The New Science of Learning [OP]: How to Learn in Harmony With Your Brain

I'm an economics professor at a small liberal arts college. I've spent as much time studying the literature on teaching and learning (in hopes of becoming a better teacher and learner) as I have on my discipline.I purchased this book and devoured it in one sitting. It should be required reading for every college student and every college professor.**************** For students *****************You're in college to LEARN, and you're going to be in college for several years. Yet you come to college with little to no knowledge about HOW to learn or HOW to study. And sadly, nobody in college will teach you these essential skills. You'll read your textbook (maybe), take notes in class, review your notes before the test. Maybe this will be sufficient to get a decent grade. But it won't result in much learning. So you'll end up with a piece of paper that says you have an education, but not with much actual education.And you NEED that education if you want to thrive in this increasingly competitive knowledge-based and information-based economy.This short book can help you really learn and retain information. The book says it's not hard, you just have to know what to do. I disagree: it's hard to change habits, and the bad news is that you'll need to change some habits if you really want to learn. Habits like time management, to insure you have enough time for sleep, for exercise, and for studying outside of class; this is hard, because it means making tough choices about how you use your time. Another habit that needs to go: "multitasking." Your generation is better than any previous generation at task-switching, which you think of as multitasking. But true learning requires FOCUS. That means shutting out distractions (like the 'ding' your phone makes when people text you). It is hard to put away the phone for a whole hour if you've never done it. But you must, if you really want to learn.This book explains these points, and many others, in much detail. The book is easy to read, with short chapters (and the book overall is short). Everything in the book is supported by research (with lots of citations).Think about the incredible investment you're making in college: years of your life that could otherwise be spent in a paid job, not to mention thousands of dollars on tuition and other costs. If you want to get an excellent return on this investment, you really need to learn how to study, and learn how to learn. Sadly, your college will provide you very minimal training in these critical skills. You must pick them up on your own. If you do, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO DO REALLY AMAZING THINGS (the least of which includes earning a high G.P.A.). It's true. Even if you THINK of yourself as a C student, you CAN be an A student. You just need to learn how to learn. (And, importantly, to follow through and implement what you learn.)You really can do this. Reading this excellent, short, information-packed, affordable book is a great way to start.**************** For college professors *****************Most of us have received excellent training in our respective disciplines, but little to no training in the principles of effective teaching. We don't really know HOW students learn. We assume they learn the way WE learned when we were in college; therefore, we teach the way that, when we were students, worked best for us.This is a bad assumption. As future college professors, our learning styles as college students were atypical, and teaching to these learning styles will not work for most students.If we really want to be good teachers, we need to understand how students learn - and not just students that will eventually become professors.That's where this book can help. Reading it won't take much of your time. It's rich with information that can help us do our jobs more effectively, can help us understand the way students learn so we can better design our classes and assignments for better outcomes. This information is based on research, which the authors document thoroughly.I can't recommend the book highly enough. Again, every college student and every professor should read it.

I had to get this book for a college class, and I was kinda expecting for me to get bored of reading it by the first chapter. But I started reading it and I finished more than half the book in a week! This book is easy to follow along and learn about useful information that I am now using to make my college life better!!!

OH MY GOODNESS - this should be required reading for high school and college student alike. The brain research is directly applicable to the everyday like and survival of a student................. Exasperated parents and frustrated students will benefit from this amazing book!

Had to get this book for a college class. It was kind of interesting but it was also very repetitive. It had very similar information in each chapter.

"This book tells you little that your mother didn't tell you," said one of my teacher colleagues. I'd been thinking exactly the same thing. The very big difference, however, is that there is some kind of scientific research to back up the claims. Our college faculty book discussion members all think highly of the book and have had some very lively discussions. I've even taken it to class to read parts of it to my freshmen students who want to multitask by texting in class, really don't want to study for quizzes before the preceding night, and don't sleep nearly enough. We faculty are trying to do better ourselves in light of the evidence in this book and other similar research appearing in other media sources these days.

Required for a class. Ok reading, kind of interesting sometimes.Fast shipping on student prime. Not too expensive.Not bad.

I would recommend this book for ANYONE who is trying to learn new things - in formal education settings or not. It is full of research on how the brain works (in general and during learning), implications for the learning process, and tips for how to use your brain effectively to learn efficiently. I'm a psychology professor with an interest in teaching and learning, so I feel I'm qualified to make this recommendation.

This book is very helpful, I am glad my class required it. It has a lot of recommendations on how or what we need to do to effectively and efficiently learn.

この本は脳科学の研究成果をもとに大学生向けに学び方をアドバイスしてくれる本です。英語もかなり読みやすく、各章末にまとめを箇条書きしてくれているところもプラスです。自分の学びを効率よくしたいと思う人すべての人にお勧めします。

This is a very helpful little book. I share the authors' amazement that we can spend so long in education, doing lots of learning, without ever being taught much about the processes for learning.The book seems to be aimed at new students entering college in USA. I think it works far wider than that. I'd recommend it to all of us involved in learning tasks particularly in educational settings, but I think we're all in one of those-as all jobs these days involve ongoing learning. they'd be boring if they didn't.This book is really about how humans prepare themselves to take in and subsequently use new I ideas and information. The basic themes are simple and apply at any age.The basics are simple. Eat well. Sleep well. Do regular exercise. The brain is like a muscle and gets better with use. Intelligence is not a fixed given about you, it can to a very large extent be developed via disciplined practice. Gradual assimilation and frequent review of information gets it into long term memory. Cramming May get you through an exam, but the learning lasts about 36 hours at best, and may distract you from recalling some of your deeper memories. Learning proceeds best in a quiet focused area. You pay attention, and you only have a certain amount of this for each day- direct it carefully- a view that works in workplaces as well as education.Multitasking is a disaster for cognitive function - less gets done, it gets done less well, and overall everything takes longer.Being hyper stimulated e.g with music, TV, iPAD, and other parallel activities reduces sleep, fatigues the brain, and distracts from learning. In our work worlds we pay a huge cost for repeated interruptions- we don't either deal with the interruption or the original task well.This is a well written book that describes and gives the evidence for the key points I've described above. I think it's calm and measured approach to learning will be very useful to all those in education, and it's messages readily adapt for all of us dealing with information overload in knowledge based work. In other words I think this book will help many people, and I recommend it highly

Great little reference book for novice psychologists and for students in general regarding how our brains learn best. It is written in a very easy way for anyone to pick it up and take something away from it