Holistic.

Holistic learning is basically the opposite of rote memorization. Instead of trying to pound information into your brain with the hopes it will simply fall out when you need it, holistic learning is the process of weaving the knowledge you are learning into everything you already understand.

Rote memorization focuses on learning through individual boxes of information. Like a computer filing system, everything is neat, organized and separate from each other. You have a box labeled science, one for history, one for the movie you watched last week and another for your job. These boxes are split into more boxes. Your science box has a separate one for biology and physics. Physics has unique boxes for different formulas and concepts.

The problem is that your brain isn’t a computer filing system. It’s a network of interconnected neurons. When you need information you are just hoping that you stumble upon the thread that leads to the box you want. Otherwise you’re screwed.

Holistic learning is messy. It doesn’t put things into boxes neatly. Instead it tightly interweaves concepts together. Science concepts remind you of history which remind you of the movie you saw last week and the project at your job tomorrow. Within each general subject area, your web is even more tightly interwoven. Every concept in physics is linked with almost every other.

A tight web means that when one pathway is blocked, there are hundreds of others that lead to the same point of information. Tight webs may seem like an abstract concept, but you know the feeling when you have one. A tight web results in the feeling of “getting” it. You understand the subject or concept so thoroughly that aspects of it seem obvious and trivial.

Read the rest here.

21st Century Fluency Project has more on holistic education here.