Assignment 3.2

For this assignment post a question that you have based on your readings. It could be about something you didn’t quite understand, it could be a question to generate discussion or debate, or it could be regarding a situation that you have encountered that applies to what you have read.

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Based on the reading in chapter 6, Emotions and Motives in Learning, I recalled a recent book I read by John Medina called “Brain Rules.” Our reading, “Making Sense of Adult Learning,” states  “Adults learn best when they are stimulated, aroused, or motivated to an optimum level through internal or external sources.” (p 129) Dr. Medina explains a useful technique in chapter 4 (Attention: We don’t pay attention to boring things.) of his book “Brain Rules”. The practice he uses is called “hooks.” A hook has to “trigger an emotion such as fear, laughter, happiness, or nostalgia.” It must also be relevant to the material at hand.

My question is how can we effectively use this technique to enhance the learning process? The typical argument I hear is more information is better. We have so much to information to disseminate we don’t have time to add “fluff” or hooks to the presentation. Is it better to pile on the information and hope some of it sticks or is it better to cut some of the irrelevant content, adding hooks to make the highlights more memorable?