Something my high school Computer Science teacher told me was that I wasn't learning effectively if I didn't have to try to understand something at least three

Something my high school Computer Science teacher told me was that I wasn't learning effectively if I didn't have to try to understand something at least three times before it clicked. Roughly 15 years later, I've found his advice to at least smell true. Stated more generally, learning is to some significant extent about gaining understanding[1]. When you don't understand something, it is confusing. In my experience, if you are not experiencing confusion -- more specifically the removal of confusion through effort of some sort --the "learning" you are participating in would more accurately be called memorization.. [1] at least in this context