Technique Training & Fundamentals

Technique Training and Fundamentals are the study methods used on purpose. Later, harder work depends on them. Training is how material is encoded and how it is thought about. Fundamentals are checks that show when encoding or thinking stops working as the work gets harder. The aim is to use these methods without coaching yourself through them all the time.

The four bundles

Each method is explained on its own linked page.

Inquiry-Based Learning means asking structured questions before you consume a source. In the education literature, the same name means minimally guided discovery, and that is not the meaning used here. If a passage needs a mark for what is already clear, what is not clear, and what to do next, that mark is a checkpoint, and it is covered on the same Inquiry-Based Learning page.

Non-Linear Note-Making is the note-taking page that exists. Three variant names are sometimes listed beside it, and they have no pages.

Chunking as a Technique is how you group material so that you can hold it in mind. Importance-Based Chunking is the same method, where you decide first what is most worth grouping.

Spaced Interleaved Retrieval, Multipass System, and Revision are the basic retrieval methods. Each one is explained on its own page.

These methods are repeatable actions for reaching the abstract goals listed on Dimensions of Learning. Conscious competency is the ordinary skill-acquisition target described on Four Stages of Competence. Here it means you can use the methods as tools without coaching yourself through each one.

Techniques - Learning Craft is the parent craft hub. It lists the working methods grouped by the part of learning each one is used for.

These methods are the base for later study. Later, harder work succeeds only if these methods are in use. The instructions for practicing each method are on its linked page.

Links into the knowledge base

• Techniques - Learning Craft: parent craft hub, with working methods grouped by the part of learning each one is used for
• Inquiry-Based Learning: structured questions before consuming
• Non-Linear Note-Making: the note-taking page that exists
• Chunking as a Technique: grouping so the material can be held in mind
• Importance-Based Chunking: grouping by what is most worth holding first
• Spaced Interleaved Retrieval: retrieval loop
• Multipass System: retrieval in passes
• Revision: revision as a retrieval practice
• Dimensions of Learning: the five-part framework whose goals these methods turn into actions
• Four Stages of Competence: conscious competency explained in ordinary words

Sources

• Paul A. Kirschner, John Sweller, and Richard E. Clark, “Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work,” Educational Psychologist 41(2) (2006). Cited only as a warning about a name clash: the education-literature name “inquiry-based learning” often means the opposite of this vault’s structured-questions-before-consuming.
• Four stages of competence, Broadwell / Burch popularization. An informal source for “conscious competency,” and not a course citation.