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How We Learn
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
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How We Learn
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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.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mr J
- 05-04-21
Fascinating
Truly useful tips for learning, backed up by science and written well.
Worth anyone’s time to read, if you’re a student, teacher or parent.
Also one for the educational method doubters.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Andy T
- 17-08-20
Fascinating listen
Well worth listening to some of the myths and facts about how learning and memory making (and memory clearance) is thought to work. Some surprising conclusions, read in a very easy-to-digest manner.
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- BuffyG
- 09-01-19
Excellent listening
Fascinating angled approach, interesting concepts definitely worth deep consideration. Recommend to all my teacher friends
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- Ida Fischer
- 04-04-19
It's worth reading it. 😃
This book gave me lovely ideas on how to study smart not just hard. I will "walk away" from it a little bit then will listen it again. Before I will listen it again I will try to recall and tell the various methods and tricks it contains, as well as the research projects with which scientists demonstrated which method in what way can be beneficial, for whom and for what kind of study material.
Anyway, it is a great book. I would recommend to anyone who wishes to gather ideas on different study techniques and wish to better understand his/her own current way of learning new theories, concepts and skills. I hope you will find this book as fruitful as I do. 📖😄👍
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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- Michael Walsh
- 21-07-22
content was okay ,narration was poor
interesting ideas dragged out over a nook which is 4x longer than it needed to be.
the narrator had an irratiting habit of putting on a whiney accent whenever reading a quote from a female.
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- Auxi
- 16-05-21
the content is great
loved the content and I got the audible version as I can listen to it whilst exercising. the reading, though,I found it a bit boring. Great and simple way to explain the way we learn
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- Daniel Bryant
- 24-06-21
Fantastic insight into the learning process!
Fascinating and we'll paced, this is a great introduction and overview of how we learn. I consider myself a life-long learner, and so even though I recognised many of the behaviours/recommendations it was good to hear the research behind the approaches. I learned several new learning techniques, too!
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- Anonymous User
- 26-06-20
I learned a thing or two...
Anyone picking this book already knows that we are never done learning. But that concept is shaken from the core in this book. By the end of it you will have a whole new perspective about what learning is all about and how the brain works. as if your whole life was a lie!! all the "best practices" of learning anything from math to history to sports, whatever felt most intuitive was just an illusion.....
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-01-23
vital reading
A great review of learning theory in a readable format. essential reading for everyone.
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- Ms A A
- 25-05-15
Very informative
Great book that challenges the assumptions we have about how we learn. I have lots of new strategies!
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22 people found this helpful