How We Learn by Benedict Carey
Summary In the tradition of The Power
of Habit and Thinking,
Fast and Slow comes a practical, playful, and
endlessly fascinating guide to what we really know about learning and memory
today—and how we can apply it to our own lives.
From an early age, it is drilled into our heads:
Restlessness, distraction, and ignorance are the enemies of success. We’re told
that learning is all self-discipline, that we must confine ourselves to
designated study areas, turn off the music, and maintain a strict ritual if we
want to ace that test, memorize that presentation, or nail that piano recital.
But what if almost everything we were told about
learning is wrong? And what if there was a way to achieve more with less
effort?
In How We
Learn, award-winning
science reporter Benedict Carey sifts through decades of education research and
landmark studies to uncover the truth about how our brains absorb and retain
information. What he discovers is that, from the moment we are born, we are all
learning quickly, efficiently, and automatically; but in our zeal to
systematize the process we have ignored valuable, naturally enjoyable learning
tools like forgetting, sleeping, and daydreaming. Is a dedicated desk in a
quiet room really the best way to study? Can altering your routine improve your
recall? Are there times when distraction is good? Is repetition necessary?
Carey’s search for answers to these questions yields a wealth of strategies
that make learning more a part of our everyday lives—and less of a chore.
By road testing many of the counterintuitive
techniques described in this book, Carey shows how we can flex the neural
muscles that make deep learning possible. Along the way he reveals why teachers
should give final exams on the first day of class, why it’s wise to interleave
subjects and concepts when learning any new skill, and when it’s smarter to
stay up late prepping for that presentation than to rise early for one last
cram session. And if this requires some suspension of disbelief, that’s because
the research defies what we’ve been told, throughout our lives, about how best
to learn.
The brain is not like a muscle, at least not in
any straightforward sense. It is something else altogether, sensitive to mood,
to timing, to circadian rhythms, as well as to location and environment. It
doesn’t take orders well, to put it mildly. If the brain is a learning machine,
then it is an eccentric one. In How We Learn, Benedict
Carey shows us how to exploit its quirks to our advantage.
Angie's
Comments: Very practical book!
If you are looking for information about studying better, How We Learn
is a great resource. Benedict Carey does discuss the science behind learning,
but he spends most of his time and effort on showing us how to study better. I
wish I had this book in college. I discovered some of the study techniques on
my own, but this book would have saved me a lot of time!
I
highly recommend this book to high school students, any parents who have or
will have children in school, and to adult learners. If you don’t have much time, check out
the Appendix: Eleven Essential Questions on page 223, which gives a brief summary
of the book.
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