Make It Stick (1-4)

Learning is Misunderstood * learning: acquiring knowledge / skills and having them readily available * requires memory * need to keep learning and remembering all our lives * learning is an acquired skill * claims * effortful learning sticks * we are poor judges of when we’re learning well or not * the most preferred study strategies are the least productive (rereading text, etc) * retrieval practice is an effective learning strategy * spacing out practice results in longer lasting learning * trying to solve something before being taught the solution leads to better learning * all new learning requires a foundation of prior knowledge * elaboration: giving new material meaning by connecting it with what you already know * mental model: mental representation of some external reality * people who learn to extract key idea from new material and organize them into mental model have an advantage in learning complex mastery * cognitive psychology: basic science of understanding how the mind works * conducts empirical research into how people perceive, remember, and think
To Learn, Retrieve * reflection: retrieving knowledge and connecting to new experiences and visualizing / mentally rehearsing * retrieving knowledge from memory has the effect of making that knowledge easier to remember in the future * massed studying (cramming) leads to higher scores on immediate tests but results in easier forgetting than retrieval * when retrieval practice is spaced, it leads to stronger long-term retention * corrective feedback is useful for students * produces better learning of the correct answers
Mix Up Your Practice * practice is more effective when broken up into periods of time and spaced out * better mastery, longer retention, more versatility * requires more effort * allows for consolidation of knowledge * interleaved practice - mixing of problem types * varied practice - improves ability to transfer learning from one situation to different applications * also beneficial for motor learning * these skills help develop discrimination skills * “What type of problem is this?” * these principles are broadly applicable
Embrace Difficulties * desirable difficulties: short-term impediments that make for stronger learning * how learning works: * encoding: converting sensory perceptions into meaningful representations in the brain * consolidation: strengthening mental representations for long-term memory * helps organize and solidify learning * retrieval: being able to retrieve information when needed * capacity is limited * we reassign cues to memories all the time * sometimes forgetting is essential to learning * effort helps: * reconsolidating memory * creating mental models * broadening mastery * fostering conceptual learning * improving versatility * generative learning: the process of trying to solve a problem without being taught how * impediments you can’t overcome become undesirable difficulties