Turn off the music and sit still? Learning myths put to the test

What does «real learning» look like?

There are a lot of ideas and advice that have been passed on for decades. If a child or young person learns in a different way, they are quickly told to «sit down properly and not fidget around», for example. They are told that they «can't concentrate that way» and that they shouldn't be surprised if nothing sticks in the end.

But can we trust the standard learning guides when they prescribe a fixed workstation and quiet and emphasise that the child should do their homework alone in their room in a proper working posture?

Myth 1: Music disturbs concentration! So switch it off!

This advice is helpful for many people. Introverts in particular are especially good at focussing when they can work in peace - research shows this impressively.

However, there are also people who find working in silence agonising. It is often recommended that the learning environment should be as stimulus-free as possible, especially for children who are easily distracted. However, recent studies suggest that this is counterproductive. Silence causes inattentive children to become restless and unconsciously seek distraction. In studies, these children made fewer mistakes when solving maths problems if they were allowed to listen to music. They were also able to remember more in a memory test when moderate background noise was heard during the learning phase.

In addition to concentration, motivation can also be boosted by the right music.

Many young people report that the right music puts them in the right mood to tackle even unpleasant tasks. In addition to concentration, motivation can also be boosted by the right music.

If your child would like to work with music, we recommend the following: Create a playlist together with songs that are suitable for learning (rather quiet pieces without lyrics). From this moment on, pressing the play button can become the start signal and help the child to get started and immerse themselves in the work. However, sounds that invite the child to listen and join in - such as the sound of an exciting film playing in the background, a radio announcement or conversations with others - are distracting.

So when it comes to music: try it out! We humans react differently to it. For some it is a learning aid, for others it is a burden and distraction.

Myth 2: Children need a fixed workstation - preferably in their own room!

When children are about to start school, furniture stores are once again booming. Hordes of dedicated mums and dads make a pilgrimage with their children to the office departments to put ergonomically designed desk chairs, height-adjustable desks and eye-friendly reading lamps through their paces. A short time later, the ideal workstation is set up in the children's room. So far, so good. There are many arguments in favour of always doing homework in the children's room: the child can withdraw, is not interrupted by siblings while working and should gradually learn to work independently.

Conditioning effects also seem to speak in favour of a fixed place of work: If you always work in the same place, your brain gradually associates this place with this activity. This can be very useful: as soon as you sit down in the office and boot up the computer, you feel like you're in the mood to work.

In addition, studies from memory research show that people remember content better if they learn it several times in the same place and recall it there. Some interesting experiments have been carried out on this topic. For example, divers who had memorised lists of words underwater were able to remember them better underwater than on land and vice versa. This effect of the environment on learning and recall performance is known as context-dependent memorisation.

However, precisely these two effects can also become a trap. The mechanism of context-dependent memorisation does not necessarily speak in favour of always learning in the same place. If you always memorise the material in the same environment, it is easier to remember what you have learned there - but it becomes more difficult in all other places. So if you don't have the chance to learn exactly where you are being tested, you can rely more heavily on knowledge that you have learnt in different places.

A change of location can help the child to associate new, more positive experiences with learning.

The situation is similar with conditioning effects: If a child regularly has very positive experiences when learning, a fixed place to work helps him or her to get into the mood to work. For many children who tend to associate learning with frustration and effort, the exact opposite happens. As soon as they sit in their office chair at their desk, you can see them switch off inside and physically fall asleep. Their face falls asleep, their blood pressure drops and they start to yawn.

In this case, a change of location can bring a fresh start and help the child to associate new, more positive experiences with learning.

Conditioning effects also make the bedroom the least favourable place to learn for many children and young people. Because what do children normally do in their bedroom? Playing! This place is therefore associated with a leisure mood. As soon as your child rolls up to the height-adjustable table in the ergonomically shaped chair, the exciting toys catch their eye. The desire to get up and play with them grows.

Now the child needs a great deal of self-discipline to continue focussing on the tasks. They may say to themselves: «Actually, you'd really like to continue building the spaceship, but you have to do your homework now. Where was I again? Ah yes, here.» Such inner conflicts are distracting and gruelling. Here's a small example from the adult world: it's perhaps a little awkward to make an appointment for coffee in a patisserie when you're on a diet. How long will it take before your eyes wander to the cream cakes and you give in to the sweet temptation?

Which places would be suitable for your child? Can they also learn in the kitchen or living room? Take the vocabulary list to the terrace, in the bath or on the train? Or is he or she older and can work at school or in the library?

Myth 3: Sit still now and concentrate!

Some parents get all tingly when they see their children studying or working. Anyone who gyrates around on the chair, moves the eraser from one hand to the other or gets knotted up in strange positions on the floor with their reading book can't really be concentrating, can they? This assumption is obviously a fallacy. Researchers have been able to prove that primary school children move more when working still as soon as their working memory is challenged. For example, when children had to memorise a large number of numbers and letters and then put them in order at the end, i.e. solve a classic short-term memory task, their physical restlessness increased.

Movement apparently helps the brain to memorise information. Perhaps you have also noticed how you stand up and walk around the room without thinking about it when you want to memorise the content of a presentation or are feverishly searching for solutions to a problem.

The beneficial effect of exercise on memory was already well known in ancient Rome. Professional orators such as the famous politician Marcus Tullius Cicero preferred to memorise their lengthy manuscripts while walking. Perhaps the next time your child has to memorise a poem, he or she can roam through the garden or jump on a trampoline while you teach them their multiplication tables or vocabulary?

Myth 4: Learning must be fun!

While the myths described so far have already been voiced by our parents and grandparents, the belief that learning is only effective if it is consistently fun has only recently begun to gain ground. There is a lot of truth in this credo, but it is worth taking a closer look.

In general, enjoyment, curiosity and enthusiasm make it easier for us to engage with a subject area, absorb new knowledge and develop our skills. However, there are several misconceptions surrounding the above statement.

One misconception is that we assume that enthusiasm in learning automatically leads to better performance. It's more fun to play volleyball or football than to work on technique. It's cooler to jam with friends than to spend hours practising your fingers on the guitar. It's also more fun to knead letters and cut them out of sandpaper than to write them over and over again. But does that also increase the learning effect? If you follow this logic, the people who have the most fun practising should also perform the best.

Interestingly, however, professionals find practising in one area more unpleasant and exhausting than amateurs. The majority of writers report that writing is their greatest passion and at the same time a reliable source of effort and hardship. For Peter Bichsel, for example, «writing a column» means «a whole week of suffering». And the well-known writer Philip Roth says: «It's torture. If I had a child who wanted to be a writer, I'd try to talk them out of it.»

Making progress is exhausting.

Basically, we all know it - we just don't like to hear it: if we really want to make progress in one area, it's exhausting. If we want to improve our spelling, we should find out where we make the most mistakes - and then practise capitalisation and spelling for ten minutes every day for two months, for example. If we want to improve our speaking skills, it would be valuable and uncomfortable to record ourselves on video, identify specific areas for improvement and work on them with perseverance.

Wherever performance is clearly measurable - for example in sport or classical music - practising follows a certain structure. Overarching skills are broken down into sub-skills, each of which is practised intensively.

Joy, playful discovery, creativity and enthusiasm: all of these things should have a place in school and play an important role. However, certain basic skills simply have to be trained and automatised. Otherwise creative achievements are not possible. For example, if you constantly have to think about spelling and ask yourself every time whether you should capitalise or lowercase a word, it is difficult to develop the plot of the essay. When it comes to developing such skills, practising is necessary and not old-fashioned.

It is exciting to take a look at the brain. It becomes clear that when we learn something new, it is primarily the prefrontal cortex, the centre of our conscious thinking, that is activated. This part of the brain works serially: one thing at a time. We cannot think about two things at the same time.

Practice and automation are not opponents of creativity and flexibility.

When we practise something until it is automated, other areas of the brain take over this task. From this stage onwards, we can solve the task without consciously thinking about it. The prefrontal cortex is relieved and can turn its attention to another, additional task: The child can now tie its shoes and chat to you at the same time. They can capitalise nouns without wondering whether you can put the/the/that in front of each word - and can concentrate on their story instead. They can keep their eyes on the sheet of music and interpret the piece instead of constantly squinting at the piano keys to hit the right note.

So let's be clear: practice and automatisation are not opponents of creativity and flexibility, but rather their prerequisites. It is pleasing and appropriate for children that schools have moved away from unnecessary drill and are giving more space to playful learning and discovery. However, we should not demonise practice and honing - where it is necessary.