Learning is hard. It takes effort to hear something new, permanent etch that information in your brain, retrieve that information at will, prove to others that you know that information, and then continue to manipulate that information in a variety of real life situations.
Although these tasks are the very essence of education, the science of learning is rarely taught in school. Rather, students come up with their own methods for learning information, none of which are very effective.
In an article for Edutopia, a website run by the George Lucas Foundation, I interviewed Dan Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia specializing in neuroscience and education and author of the new book, Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy. For an hour, we talked about what research says is the best way for students to become better students.
Read more at Apt. 11D, the newsletter
Apt. 11d 
I just ordered this book for my (BFA-bound! He’s been accepted into his top choice of university!) high schooler and my just-about-to-be middle schooler.
Thanks for this. From the article (which I’ve only had time to skim but will come back to), I agree and it’s been a point of argument at our home, because I couldn’t really articulate it. I was a naturally good student and my spouse was not, and my kids have struggled with some of the points this seems to be making. I’m very glad to have a guide we can read together.
I really appreciate your getting this out there into The Discourse.
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BFA! Congrats!
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I’ve followed Willingham’s work for a while, first because of his take on learning styles and later because of the work suggesting better ways to learn.
I really liked your first paragraph in your newsletter:
“Learning is hard. It takes effort to hear something new, permanent etch that information in your brain, retrieve that information at will, prove to others that you know that information, and then continue to manipulate that information in a variety of real life situations.”
It summarizes the difficulty of understanding whether learning is occuring when the teaching happens when we want all of the following: 1) long lasting learning, not just for a day, or a week, or a year; 2) retrieving the information when you need it or want it; 3) applying the information and learning in new situations.
I kind of felt like I’ve internalized some of what was presented in the interview (I haven’t read the book), about note taking, highlighting, quizzing for retention/studying, distributed practice, . . . . and that my children have been taught those practices as well. However, as you say, applying that advice is hard to do, and it is sometimes easier to just pretend to yourself that you are studying.
The book might address the issue, but, in the short descriptions I’ve seen, there isn’t a discussion of what was my primary method of learning as a science major, even in biology: problem sets. Problem sets require distributed practice and applying learning in new situations and retrieving information (usually merely looking at a method isn’t the hard part, so memory matters, as more than a reference). Some parts of biology are more content based, but even in biology, there are a lot of “problems”. I just scanned over the MIT open course problem sets in molecular biology — which I cannot do — and they reminded me of how we studied.
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