Our approach to learning can shift rapidly due to us moving through different professional roles, educational levels, or cultural environments (Source). In my personal experience, I have found my approach to learning has changed on account of cyclical and biological changes in my body.

Law students and young lawyers should learn how to learn and ascertain the learning styles and memory methods that work best for them. The earlier you do so, the better, because this may have to be assessed and adjusted throughout the course of your life and career. And how well you learn can make a significant difference in your student life, work life, and life in general.

This is particularly important for females who may start to experience perimenopause symptoms as they age, which may affect their learning style. For me, these age-related female body changes and associated symptoms(e.g. brain fog) seem to affect how I learn, assimilate information, internalize new concepts, and retain or recall information.

I was also surprised to recently read that “learning to learn” may be a useful skill for the next generation to have for a future with AI transforming education, careers and daily life.

My Epiphany

As I began to grapple with the different symptoms of perimenopause, I realized that the rote method of learning (read-memorize-test-repeat, in a vacuum and under extreme pressure) may have been effective for an earlier time in my life, but not as I moved from my 30’s into my 40’s.

Over time, I noticed that concepts learnt while studying law really crystallized when I was actually conducting litigation from start to finish. Now, by spending time with entrepreneurs, in and out of work, I understand transactional (and even litigious) matters better and can apply concepts more practically and effortlessly. As I do more complex regional and cross-border litigation, what previously seemed like intricate legal concepts are elucidated with ease.

I started having these professional a-ha moments around 2014. They were instructive because they pointed to the possibility that the learning and memory methods that I was initially exposed to, in my academic and early career life, may have worked in the past but were not sustainable for the future.

Rote learning played an integral part in helping me to pass many a primary and high school exam, get two degrees and get some early and mid-career case wins, but that could not be sustained with age-related body changes. This realization was cemented when I was upskilling in fintech regulation, financial inclusion, tech in business and related areas over the past years.

Learning Models

After coming to the above realizations, I have been reading up on learning styles and memory methods to understand, incrementally integrate and make the necessary adaptations for the current life season I am in. Some useful resources I have found:

• David Kolb’s 4 Learning Styles

• The VARK Model

• the VARK Questionnaire

Kolb’s learning theory (1984) outlines a 4-stage learning cycle: Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation of New Experience, Abstract Conceptualization and Active Experimentation. Kolb views learning as an integrated process, with each stage mutually supporting and feeding into the next, and it is possible to enter the cycle at any stage and follow it through its logical sequence. However, effective learning only occurs when a learner can execute all four stages of the model. Therefore, no one stage of the cycle is effective as a learning procedure on its own. He further explains that various factors influence a person’s preferred style, such as social environment, educational experiences, or the basic cognitive structure of the individual (Source).

The VARK Model suggests that learners have preferences for internalizing and processing information. It was developed by Neil Flemming in 1987, and based on the prior VAK model, developed by Walter Burke Barbe in the late 1970’s. VARK is an acronym for the categories of learners: Visual, Auditory, Read/Write and Kinesthetic. Each category of learner excels at processing information based on how it is presented in the associated category:

• Visual learners: via pictures, graphs, and charts

• Auditory learners: via storytelling, lectures, and presentations

• Read/Write learners: via reading textbooks, articles, written materials, and organizing information via notes, summation, and written communication

• Kinesthetic learners: via movement, hands-on activity, experiments, and demonstrations

The theory states that challenging learners to reflect on their preferences can improve their metacognitive abilities.

Memory Methods

In terms of memory methods, the Memory Palace Method and Dual Coding are two approaches I have come across which may be especially useful for law students. The Memory Palace (or Method of Loci) helps you to remember information by associating it with places and images. It involves remembering lists, names, facts, et cetera by placing each item in a familiar environment. In a nutshell, it entails thinking of a place you know well, such as your home, walking through it in your mind noting specific locations, attaching a piece of information to each spot and making it vivid by using unique and colorful images which would be easy to recall, and doing a mental walk-through to find the information at each spot. Dual Coding involves pairing words with visuals to help you understand and remember them better.

These are by no means the most modern of the learning styles and memory methods, as studies would have advanced since then, and they have not been free from debate and critique. These are simply methods that have provided me with a helpful, introductory understanding of the area.

I also don’t profess to be any perimenopause guru, but there are ample resources out there for those wanting to understand what to expect later on or what is currently happening with their bodies.

And of course, doing all of this does not replace relevant medical, dietary and exercise-related intervention to help us (females) make this age-related transition more seamless and bearable.

Aging and Learning with Grace

I hope that what I have shared helps you to reflect on the relationship between aging and learning. This is especially important for women as we face unique, inevitable biological changes.

And for the record, if and when these changes occur, remember that they have no bearing on your intellectual prowess, capability or acuity.

Keep learning and stay healthy!

Bellina Barrow is the Principal Attorney/Founder of Tenoreque Legal, a virtual legal practice based in Trinidad & Tobago since 2021. A former legal tutor and a dedicated mentor, Bellina is committed to fostering and contributing to thought leadership in law, fintech, tech, digital assets and sports by deconstructing and demystifying these areas via practical and digestible storytelling and writing. Outside of her technical and academic writing, Bellina is also a co-author of the books Soul of An Athlete (2023) and Women in Law: Discovering the True Meaning of Success (2022).