Make it stick (book)

Written by researchers, goes over what helps learn and what doesn't, backed by social experiments.

Most chapter titles are self explanatory:

• Learning is misunderstood
• To learn, retrieve
• Mix Up your practice
• Embrace difficulties
• Avoid illusion of knowing
• Get beyond learning styles
• Increase your abilities
• Make it stick

"Learning is an acquired skill, and the most effective strategies are often counterintuitive."

"Learning is deeper and more durable when it's effortful."

"Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt."

"Retrieval practice yelds the best results" => quizzes, test, flashcards, etc.

"Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt."

"Linking new knowledge to prior knowledge, there is no limit to how much one can learn in this way. Make your own mental models.""

"Making mistakes and correcting them builds the bridges to advanced learning."

"Try to rephrase text into your own words and to what you know."

"Retrieval-testing interrupts forgetting, so regular self-quizzing is a great way to learn - in doing so, you find what you know and what you don't know."

Misconceptions

Repetition doesn't help.
Focused effort doesn't help (single topic, long periods). Repetion gives a false sense of mastery. You'll forget quickly. Highlighting & underlining doesn't help, false sense of mastery. Instead, active strategies like summmarising or teaching help. Low effort shortcuts overall don't help. But we can use our effort more efficiently if we know how to learn. Learning styles/preferences (ex: hearing vs seeing) is a myth.

Study by Roediger and Karpicke:

• 1 group quizzed or tested after reading
• 1 group re-reads
• 1 control group => +50% retention for the quizzed/tested group

research by Cepeda et al => spaced practice is better than massed practice (cramming)

Pashler et al. => found no credible evidence that learning in one's preferred style significantly improves learning outcomes.

Kornell and Bjork study: hard & easy typefont: suggests that materials that are slightly harder to learn from improve retention, highlighting the importance of engaging more deeply with the material. It underscores the idea that a feeling of ease during learning does not necessarily equate to better learning

Factual

Retireval practice improves knowledge and retention. Spaced and varied practice helps (forces retrieval). Struggling with a problem helps. Effort helps overall. Generating examples, answers, methaphors help compared to checking an answer. Dunning-Krugger Effect: The least competent overestimate their competence the most (Illusion of knowing) Teaching how learning works first has positive impact. Learning takes effort and effort changes the brain. Metaphores, mental models help build a connexion to a pre-existing knowledge.

Learning key steps

• Information is received in short-term memory, easily forgotten
• Consolidation: Memory traces are reorganised, linked to past knowledge, stabilised and stored in long-term memory
• Retrieval: Material fetched from long-term memory. This reinforces memory traces and reconsolidates them with new learnings

Recent research

Neuroplatisty: as the name implies, the brain is like plastic, it can be modeled with spaced and challenging practice.

The concept of a growth mindset, popularized by Carol Dweck, has seen further research and application. Studies continue to show that students who believe their abilities can be developed (a growth mindset) outperform those who believe their abilities are fixed (a fixed mindset). (mentionned in make it stick)

Sleep plays a key role in solidifying memory and aiding in problem-solving and creativity

Significant impact of emotions on learning. Emotional states can greatly influence a student's ability to absorb and retain information

Multitasking reduces the quality of learning and memory retention

Research shows that when learners are taught strategies to monitor and regulate their learning, they become more effective learners. (metacognition)