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Foundations Reflection | Sprint 5

What are three new things you have learnt about yourself and your ego due to the core learning?

I tend to rush things, and need to take on the growth mindset more. I'm better-off learning slowly, so I can understand each concept before moving forward.
Emotional intelligence is something that I think I'm usually pretty good at, however when I'm stressed I tend to be pretty hard on myself. Learning more about this has helped me know when to stop, start and ask for help with technical questions.
I CAN learn JavaScript! It's just going to take a lot of repetition and looking at it in different ways to get it in my head.

Problem-solving

Problem-solving is a skill that is required for everyone throughout life, at all ages and stages. Little babies have to problem solve how to get their parent's attention and toddlers learn how to navigate around obstacles when learning to walk. Children have to problem-solve to learn their times tables - and students learning JavaScript are no exception!

Adapting your problem-solving techniques based on the problem you are facing is key. You can't apply the same problem-solving steps you used for replacing a damaged curtain rail to dealing with some confusing code.

So! Let's look back at some problems from the past week I had when learning JavaScript. We'll start with the hardest one - something I was really stuck on.

Feeling Blocked

One of the challenges this week was the capitalize one. This used the .map() built-in method to change every word in a sentence to have a capital letter. Sounds easy in theory, right?

I struggled.

The syntax...

The order...

The methods...

Read the full blog post here.

Why is it important to understand neuroplasticity?

A big benefit of understanding neuroplasticity is gaining the knowledge that repetition and exposure to a concept that makes a person learn something - not an innate, fixed level of intelligence.

This gives hope that you can become competent (or even great!) at something - but that it’s normal to not understand it at the beginning.

For a long time I’ve had an issue with the phrase “you’re so talented” - I think it’s detrimental. While we have a degree of built-in dispositions and interests, people who excel in areas almost exclusively got there through repetition and hard work, not an accidental “wow I’m great at this” discovery. Dismissing years of dedication as an innate talent does the person who put in all that work a disservice and downplays all the work taken to get there.

In saying that, it is almost always said as a compliment, not insult… but it’s something that makes me twitch!

How can neuroplasticity help you - and how can you build it?

On a personal level, I would like to spend more time going back over things I learned in previous weeks, or at least taking part in challenges that use this information. I find it’s hard to make things “stick” sometimes. If I think about those little information highways that need strengthening, it helps motivate me to do so.

In general, to improve your neuroplasticity, there are some tried and true steps:

Choose to learn a new skill - something you’re not already good at.

→ It should be something you’re motivated to learn (I am very unmotivated to learn how to play Rugby, for example, so I wouldn’t do that).

Make a plan to learn about the skill regularly, and repeat this learning over a period of time.

Over time your brain will change to develop and strengthen pathways built from learning this skill. Our current learning is a good example of this, as is learning a language, starting an exercise program or a hobby.

Read the full blog post here.