How We Learn: Throw Out the Rule Book and Unlock Your Brain’s Potential by Benedict Carey.

Just finished reading How We Learn: Throw Out the Rule Book and Unlock Your Brain’s Potential by Benedict Carey.

In the book, How We Learn, Benedict Carey goes over decades of education research and landmark studies related to the brain. He shows how we can flex the neural muscles that make learning deep easier. The brain is not like a muscle in any straightforward way; it is sensitive to moods and timing along with location and environment as well as feelings. His search for answers yields strategies that take learning less of a chore - making them more part of our everyday lives.

The author argues in the light of latest research in psychology and neuroscience that instead of adopting the "proper" study habits drilled into students from primary school, which often include minimizing distractions and finding a quiet space to work in, the author suggests that students would be better off not following these rules. Instead of attempting to find a new way to study without ever resolving poor studying habits, this book focuses on developing responsible loafing instead. The book has the power to transform one’s concept of learning and that is usually based on many assumptions and cultural beliefs. The book describes the neuroscience of our brain and how it creates memories, what can be done to remember things better and longer, as well as boost creativity.

The book starts of with a chapter on the anatomy of the brain and what functions each part plays in our overall cognition. This lays the foundation for understanding all the arguments that the following chapters construct. The author explains which areas are involved in memory formation and how memories are stored in the human brain, all the while describing different experiments done by scientists and what implication their results had to this field of knowledge.

?The next 9 chapters the author dismantles many of the assumptions we have for how we learn. Each chapter is centred around an assumption or “good practice” in learning and discusses why they are wrong. The themes are as follows:

1.??????Forgetting helps memory creation.

2.??????Learning in different contexts is better than sticking to one ritual

3.??????Spacing out learning sessions is better

4.??????Testing is a form of learning

5.??????Distractions aid learning

6.??????Detaching oneself from problems and then coming back to them after a day or so can increase your chance of solving it

7.??????Mixing information and interleaving aids learning

8.??????Perceptual learning is a self-correcting and automatic process that happens all the time and can be used to help in learning

9.??????Sleeping the right way helps learning

Many of these strategies look counterintuitive and makes one wonder how can this be possible. The arguments and the science that the author has complied through exhaustive research is powerful enough to convince the reader. Throughout the book chapter to chapter the author mentions the stories of psychologist trying to decipher the mysteries of the mind and then coming to ground breaking discoveries. Along with this the author mentions his own experience with these strategies and how it is has transformed his learning. ??

This book is an amazing resource specially for students, who can boost their learning potential by the techniques suggested. However, throughout the book the author engages with learning as a pure memory-based activity with a few random inferences to creativity. I think learning is much more than mere memorising information, it includes application of knowledge in unique unseen contexts, making analogies from known information and then creativity adds another whole dimension to learning. I feel the author has not addressed this aspect with much detail. Problem solving and innovation are much needed skills that are not solely based on memory. Furthermore acing exams through better memorisation is one of the major flaws in the current education system that has overshadowed the more important goals of education such critical thinking, social skills, character education, creativity and original thought. Nonetheless the book is informative and gives the reader insights that can translated into into practice.

The following quotes are from the book which I found to be interesting:

The collective findings of modern learning science provide much more than a recipe for how to learn more efficiently. They describe a way of life.

Sticking to one learning ritual… slows us down.

Some of what we’ve been taught to think of as our worst enemies – laziness, ignorance, distraction – can also work in our favour