in the same way every time...
8 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Sep 22, 2022
- 2 min
Student Bonus Tip: Don’t Do This
In Tip 9 we looked at not worrying about making mistakes. In Tip 10 we looked at learning from the mistakes we do make. But in this Bonus...
17 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Sep 21, 2022
- 2 min
Student Tip 10: Don’t Ignore Them
Having said in the previous blog that making mistakes is good, I think we both know that if you keep making a pig’s ear out of your...
8 views0 comments
Ian Gibbs
- Sep 20, 2022
- 2 min
Student Tip 9: Make Mistakes
Making a mistake is a bad thing, isn’t it? Yes... and no. It depends. If you’re a brain surgeon or a Jumbo Jet pilot or a nuclear...
15 views1 comment
Ian Gibbs
- Sep 19, 2022
- 3 min
Student Tip 8: Deep Thought
Have you ever been scuba diving? There’s lots of fascinating stuff at the bottom of the sea but it’s not easy to get to. You have to do a...
3 views0 comments
Blog: Blog2
bottom of page