The Science of Successful Learning
Source/Author: Mike Murphy, Headmaster
February 06, 2015
Two Washington University Professors of Psychology, Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel, have teamed up with author Peter Brown to write a wonderful new book, Make it Stick. I am confident this book will become incredibly popular with teachers, parents and guardians.
Six chapters, each devoted to a theory behind a method for learning. The final chapter is loaded with practical applications for students, teachers, trainers, and life-long learners, providing research-based advice in straightforward language. Psychobabble and Edu-speak are kept to a minimum. The book is written to enhance understanding and learning of:
- How to retrieve information
- The importance of mixing up practice
- Why challenges in learning are good
- Knowing how to know what you don’t know
- Making use of all of one’s talents
- Developing strategies that make learning active
The research supports these methods and many other proven tools for learning. In
addition, the professors make a great case for why many common methods of study
are counterproductive.
Coaches, athletes, musicians, pilots, students, teachers, professors and people of all
ages provide examples of good learning practices.
While not making a case for high-stakes testing, the professors use research to show
the critical importance for self-testing by learners and regular, cumulative, short
term, low-stakes testing to enhance learning.
If you know someone who wants to be a better hitter in baseball, more efficiently learn lines for a play or speech, enhance memorization skills, be more successful on long-term cumulative tests and/or become a more effective life-long learner, have him/her read Make it Stick. In fact, you may want to read the book together and quiz each other regularly to verify what you have learned!
Cheers!
Mike
