Does the activity of learning itself actually make it easier for the brain to learn, i.e. increase the ability for neuron growth or something similar?

The mind builds itself from concepts such as pain/pleasure, good/bad, beautiful/ugly and then goes on to work out simple problems like movement and recognition of patterns. In my opinion and undoubtedly many others, this building of concepts and recognition of abstract patterns of similarity within problem solving is what has created our civilisation.

In our single focus activities, like reading or learning to drive, little achievements make for huge advancements in our techniques and ultimately mean our possible achievements become much larger.

The similarities we see in problems we encounter enable us to use pre-learned knowledge without realising it at the time (climbing an assault course net is harder for people who have never climbed a ladder before). These problems may not be similar in any ordinary way, but however abstract, no learning is possible without the previous steps.

A pyramid of the mind is how i see it.

I agree with you, trojan... I was going to say that learning could make learning easier in at least two ways.

Firstly, once the mind goes through a few iterations of learning, it might get used to that process, making it easier to repeat. You could say it learns about learning.

Secondly, the ideas that are learned are prerequisites for learning more difficult ideas. So learning some ideas makes learning other ideas easier. Learning about logic makes learning both maths and philosophy easier.

In a word yes. The learning process involves one having to have pay attention, next the processing of the information you are studying then establishes a link with your prior knowledge and seeks association. The next step is really crucial and that is reaching a conclusion. In order to reach a conclusion and store the newly acquired knowledge there must be a link between your short-term and long-term memory. Finally an analysis of the conclusion you have by validating/confirming your conclusion.

"Knowledge of truth alone does not suffice; on the contrary this knowledge must continually be renewed by ceaseless effort, if it is not to be lost. It resembles a statue of marble which stands in the desert and is continuously threatened with burial by the shifting sand. The hands of service must ever be at work, in order that the marble continue lastingly to shine in the sun." Albert Einstein, Out of my Later Years pg 29-31

On this matter I highly recomend you get a copy of Out of My Later Years. The section on eduacation is rather short (10 or so pages) and a really quick read. The work on a whole is a fantastic compilation, and lends some very great insight in many different fields (Convictions and Beliefs, Science, Public Affairs, Science and Life, Personalities etc.)

Just a quick afterthought.
I have tended to keep less intelligent people as friends in my youth, mainly because I wouldn't make a good model and so I subconciously selected friends to make my intellect my saving grace. confession over lol

I say this because a lot of the time people look at me as if I somehow know everything there is about everything, which is far from true, but clearly they are unable to understand some things I speak about because they are missing the vital building blocks of the beginning scholar.

An example:

Give a complex book on some topic to a child, with no pictures. There is no way they can begin to comprehend it. They need to learn each letter, then simple words, then grammar, then basic principles in the selected topic, and then maybe they can begin to reach the level required to understand the original book.

This process happens in a less formal way in life everyday. People who can read the book without any additional training seem like they have been taught in divine ways to a person who is struggling with simple words. The path of learning required to get upto speed can often seem too daunting if all the steps are laid out from the start.