Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (Peter C Brown, Henry L Roediger III, Mark A McDaniel)

 

Chapter 1: Learning is Misunderstood

- Many people believe that their intellectual ability is hard-wired from birth, and that failure to meet a learning challenge is an indictment of their native ability. But every time you learn something new, you change the brain - the residue of yoru experiences is stored.

- Many teachers believe that if they can make learning easier and faster, the learning will be better. Much research turns this belief on its head: when learning is harder, it's stronger and lasts longer.

....then the book came due at the library so I skipped ahead to chapter 8:

1. Retrieving - practice retrieving new (and old) learning (self-quizzing).
2. Spacing - space out your retrieval practice, leave time to forget in between practice sessions.
3. Interleaving - alternate working on different problems facilitates spacing and forgetting (making learning more difficult, which improves learning).
4. Elaboration - try to find additional layers of meaning in the new material.
5. Generation - attempt to answer a question or solve a problem before looking at the answer (experiential learning).
6. Reflection - a combination of retrieval practice and elaboration that adds layers to learning new material. Ask your self questions.
7. Calibration - to avoid various cognitive illusions, use an objective instrument to adjust your sense of what you know and don't know.
8. Mnemonic devices - build memory palaces to help yourself retrieve what you have learned.

I should go back and read the rest.

Goodreads says:

To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners.

Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned.

Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.