How We Learn

I’ve been thinking lately about how humans learn.

I've always been interested in learning and teaching. When I was a kid, I would play school for hours.

I loved school and did really well, in large part becuase I was the perfect candidate for the U.S.-based educational system: I was white, I was a girl, and I was conditioned by 1960s culture to be quiet and do what I was told.

I did so well in school that my first-grade teacher asked me to help her grade the other kids’ papers in class. And she asked me to be the flower girl at her wedding!

My second-grade teacher recommended that I skip the third grade, which I did.

By the time I was 14, I was figuring out how to get extra credits and graduate when I was 16.

I studied psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology, and neuroscience. All these things helped me understand how people work and why they behave the way they do.

And here's what I discovered:

There are very unique ways that we gain knowledge.

Inherent or innate knowledge - These are the things our bodies know to do without us “knowing” how to do them, or thinking or learning about them. There’s no mental or cognitive awareness. It’s how our heart beats, how we breathe, our digestion, growing a baby, and giving birth. External factors, such as stress, diet, toxins, cultural conditioning, and personal belief systems, can influence and impact these things. However, our bodies still do them without having to think about it.

Spiritual “gifts” – These are qualities or traits we are born with that come from beyond our physical being, often referred to as “gifts” or, as Michael Meade refers to them: fate or destiny. Not in the sense of karma or lack of agency, but rather how to express our purpose in a lifetime.

He suggests that, instead of meeting St. Peter at the pearly gates to have our list of sins or good deeds inventoried, we simply ask ourselves, “Did you fulfill your destiny?” And if you answer no, it's not that you go to hell. It's just that you have to reckon with that and carry a huge burden into the afterlife.

Preverbal learning – These are the things we learn how to do before we have words or reason. We learn language, how to walk, how people interact and behave together. It’s how we determine what we like and don't like, the cultural norms and family expectations around us, and how to be a human in society. Preverbal learning is the deepest, most foundational way we learn how to be in the world because it gets set in our preverbal subconscious. It sets the basis for the belief systems that form our future ways of being.

Intergenerational – And then there's intergenerational learning. This is a new one. A study was done with rats where the researchers emitted a specific odor in the rats’ environment. Whenever that odor was emitted, the rats got an electrical shock. This was done for an extended period so that, even when the rats were no longer being shocked, when that odor was emitted, the rats would still shudder as if they were being shocked.

Then, those rats had baby rats. When the baby rats were exposed to that odor, they would also shudder even though they weren't being shocked. Other rats that weren't the offspring of the original shocked rats didn't respond in that way.

Even rats conceived with the sperm of the shocked male rats, or birthed by the female shocked rats had those same reactions.

Then, those baby rats matured and had their own babies. The “grandchildren” rats also had the same reaction; even though none of those last two generations of rats were exposed to the electrical shocks, they still acted as if they were.

I don’t know if these intergenerational learnings fall in the inherent or the preverbal category of learning, but what scientists are starting to understand is that we learn things pre-conception as well as prenatally or in utero, from our environment during gestation.

Formal – No we arrive at the most common understanding of learning, which is formal learning. This is where we learn things like reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Formal learning is done in school or from books, and it is what most of us think of when we think of learning.

Observational – But keep in mind that there weren’t always schools. Humans learned historically through observation and stories. They observed the cycles of the moon or the seasons. They watched how others did things when they wanted to learn something new.

No one sat a child down and taught them how to do a specific task. Children were expected to watch closely and try it on their own, and they might receive supervision and guidance. It was a built-in version of the apprenticeship model.

I was very keen on observation. So much so that when I was four, I learned how to read just by observing what my sister was learning in kindergarten.

And I've used observational learning to watch what other people do in situations. Sometimes, I feel like a chameleon, quickly taking on the behaviors and actions of others so I can figure out how to get things done or what to do in a certain situation. Observation has helped me expand the way that I am in the world.

And that's part of my story of how I became a doula.

I watched what my midwives did for me. Then I did that for my friends.

Eventually, I took more formal trainings and learned how to be a teacher of adults. After 20 years of teaching, I consider myself a masterful teacher.

Two of the most important things I learned about being a teacher came from Pam England, the author of Birthing from Within, who taught me how to teach with stories. And Paulo Freire, the author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, taught me about how to create self-determined learning for adults based on their desires and needs.

Both of these methods are the exact opposite of what we usually get in formal school. Instead of filling one's brain with facts or transferring the knowledge from one brain to another, we're really entering into a relationship with the learner to find out what motivates them and what they actually need to know and want to know.

Which learning styles do we use to become a doula?

Some say being a doula is innate. It's a gift one is born with. People who have the gift don't even realize that other people don't have it because being doula-like is just the way they are in the world.

They're naturally empathetic, helpful, kind, compassionate, comfortable being hands-on, and calm in intimate and stressful situations.

They have a gift for being with people and being comforting and soothing.

Other doulas learn through observation like I did. They watch other people do it. They go to a birth where a doula is present and say, ‘Ooh, I want to do that.’ Or they shadow another doula and learn by watching what that doula does so they can become one, too.

But most people go the formal route. They take a doula training

For decades, there has been an ongoing debate about in-person versus online training. My own beliefs have evolved over the years. Initially, I was in the camp that believed one had to attend an in-person training to learn how to be a doula. That’s because students had to learn hands-on skills, and I had to be there to “check” what they were doing.

Over time, though, I started to realize that we need a lot more doulas, and not every doula can take the time or afford the money or travel to get to an in-person training.

My doula training used to cost $800. Students had to come to an all-day class once a week for seven weeks, or to a class five days in a row. That just wasn't feasible for a whole lot of people.

And let's face it, the world needs a whole lot of doulas.

So, I started to let people to attend my doula training via Zoom in 2016. Then I started to put some of the curriculum into online modules. In 2018, I created an entire online doula training and it worked really well.

And then the pandemic happened.

And all the doula trainers who previously said it couldn't/shouldn't be done went online! Ironically, I didn't want to teach only online, so I stopped.

I spent a couple of years diving deep into marketing and writing, and traveled around the country in my campervan. And when I came back, I realized I'm not done.

But I've also slowed down. I'm not interested in spending all day in a classroom or long hours on Zoom.

I can provide training that is inexpensive and accessible to many more people by putting it all online. Win win!

Thinking about how we learn best is crucial — for ourselves when learning new skills, and for how we do our work and interact with others.

How do you best learn yourself? How do others want to receive information?

There are many styles of learning, many teaching methods, so much neurodiversity, and multiple perspectives that open up the options to meet the needs of everyone. And it's such a great time to do that now.

I hope you've learned some new things about how humans learn. And reflected a bit about how you learn and how you might teach others.

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