Introduction

This year, I want to lead people to become active learners. The opposite of active learning is passive learning. In a few days, we will finish this series, which I will turn into transcripts you can read. I will also start a learning hotline, where you can ask questions and I will solve your confusions.

If you grow 20% in knowledge this year, then your finances and wealth will also grow accordingly. God will give you wealth proportional to your knowledge.

1. Active learning is the key.

My mother had many children. Every child was different. Maybe my luck was better; I have always knew how to learn. When I wanted to teach active learning, I had to spend a long time starting the curriculum. My brother, however, was not good at school but was a very smart person. He became an electrician and was very successful.

I did not know how good he was until I tried to do electrical work in my own house. After spending hours on it, I couldn't figure it out. My brother came over and he was able to fix it in 15 minutes. So, my brother is not dumb, even though he isn't great at school. He is good at being an electrician because it is active learning.

Sometimes, passive learning is trained by sitting in a classroom, and ruins our learning. Active learning is something done out of a lecture. So don't believe a teacher when they say you or your child is stupid.

The child just doesn't know how to solve these problems because he doesn't see a use for it. I recommended them to do things with their own hands, and I saved the child from being forever labelled as "dumb".

Sitting in class is a very passive way of learning, and I didn't learn that way. I learned actively. I sleep in class, and I study at night and on the weekends. Classroom learning actually hinders a lot of kids.

After getting into university, I saw that the people around me were all very smart. My grades seemed low compared to them now. But I found that my learning was a bit more relaxed than them. My grades didn't suffer, and I wasn't tired at all. Many people could not compare with my grades. The teacher can try to help you by going through problems, but when it is critical, you only have yourself. This habit of active learning allowed me to be successful in my future career and in the workplace.

In a book I read by Zheng Linghui, they wrote that the current education system has standardized the transfer of knowledge. But humans are not like screws or nails. So it doesn't matter whether students understand it or not, but they are pushed through and classified into grades and classes. Education cannot be taught through an assembly line of production. The emphasis should be on the knowledge and skills imparted.

Zheng Linghui also wrote that we should be concerned about the four "C"s in the future. The first C is for Critical Thinking. The second C is Communication. The third is Collaboration. The fourth is Creative Problem Solving. These Cs will be very important in the market, because degrees and education will start to lose its value in the workplace. People's characters will come through in place of it.

Traditional education and the future needs of society will have a great divide. Traditional learning will collapse in the face of better forms of education. In the future, there will be reforms to education. We are in the face of this change. I cannot make you an active learner, but I can tell you the concept.

Many people don't know what school is for. School is so that you can be successful in the future, but we just assume this. Before, only 3% of people could get into university, so finding a job was much easier. If 50% of people go, then each degree will be worth less.

Even in trades, their grades might not be good, but learning is not an issue for these people. After university, if you cannot be successful, then what does it matter? The faster you learn actively and come out of passive learning, the better off you will be. If your child is not good at school, make them an active learner.

2. The methods of active learning

Don't think that you are dumb, because you simply do not have the resources and methods necessary for learning actively rather than passively.

When I was working, I met with the vice president of education of the university. He created the PBL learning method, which mainly focuses on problem solving. Students are to solve problems every day. Everyone would form small groups and discuss the problem at hand. Then they would fill out a template that contained the following steps. What is the problem? What do you need to solve this problem? What do you already know, and what don't you know? What else do you need?

After researching the problem, they have a meeting and the teacher explains each of the steps. Every single day you have to present your findings. This process is very interesting because learning is filling in the gaps in your knowledge. If you know 80%, you have to find the missing 20% to fill in those gaps. We need to be learning from simple to complex problems.

Some people learn wrong, seeking to do things they can't do. Then they fail and fall every single time, without reflecting on what they did wrong or how they should improve. PBL and the template have impacted my life greatly, because everytime I solve a problem I use this method.

There are methods to active learning, which I will talk about in depth in future lessons.

3. The habit of active learning

The habit of active learning is for those who are passive learners. For some people, every time they want to learn something, they prefer to sit and listen. So how do we develop this skill?

Many people believe that sending kids to school is called learning; participating in lectures is called learning. But true learning comes from an active seeking of knowledge. People want to listen to lessons because they are impatient to get the right answer. Then they memorize the answers and don't learn anything. There are not many people who crave active listening, because it is very slow and miserable. But what you learn is yours to keep.

We need to overcome the emotion of impatience. Only by understanding things fully, that is what counts as learning. If you keep on forgetting what you learned, it can only mean that you never learned those concepts properly. Many people have drivers licenses, but they don't know how to drive.

4. The character of active learning

If you don't have habits of active learning, you cannot have a character of active learning. In everything, you have to make habits. But a character is who you are. Active learning is a test of faith. You don't understand how to do things, but you have faith that you can learn it properly.

If you have a great faith, then your problems seem small. If your faith is small, then the problems will be overwhelming. In small things, test your active learning so that you can overcome the bigger problems. Some people like to jump ahead to the big tasks, but this is not right.

Faith is a determinant of the future. If you believe that you can solve this task, you will be able to.

5. Use your resources actively

People who learn well know how to use their resources. The internet now is very developed, and there are resources for everything. On YouTube, there are MIT open classes. All the classes on there are taught by world famous professors, and the resources are all there. So don't go to school simply to obtain knowledge, but use your resources properly. Your teacher, your classmates, your coworkers.

Active learning is not asking passive questions, questions that are not thought out. So, actively seek resources online and read books. But don't read books that are garbage or meaningless. Our resources are willing to be used by you, as long as they can help you grow.

6. Abstract, summarize, organize, and conclude

These ideas are so important because they are what learning is. Without going through these steps, they won't enter your mind.

Grasps concepts quickly and make relationships between those concepts. Take these concepts, its relationships, and make a summary. You can apply this to every task at hand, things that you have to learn. Things like accounting, finance, human resources, project management, marketing can all be learnt very quickly and well by these four principles.

Learning is not invented by you, but rather, you learn by imitating others. You cannot "invent" words, because then it will be called a typo. Everything, even mathematics and all sorts of sciences are learned from others.

If you do things wrong, then failure is your habit.

7. Be a person who enjoys solving problems

Why do we learn? Because we want to solve problems. Don't learn just so you can impart your knowledge to others after dinner. If you are able to solve problems everywhere you go, won't people respect and admire you? If you create problems, then won't people despise you?

Another reason to solve problems is that it earns you money. I find that many people in arts and humanities often kill themselves, but engineers rarely do, statistically.

Remember: don't explain problems, solve them. If you are able to solve problems, then your explanation will be correct. But don't listen to people who are unable to solve them, because what they are saying is all wrong.

Start the habit of solving problems. When you encounter a problem you cannot solve, don't be discouraged, because all you need to do is fill in the gaps. Once you learn what you need and now you can solve this problem, you will have truly gained knowledge. Sometimes, in order to solve the problem, you will encounter 9 resources that are useless. But on the tenth, you will find the right answer. In this way we will continue to grow.

Let me explain to you lesson by lesson how wonderful it is to be a person who enjoys solving problems instead of creating them. Nowadays, many children have become accustomed to passive learning, so lets take the initiative to change this.