A Mind For Numbers Analysis

Learning is not only an essential skill to survive, it is also a requirement to attain a fulfilled life. Yet the public education system, where the majority of people are expected to learn, often overlook the process of learning. It is no wonder why one of the most accomplished thinkers, Albert Einstein, has said, “the only thing that interferes with my learning is my education” (qtd. In Silber 130). This quote embodies the current state of public education in the United States; a system that approaches learning as “one size fits all” and focuses on the wrong aspects of standardized testing, which hinders the quality of learning. Unquestionably, the learning process is not discussed widely amongst the public, since ignorance of its existence
In summary, she translates the complex jargon of neuroscience into laymen terms and explains how to apply it to the learning process. One of the major focuses in her book is the concept that the brain switches between two processes called the focused mode, attained by putting attention into something, and diffuse mode, attained by relaxing attention and letting the mind wander (12). In short, the focused mode is used to “concentrate on something that’s already tightly connected in [one’s] mind, often because [they] are familiar and comfortable with the underlying concepts,” whereas the diffuse-mode tries to connect new concepts to what has already been established in one’s brain (11-14). Essentially, when you are trying to “understand or figure out something new, your best bet is to turn off your precision-focused thinking and turn on your ‘big picture’ diffuse mode” (19). In addition, the brain cannot be consciously active in both modes though “the diffuse mode does seem to… work quietly in the background on something [a person] is not focusing on” (11). This suggests that to learn efficiently, one should not invest all their focus into a single concept for long periods of time, rather it is important to take frequent breaks that would allow the mind to drift while the brain processes the information. However, this does not imply that solely using the diffuse mode will result in learning a concept, instead, a balance must be achieved in the application of both modes towards a subject (34). A way this might be applied to a classroom is for an instructor to shorten lecture time by around 20 minutes. After these short lectures, students, in focused mode, are given a 5-minute break where they can move around to relax their focus, allowing their minds to reach the diffuse mode where their brains are given time to digest the