THE CHALLENGE OF UNLEARNING

THE CHALLENGE OF UNLEARNING

Alvin Toffler says “The illiterate of the twenty first century is not the one who cannot read and write, but one who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.’

This indeed raises the question whether unlearning is a conscious process that happens through a concerted and focused effort? Or is it a natural process that happens continually in mind in a given environment? Or is it a process that can be triggered through some cognitive or emotional inputs to the mind? While clinical psychologists and brain researchers have done some path-breaking discoveries relating to the methods and strategies that will help the brain to unlearn from some its past behaviour, addictive trends, emotional hangovers and belief systems, unlearning as a normal course of growth process has not been adequately addressed, possibly because there are not clinical or psychological demands to meet such situations or routines.

1.   

    Unlearning is not an instant process.

No one has a magic wand to wave and drive off the past learning at a given instant or period of time. It calls for a complete re-engineering of the several brain connects, slowly erasing the past memory, distancing from the thought nucleus. It calls for a re-structured thought navigation and renewed focus and direction. Evidences do show that some painful associations with past learning and related emotional trauma do trigger in unlearning or help in escapist routes from retention of such learning.

2.   

    Unlearning is not completely a conscious action.

While some conscious effort is made by people, it does not and need not necessarily result in unlearning. It calls repeated auto-suggestion and mentoring. Repeated suggestions to the mind about the absence of the need of a thought, a concept or a skill could progressively lead to annihilation of a past learning.

3.   ]

    Resetting priorities could lead to unlearning.

It is claimed by brain scientists that the mind regulates the thought priorities and organizes their navigation. Once the brain learns to reset its priorities and thus a particular thought is successively negated or marginalized, the past learning finds itself increasingly irrelevant and thus loses its latent structure.

4.   Unlearning is neither an exercise of selection or a choice

   

   No one makes a choice to unlearn or annihilate learning except for a desire. There are no adequate evidences to show that unlearning is a preferred selection in the process of re-engineering learning.

5.  

    Withdrawal of rewards or fear of punishment trigger unlearning.

   

   Studies do show that learning associated with rewards facilitates its speed and retention, but withdrawal of rewards deactivates the motives for learning. On a similar note, the fear of punishment does trigger unlearning.

  

   “Learning is an external act. unlearning is an internal one… unlearning is  

    therefore, more difficult” says John Uldrich.

  Unlearning is claimed to be a survival skill. In a fast-changing universe of knowledge and skill dynamics, the speed and the quantum of unlearning is considered as a learning asset.

The future holds promise for a lot of interventional research and study on ‘unlearning’