The Key to

Powerful Learning:
Slow Down
to Speed Up
GEOFFREY CAINE, LL.M.

TABLE OF
CONTENTS

01
Learning: The Key
to Success in an
Uncertain World
03 - 09

02
How Your
Brain/Mind
Learns

03
Plan Your
Work then Work
your Plan

04
Slow Down to
Speed Up

10 - 17

18 - 22

23 - 30

05
Purpose and
Meaning

06
Clarify Your Goals:
Aim High
and Aim Low

07
Early
Steps

31 - 36

37 - 42

43 - 49

08
Get the Concept
and Make
it Personal

09
Ride the Spiral
of Learning

10
Thinking Things
Through

50 - 55

56 - 59

60 - 69

11
The Art of
Committing Things
to Memory

12
Get Real
Playfully

13
And Theres
More

70 - 78

79 - 83

84 - 86

03
Plan Your
Work then
Work Your
Plan

The big picture doesnt just come from

distance; it also comes from time.
Simon Sinek

he key to successful, dynamic learning lies in the

approach. Its all well and good to know that we are
born with a wide range of tools. Its a different thing
altogether to mix and match, to put them together
in ways that work well. Here, in summary form, is the
map I am offering you in the chapters that follow.

Note, first, that learning never occurs in a straight line. So take

one step as far as you can, then take another. And another. As you
progress you will find that you can come back to earlier steps, dig
deeper and go higher. I call it riding the spiral of learning. Adjust
it to suit yourself, and enjoy!
Slow down to speed up

As much as possible let go of urgency (even if only for a few

minutes at a time) and take the time to go deep enough to build
great foundations. That will rain success on you in the medium
and long term.
Find a purpose with passion & meaning

Live into a purpose that is profoundly meaningful to you and

taps into a personal passion. A powerful purpose in a meaningful
context organizes all of your biological and psychological
resources to work on your behalf.
03 PLAN YOUR WORK THEN WORK YOUR PLAN

Clarify your goals

Frame your purpose in terms of a goal-based scenario a

meaningful context. Then aim high for competence in the real
world, and at the same time aim low at the level where you
can approach the skill or subject matter with very little pressure
and a great deal of satisfaction.
Begin in a way that suits you

The best way to begin is not always the obvious way to begin.
So take some time to forage for materials and examine some of
the advice out there. Find a point of entry that maximizes the
time and effort that you put into learning.
Personalize the concept

Every skill, from plumbing to parenting, is grounded in a general

organizing concept. And that concept can then be reframed in
a way that deeply appeals to you. Get those two aspects of the
core concept deep in your psyche.
Think it through

Some individual steps and ideas are obvious; others need to be

thought through. Fortunately there are many powerful ways to
think things through that are available to all of us.
Develop a scaffold

Nothing is more valuable than having a sound, reliable platform

as you work toward mastery. It so happens that erecting a scaffold
and building initial rails to run on are also ways to have some
quick victories and early successes.
Use your different memory systems

As much as possible engage your natural, autobiographical

memory system and also make sure to deal with and process
03 PLAN YOUR WORK THEN WORK YOUR PLAN

feedback from what actually happens. But when needed, feel

free to memorize creatively and in a variety of different ways.
Get real playfully

Use the entire world and all of your experience as a rehearsal

hall, and have fun with it.
Theres always more

Everything is connected. Things change, knowledge changes,

perspectives change. For these and other reasons, make sure you
come to closure and remain open to the wonderfully rich world
of new possibility. Even as you become expert, make sure that you
aim for open-minded expertise!
People get there in different ways there is, for instance, diving in
versus observing, experimenting versus reading the instructions,
going it alone versus teaming up with others. The key is to ride
the spiral of learning feeling free to circle back to a step you
may already have taken a little way.

03 PLAN YOUR WORK THEN WORK YOUR PLAN

ACTION GUIDE
Create an action guide for yourself, based on the steps in this
chapter. Depending upon your particular learning preference,
situation and need, this guide might be a checklist, flow chart,
four-quadrant template, step ladder or a pie chart. I could
have done this for you, but creating one for yourself is a great
way to learn.
Another way to create an action guide is to break it into
three sections. Ask yourself WHY you want to learn something,
WHAT exactly you want to learn, and HOW you will go
about learning.
Use your action guide regularly. Mark off the place or places
where you think you are focusing at any point in time. Feel
free to come back to it, modify it, and generally grow it as
you learn.
Talk with others about the different steps. Think about
them from time to time and from different points of view
(e.g. learner, teacher, parent, manager, employee, your own
spiritual path, and anything else that appeals).

03 PLAN YOUR WORK THEN WORK YOUR PLAN

About
the Author
Geoffrey Caine has spent his life learning about learning and
listening, both in the course of his career and as abiding interests.
Amongst other things he has been a professor of law, education
services manager for a software company, education consultant,
and process coach. He spends most of his time writing, speaking,
conducting workshops on deep listening and deep learning, and
enjoying the arts loving mountain village of Idyllwild, California,
where he lives with his wife, three cats, and four glorious seasons.
Geoffrey has written two e-books in his Listening to Life series, both
available on Amazon Kindle. They are 9 Skills for Listening to Life
and 5 Essential Elements for Creating a Culture of Listening.
Geoffrey and his wife, Renate, have also written nine books and many
articles applying their synthesis of the research on learning from
psychology and neuroscience to help improve teaching and enhance
education at all levels. Their two most recent books on education are:
Strengthening and Enriching Your Professional Learning
Community: The Art of Learning Together (2010, ASCD).
Natural Learning for a Connected World: Education,
Technology and the Human Brain (2011, Teachers College Press).

You can find Geoffrey on-line here:

www.Thewayofthelearner.com goes in depth into the inner shifts

that learners need to make in order to see the world and themselves
in new ways.
www.Cainelearning.com is a living archive of the Caines work and
writings on learning, listening and education for the last 25 years.
www.thts-n-pieces.net features Geoffreys whimsical, semi-spiritual
writing on invented topics.
His guest posts can also be found on www.Funderstanding.com

TO PURCHASE THE FULL

VERSION THIS BOOK,
PLEASE VISIT
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The Key to Powerful Learning:

Slow Down to Speed Up
Geoffrey Caine 2014
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be
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storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the copyright holder.
The scientific bases for this book are found in
decades of interest in reading about and studying
how people learn and listen.
The electronic editions of this book are produced
and published by Funderstanding. For information
on the cutting edge in educational practice and
products, visitwww.Funderstanding.com.
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