THE LEARNING CURVE

EDUCATION GOES BEYOND AGE 

Ruwandi Perera explains why gaining knowledge is an ageless process today

Yet, adults do resist, shy away from or grudgingly take up learning opportunities. This could be formal educational qualifications, corporate training initiatives or casual learning endeavours such as learning to use new software.

And this maybe because adults find learning to be a mixed bag – necessary and rewarding, but difficult and unenticing. Learning is part and parcel of our young lives where we don’t really have much of a choice but to learn. However, it’s a conscious, planned and sometimes forced endeavour in adult life.

There are many reasons for this but the inability to balance our myriad responsibilities generally heads the list. As kids, we were carefree; but as adults, we have work commitments and home related responsibilities that we can’t shy away from. We have bills to pay, mouths to feed and bosses to answer to.

As adults, we also place unrealistic expectations on ourselves when it comes to learning. 

We gauge our ability by how fast we can complete an assessment. And we assess our capacity to learn by how relevant the learning material is to our job. Furthermore, we measure our learning effectiveness by how quickly it could lead to the next promotion.

Having said that, there are some valid points from the ‘I’m too old for this’ camp as well because in truth, age is not entirely only a number when it comes to learning.

When we’re babies, toddlers and adolescents, age is a free pass, a bonus, a gift voucher for learning. Our brains are growing, neurons are forming, neural circuits are developing and basically, biology is on our side! 

That’s why children learn a broad spectrum of diverse subjects faster with less effort and amazing retention.

As we age, biology starts to fail us – at least to some extent. For starters, our brains shrink. We start losing brain tissue as early as in our 30s. On top of that, our dopamine levels reduce and lessen the effect of reinforcement through reward, which adversely impacts our neural pathways and inhibits the learning process.

However, biology also offers us an olive branch: neuroplasticity. Our brains can keep rewiring themselves at any age, so the more we expose ourselves to new and challenging situations, environments and learning materials, the stronger our neuroplasticity becomes.

So while ageing impedes our brain functionality, this amazing organ does come with built-in anti-ageing properties. You may be slower in recalling things and it might take time for the bulbs to light up… but an older brain definitely has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Learning as an adult is more fulfilling because we use more of our brain capacity. For instance, it’s known that our prefrontal cortex that’s responsible for complex cognitive processing becomes fully mature by the time we reach 25, and our neural pathways (although fewer in number than children’s) are pruned – and therefore, more efficient.

And there’s more! 

Age lowers testosterone levels in both men and women – and as a result, adults are better at controlling impulsive thoughts and will have fewer mood swings, all of which result in better, holistic and rational decision making.

Our brain becomes better at tuning negativity too since the mature amygdala that controls emotions and memory becomes less responsive to adversity. So we think more positively, which means that we’ll be able to resist rejecting things that don’t work out the first time. This helps knowledge gathering.

So rethink what your age implies and adopt a wine like mentality – it’s always better with age.

Yes, it might be somewhat challenging to sit through a lecture or listen to a trainer and you might fall asleep after reading one page of a book. However, it’s most important to remember and exploit the amazing benefits that adulthood provides to help us learn better.