Make it stick : the science of successful learning

by Peter C. Brown, Henry L Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel

This book gives you the tools to understand how learning happens, how learning is often misunderstood, and how to be a better learner yourself and how to help your kids learn. Interspersed with the science are fun stories of people who really learned deeply and were able to save lives or make an amazing business deal, because they had actual knowledge stored deeply in their brains. Such as when Mia, a Marine, jumped out of an airplane and accidentally ended up surrounded by the previous jumper’s parachute. Her training allowed her to “just sort of swim out” of the other guys chute as her own open parachute gave her lift above her.

Who is it for?

Parents who want to understand how to learning happens in the brain, and how to help their kids retain more of the information they study. College students and upper high school students should definitely read this book as they take more responsibility for their own education.

Biggest Takeaways for Parents: 1. We are poor judges of what we have learned.

We, as humans, so this includes our kids as well, do not usually know when we have learned something. Or rather, we think we have learned something when we have not. We have a lot of blind spots in our learning, but there is a simple way to reveal those blind spots to us, so we can really learn the material. One common misconception is that re-reading the textbook or notes from class will help you know what you have learned and will help you learn more. This is not the case.

Biggest Takeaways for Parents: 2. Test yourself 

First and foremost, to help our kids learn where blind spots are in their knowledge of a subject, we have to use retrieval from their long-term memory. Basically we need to test ourselves on the material to know if we have learned it. Having the kids re-read the material in a textbook or their notes only gives them the illusion that they know the material, because it seems familiar. Sure when you find a blind spot, go ahead and have them check the notes or textbook on that part, but then immediately have them close their eyes and restate the information they just re-learned, and then later go back and write a paragraph (without looking at the notes or textbook, of course) about what they re-learned to see if they really got it.

Some schools use tests as a learning tool, in the sense that it forces kids to retrieve the material from their memory in order to answer questions. My own kids’ middle school uses frequent quizzes in math, giving the kids many chances to know what they don’t know already. The quizzes are low stakes as far as their grades go, but the kids figure out what they need to spend time re-learning, before they get to the higher-stakes tests.

Biggest Takeaways for Parents: 3. More effective ways to study.

Real learning often feels difficult. Tell your kids not to get discouraged if it feels like they are not learning, because they have to spend more time thinking about a problem. The more they think about it in their working memory, the more deeply they will learn the material. One way of allowing kids to think more about a topic is to ask them to try solving a problem before you give them the solution. This is easier to implement for teachers who are often the first line of introduction of new topics. But if it comes up at home that you are teaching your child something new for the first time, give them the chance to solve it on their own, before seeing the solution.

We said previously that kids have to retrieve information in order to see if they have learned it. Every time they retrieve information, they are also telling their brain that this information is important and needs to go deeper in long-term memory. They can get knowledge to go deeper by spacing out their retrieval practice. It will do them more good to wait a few days or a week to have them try testing themselves on the material again.

Besides just spacing out your kid\’s retrieval practice, it is also helpful to mix up the types of problems they are being tested on. Scientists call this “interleaving.” If you interleave different types of math problems, say, or switch between math facts and social studies vocab, you will help your child remember (a.k.a. learn) all of it better.

Biggest Takeaways for Parents: 4. A couple more notes on learning.

Learning requires a foundation of previous knowledge. This is because kids learn by putting new information into context with the knowledge they already have. They elaborate on what they already know and this ties new information into their long-term memory. The more you can help your kids build a large foundation of knowledge the better. You can do this by encouraging them to read frequently, and to watch educational shows.

There is no such thing as a visual learner. Or kinesthetic or read/write or aural learners. Or really, all kids are visual AND kinesthetic AND aural AND read/write learners. We all learn better when we experience new information in more than one way. So, don’t waste time trying to present information to your child in “their learning style” and don’t blame teachers for failing to get through to your child, because they are not teaching to your child’s learning style. Your child will learn best if they experience new information in more than one learning style.

Action items:

Give your kids chances to test what they know. Have them do worksheets, answer questions about a topic, or write a few paragraphs on everything they know about the subject, rather than just re-reading their notes from school.

If you can, mix up their practice, so they are not just practicing the same type of problem over and over in a row. Give them a little of this and a little of that all mixed together. It’ll seem harder to them, but they will learn more deeply.