Chapter-4: The Learning Process
Outline of Article:
- The Main Claim of this Article
- The Third Phase of the Learning Process
- Thank you
The Main Claim of this Article
The main claim that this post is trying to convey is that the learning process has very specific phases that must be followed. With respect to this article, the third phase is the recovery or enjoyment phase that helps establish the habit of learning and studying. Also, any attempt to mix fun with the actual learning session defeats the whole communication set up of learning, with respect to evolution.
The rest of this article provides more in-depth reasoning to support the main claim of this article.
The Third Phase:
The third phase of the learning process is the reward-recuperative phase of learning.
This is an extremely important part of the learning process, which must come third. Great emphasis is needed on this point. This phase allows for willpower and motivation to recover and allows for adaptations and changes to occur. Without this phase, there would be an imbalance and heavy strain in establishing proper repeatable habits in learning and in studying.
However, there is a severe warning with this third phase that must not be taken out of context.
Such a tremendous misunderstanding occurs with this third phase of the learning process, that the reader should pause to reflect for a few minutes on the next three sentences. 1.) Of all the phases of the learning process, this third phase is the most abused and improperly applied phase. 2.) The main reason for this abuse has to do with an incomplete understanding of the purpose between motivation and fun—which creates a false expectation, that drastically limits learning, studying and adaptation. 3.) The Purpose of learning is not fun, pleasure or entertainment; learning is an evolutionary developed process, which results from a need to adapt to some stress in life.
This misunderstanding of phase-three is found in most areas of life and education: from students to parents; from administrators to teachers; and, from communities to nations. And the consequences of this misunderstanding are undeniable: students stagnate; students diminish and or reject their true learning potential; and students fail to develop into strong and interconnected adults within society.
In defense of this abuse of the third phase of the learning process, I will spend considerably more attention explaining phase three, as compared to the first and second phases.
To begin, recall that motivation is the product of three factors: expectation, value and willpower. The misunderstanding revolves around the factor of willpower. As was stated, in phase-one and phase-two, motivation will exhaust over time, which is normal and must be expected. This is because a person’s willpower functions like a muscle, which will fatigue overtime with use.
The problem then is how to facilitate the recovery of willpower, which will refresh a person’s product of motivation.
The answer is a reward-recuperative, like the one used in building a habit. However, we need a reward-recuperative other than just sleep or pleasure. Fortunately, for us, we do have a specific reward-recuperative that is far more inclusive: it is fun, as defined earlier.
Looking back on chapter two, there is an approximate definition and equation given for fun: equation-2.1, 
Notice, willpower is in the denominator, which means that when a person is having fun, their willpower, in general, is not being strained or required to work very hard. That is to say, a person having fun allows their willpower to recover. And this is where all the problems arise from.
Most individuals believe fun has to be excitement, ecstasy and bursting with pleasure and entertainment. Not so. Fun is all relative to the individual and to previously engaged activities and expectations.
For instance, consider the action of sitting down in a chair, hands on knees, straight back and head looking straight ahead. Now, imagine maintaining this position without any additional movement for five hours. Or, if you prefer, imagine maintaining a proper horse stance position for one hour to two hours. Notice, a fun activity, relative to these actions, would easily be to stop doing these actions and get some water and or sports drink, maybe some delicious food. That’s it. In truth, stopping the actions will result in an increased production of fun.
To further illustrate this huge misunderstanding in the learning process, consider some of the false expectations surrounding learning: “fun is learning”, “fun is required for learning to occur”, or “entertainment is required for good learning to occur” or “fun, excitement and feeling good needs to be present first before any learning will occur.”
These ideas, motivated reader, are all false assumptions and debilitating expectations that will eliminate, stop and decay all learning progress.
The actual truth is that fun, excitement, happiness or pleasures are not the driving force behind learning. In actual reality, in our universe, it all depends on need, boredom, stress, struggle and discomfort. These uncomfortable aspects of life are the driving force of all learning: regardless of what a person may feel, think or believe should be in reality.
With greater detail, consider an approximate proof of the learning process, from the perspective of consciousness and evolution.
Recall, consciousness consists of at least three parts: e-consciousness, ava-consciousness and i-consciousness. Now, consider the importance of breathing, of drinking water, or of eating food. Is it happiness, pleasure or excitement that calls you into action to perform these vital fundamental practices of life? From personal experience, and from the countless struggles of individuals throughout human history, I can assure you the answer is no. But, if you don’t believe me or the billions of past human beings, then, at your own risk, try it out. Hold your breath for a minute, two minutes, three or more minutes; stop drinking fluids for three or more days; in addition, stop eating food for more than a month. Will it be pleasure that gets your attention to act, or the call of the pain within you? Then why should it be any different for the rest of human adaptations within evolution, such as learning and studying?
Notice, reader; the pattern and the process of these critical habits of human life: 1.) (It begins with a specific Cue), there is pain from not breathing, from not drinking water, or from not eating food; 2.) (practice or routine), there is action to breathe air, action to drink water and action to eat food; and, 3.) (reward-recuperative) then and only then does your body drop the pain and provide gratitude, a thank you, a good job or some other level of fun. Pause for a minute reader, this is the objective reality that all human beings are a part of. This is it.
From a finer detailed perspective, the actual mechanism behind all learning is based on the interaction of your total consciousness.
Here is another look at it from the three types of consciousness perspective. Your ava-consciousness and i-consciousness will use emotions to communicate with your e-consciousness, and send a message: (1) (cue) low on air or low water or low food: the message is a specific feeling or emotion of pain. Next, your e-consciousness must choose an action on this received communication, (2.) (a practice or a routine) to breathe, to drink water or to eat food. Then and only then does your ava-consciousness and i-consciousness send the gratitude message or thank you message, which is (3.) (the reward-recuperative), which includes no more pain, no more discomfort.
Here is the trillion-dollar observation: the initiator of the discomforting emotion or feeling need not start with ava-consciousness and or i-consciousness. The discomfort can start with our waking or exploratory consciousness, a.k.a your e-consciousness. Pause for moment, reader … here is where the true essence of how studying works, works.
When you willingly initiate and maintain the discomfort of learning and studying with your individual e-consciousness, then and only then is your ava-consciousness and i-consciousness called into action, into search and into creativity for assistance. Yes, indeed, your ava-consciousness and i-consciousness will retaliate with additional discomfort to stop the actions of studying. However, and most critical part, when you willingly persist and repeat the discomforts with learning and studying, then and only then will adaptation and growth and learning be an option.
The key part, motivated reader, is that we request, recruit and permit our ava-consciousness and i-consciousness to help in the learning and studying process through our willpower to initiate discomfort, boredom or strain.
In other words, when we begin this objective pattern of adaptation from evolution, we recruit and focus more consciousness ability from the other 85% of our consciousness. As a result, we begin to use more than just the 10-15% of our total consciousness within our e-consciousness.
But the pattern must be respected and communicated as it has been developed throughout evolution.
Getting back to the learning process, let’s look at the first three phases discussed so far; and keep in mind the three types or orders of consciousness. Phase-1: (Cue) we begin by focusing our motivation and deliberate active search on a particular learning objective. Phase-2: (Practice and routine) we practice the eight actions of learning and struggle to comprehend during our learning session, our training session, our session for adaptation. Notice, it is during phase-1 and phase-2 that we generate and send the message of discomfort to our ava-consciousness and i-consciousness. And, only after a sustained amount of time in this discomfort do we precede to phase-3. But it must be after and only after phase-1 and phase-2 that we proceed to Phase-3: (reward-recuperative), where we provide a reward-recuperative to our ava-consciousness and i-consciousness for their assisted work.
This third phase seals the message with gratitude and focus. It lets the rest of our consciousness know that whatever preceded the reward-recuperative is important. Critically so, with repeated exposure in the proper order, our ava-consciousness and i-consciousness will be more involved in our learning, even when we are not using our e-consciousness in a deliberate manner to learn a specific subject area.
Following the objective learning process within evolution, it’s only natural that ava-consciousness and i-consciousness will be involved in learning and studying. They want to stop the discomfort in the learning session because evolution requires time and energy and collective commitment; but, with repeated exposure to training sessions, their only option will be to adapt, to search, to grow … to become better and stronger. This is why expressing gratitude becomes important as part of the reward-recuperative phase (phase-three) of the learning process. It shows the rest of our consciousness that we trust its willingness to help.
As a meaningful aside, many scientists believe that human beings are pain avoidance life forms. This is not true. At the very least, there exists another way to interpret what appears as pain avoidance within people.
That interpretation is that human beings are adaptation cautious and skeptical. Meaning that, to adapt and to evolve in a specific direction is not random or easily chosen. For instance, evolving wings when gills are needed would not only be a waste of energy, time and adaptations; it could be catastrophic for life continuity. Thus, there must be verification beyond just some brief amusement or interest or imagined false need in reality, in order to step in a direction of evolution—remember all life is interconnected, especially within a given species. In other words, there must be a check for adaptation within a branch of living species before a solidified direction in evolution is taken. Hence, there must be a need to evolve in a particular direction that is useful and long lasting to the collective, based on truth of reality—not on supposed reality or on feeling good reality.
Therefore, human beings are not pain-avoidance living beings. Human beings are evolutionary path qualifiers, which use pain to guide needed intentional adaptations, in an interconnected framework.
Naturally, fun only comes into importance once and only once the learning portion (need to adapt) has been trained, stressed and completed. In other words, the order of the learning phases makes all the difference in the overall quality and quantity and retention of learning achieved.
The truth is discomforting for many to accept that: need, stress, boredom, struggle and discomfort are the driving force behind all learning. And fun can only be used as a reward-recuperative after and only after phase one and phase two have been completed in the proper order.
Adding more detail, when willpower is not trained, exercised or exhausted through motivation in a learning goal, then the component of fun will not be of any use. It can’t be of any use because of the evolutionary requirements needed for willpower fatigue in motivation, which allows for willpower recovery within fun.
In other words, the purpose and function of fun is willpower exhaust dependent. Meaning, if willpower has not been exhausted in a learning situation, then fun will not only be useless; it will be counterproductive in life span development, especially within learning and studying.
As such, the proper order of the learning process is not a subjective interpretation of evolution; it is an objective process that drives adaptation towards the goal of evolution in the universe. Therefore, it is imperative that the order of the learning phases be followed in the proper order.
Once again, to reiterate, phase one of the learning process must always be first; phase two of the learning process must always be second; and phase three of the learning process must always be third.
There is an important caution that must be stated regarding the phases of the learning process. Do not mix them. Do not blend them. And do not modify any of the phases of the learning process. There is no short cut. There is no avoiding the requirements for learning to occur, which are: need, stress, boredom, heaviness, struggle and or discomfort.
Remember, having the correct expectation is an important factor of motivation: because if expectation is zero, or very close to zero, then motivation will be low for a specific learning goal.
In general, do not expect learning to begin with pleasure, excitement or entertainment. Otherwise, learning and studying will be extremely limited.
Thank You
I appreciate your time in reading my blog post. Next Monday I will upload the next part of Chapter-4: The Learning Process, from my self-development book, How Does Studying Work?
Total Consciousness 