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.

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