Human see, human do. Our trainable neural networks.
Humans are imitation machines. In fact, we have dedicated neurons for copying other humans—called mirror neurons. These pieces of our brains are what create the capacity of the human mind to quickly gain new knowledge by watching and seeing how a more knowledgeable person does a certain thing—how they behave, how they act, how they reason. This feature of the human mind is what allows us to learn by simply watching. But mirror neurons are something we not only use by accident of nature, but something we can actively leverage when trying to learn something new—whether sports or physics, these principles apply.
Research shows that mirror neuron systems are present from birth, with infants as young as 6 months showing neural mirroring activity. Studies using EEG demonstrate that when babies observe actions, their brains activate the same regions as when they perform those actions themselves.
Remember when you were young, you had created mentors, either implicitly or explicitly. These mentors influenced how you acted and how you thought. When internalized, mentors shaped who you were, and who you became. This happens because your identity is being formed, and the older humans you talk with, listen to, or learn from, install mental models inside of your mind. Because of how plastic the mind is when young, the mentors we have in our earliest years stick with us and form our skills, ways of thinking, and most importantly how we act. We believe that forming young minds with a careful curation of mentors is highly important for shaping both the ways a child acts, but also to boost their time to learn skills.
Let's look at three major ways mentors are powerful assets for learning:
1. Mentors help us avoid common mistakes
When you try to learn new things you are naturally going to fail—probably more than is necessary. Why? Because you do not have deep enough knowledge to understand the second and third order consequences of an action. But when you find mentors with the skill you want to learn, a bright and sunny path suddenly opens, and you can just start running through the trail without stumbling over the path more messy. Good mentors give us fast advice on where to start, then help us keep running in the right direction without stumbling onto rocks or branches on the path. Learning is like the Amazon rainforest and mentors should give you a path clearest through the jungle.
Research on error management training shows that guided learning with expert feedback leads to significantly better performance than trial-and-error alone. A meta-analysis of 112 studies found that mentored individuals showed substantial improvements in behavioral, attitudinal, and career outcomes compared to non-mentored peers. In fact, studies demonstrate that when learners make mistakes under expert guidance, they develop superior performance and self-efficacy compared to error-free learning.
2. Mentors let us tap into the human biology through mirror neurons
Our biology is massively underutilized in our daily lives—simply put: we have a supercomputer that usually sits idle. The hack is to understand how it works by learning a little bit about how it functions (the goal with Alma for Learning). One of these powerful functions of our minds is that we have specific neurons built-in by birth that help us mirror the actions of another human. These neurons exist because as humans, it is insanely helpful to be able to learn motor skills (walking, hammering, or anything that starts in the brain and activates a muscle) fast. Mirror neurons are why the mentor and mentee relationship works—the mentor gives the mentee the blueprint to mirror. All the mentee has to do is to listen, watch, and do. (This is just scratching the surface of what lies within our biology—hidden from everyday view... More on this in later posts.)
Neuroscience research using fMRI brain imaging shows that when expert dancers watch dance performances, their mirror neuron systems activate more strongly for familiar movements they can perform themselves. This demonstrates how observational learning literally changes our brains. Studies have found that observational learning activates the same neural networks as physical practice, with learners showing behavioral improvements even without physical rehearsal.
Good mentors give us the space and time to observe and immerse ourselves into whatever the thing is—giving room for more questions, more reps, or room for experimentation. The mirror neuron system enables us to understand actions, intentions, and emotions of others, creating a biological foundation for social and skill learning that mentors can leverage.
3. Mentors create realistic goals we can aim at
It's very easy for beginners to set sky-high goals, goals that by nature do not have roots in reality. Why? Because the mind is less rigid and rational when you are young. This plays to our benefit because you start a striving process toward something that might look impossible to others, but looks inevitable to you. But to get to our goal—big or small—you should seek mentors. Mentors can set the bar for what it truly takes—not just setting a goal—mentors let you know what reality demands in terms of blood, sweat, and tears to get to the goal. This way mentors can effectively calibrate your connection with reality.
Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development theory explains how mentors help children achieve beyond their current abilities through scaffolding—breaking complex tasks into manageable steps. A comprehensive meta-analysis of 70 youth mentoring studies (25,286 participants) found that goal-focused mentoring approaches significantly improved academic, social, and behavioral outcomes.
Mentors give us a realistic measure of the true work your goal needs in order to succeed. This is powerful for children, because they do not have a mental model of how much work anything requires—this is still too complex for them. But what a mentor can give children is a breakdown into micro pieces of what exactly is needed for greatness (or whatever the goal is). In case of reading, if someone wants to become a doctor, a realistic micro breakdown of this goal would be how many hours today rather than how many years of study or what schools to go to.
Research shows that when mentors help youth set specific, achievable goals and break them down into daily actions, mentored youth are 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs and 52% less likely to skip school. Good mentors always help make our goals concrete by breaking them down into the smallest possible piece.
Breaking it down
The three core insights from this post: Children can use their biology effectively for learning skills to get to their goals by getting help from mentors who:
Clear the path by helping avoid unnecessary mistakes through guidance and feedback
Understand how increased reps and iterations exponentially increase children's abilities over time by leveraging mirror neurons and observational learning
Set the bar of expected work to get to their goal, and can help break down what it takes into daily work chunks
Studies consistently show that mentoring relationships produce meaningful improvements across academic performance, social skills, and career development. The key is finding mentors who understand both the science of learning and the art of patient guidance.
This is part of Alma for Learning, helping parents and educators understand the science behind how children learn best. Subscribe for more evidence-based insights on nurturing young minds.