This page contains a resume of the salient points from the book “Make It Stick” by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel. The objective of this book is to provide techniques on how one can improve their ability to learn. The techniques are backed by studies that have proven that these different techniques do work in providing one with the ability to learn new and/or review different subjects and/or tasks. Let us now begin by describing the different techniques that one can use to help improve their knowledge of a given subject or tasks. On a personal note, all of those years of cramming has caused me to forget much of what I’ve learned and the following techniques should allow me to remember more of the subjects that I am going to learn about in the future.

Learning Tips for Students

Retrieval Practice

Retrieval practice: The act of retrieving knowledge and skills from memory. This is done by asking questions that will require that you retrieve that information without rereading the text or reviewing the videoes/actions. This is basically the use of quizzing oneself on the subject and/or task that one is learning. While one is learning something, ask yourself the following questions.

  • What are the key ideas?
  • What terms or ideas are new to me?
  • How would I define them?
  • How do the ideas relate to what I already know?

Let us then take an example of going through a textbook. If the textbook contains questions at the end of the chapter then we should apply ourselves to try to answer those questions without looking up the answers. Upon completing that task we should then compare our answers to what is the correct answer and ask ourselves the following questions.

  • What did I get right?
  • What did I get wrong?

We then focus our attention on the things that we got wrong by understanding what you did wrong and how to correct. Doing this will allow one to strengthen our knowledge of those parts of the text.

To augment the above one should take time to generate questions with answers from the current text. This can then be used in the same fashion as the above process. This is also a viable way of improving ones grasp of a subject.

The above is a better process of learning a subject compared to rereading your textbook and/or reviewing answered problems. This is the difference between a passively and actively learning.

While the above will benefit ones ability to understand and retain the subject. The above process needs to be done throughout the reading of the textbook by quizing oneselve on all the questions. This includes the ones that we got right as well as the ones that we got wrong. This process will help us get a better grasp of the subject and allow us to correct or enhance our understanding of the subject. For instance, one should go through these quizes weekly to strengthen your understanding of the subject by not forgetting what you’ve learned.

Here are some other points that one should know about the use of self quizzing:

  • Quizzing yourself on the main ideas and the meanings behind the terms helps you focus on the main points of the subject instead of the surrounding points or from the professor point of view
  • Quizzing allows one to be able to better quantify how well you know the subject. With the added benefit of focusing on the things you don’t know well enough.
  • Quizzing arrests forgetting by constantly challenging our abilities to recall the subjects that one has learned.

One last point that one should understand when using the above technique. At first it will feel awkward and seem that one is not improving through this technique because of how difficult it is for one to correctly answer those questions. Even though it seems like one is not improving. The fact that you need to work to get those answers is actually causing you to strengthen your understanding of those different aspects of the subject. Thus, with a little grit anyone can use the above to get a better grasp of a given subject.

In my humble opinion, I think that one should review ones homeworks and tests as part of the above process. Taking a initiative of gathering the answers to the ones that you got wrong with an understanding of why you got them wrong. Reviewing these by reanswering should also help one have a better grasp of the subject.

Space Out Your Retrieval Practice

Spaced practice: implies studying the information more than once while leaving considerable time between the sessions.

How is this done? We need to create a quiz schedule that will conform to the type of information that you need to recall. This implies that each type of information will require a different set of quizzing schedule. For instance, recalling names will require you to retest yourself fairly quickly since we tend to forget them pretty quickly. While trying to recall new material from a text book would require that you review the material a day from the time you’ve encountered it. Then you might review it after several days or weeks. As soon as you find that you have mastered the subject then reviewing it every month should suffice. While learning something new, it is recommended that you try to relate what you’ve already learned with what you are currently learning. The act of trying to form connections between the prior and current material provide one with a better understanding of the whole subject.

The use of flashcards in one way that can be used to help learn a subject. Note that one should shuffle the flashcards such that you aren’t asked the questions in the same order. This will improve one retention of the subject that you are trying to learn.

Another way of using spacing is by interleaving two or mote topics such that you are required to reset your state between topics which will reinforce your knwoledge of these subjects.

While spaced practice feels more difficult than what one is used to since you’ve become more rusted on the material that you are quizzing yourself on. The act of reconstructing the learning of the subject solidifies the long-term retention and understanding of the subject. Which provides you with a better grasp of the subject.

Interleave the Study of Different Problem Types

Interleaving: implies the studying of different topics that one is learning that requires a different point of view. What does this mean? Textbooks are sectioned into different blocks of studies that are different yet connected. One should then study something from each of the different blocks such that you don’t find yourself performing the same repetive tasks which gives one a false perception of ones knowledge. The act of mixing up the different subjects provide one with the ability to better understand and retain that subject.

How should one use interteaving? You start by learning a particular topic until you have somewhat of an understanding of the topic. You then interleave the quizzing of this topic with other topics by combining the quizzes together so that you have jump from one topic to another. This will help you learn how to discriminative the different types of topics where you’ve mastered that particular topic.

While interleaving the study with different topics feels disruptive and counterintuitive. The process provides one with a better ability to distinguish between different problems compared to focusing only on a single topic of study. This technique provides the ability to be malleable when confronted with a problem from that subject. You will be better equiped by being able to determine what type of problem you are dealing with and how to solve it.

Other Effective Study Strategies

Elaboration: is the process of finding additional layers of meaning in new material.

This includes relating the material to something that you already know, explaining the material to someone else or explaining how it relates to your life outside of class.

A more elaborate form of Elaboration is to discover a metaphor or visual image for the new material. For example,

  • Angular Momentum: picture how a figure skater increases their rotational speed by drawn in their arms.
  • Principle of Heat Transfer: visualize yourself putting your hands around a hot mug.
  • Radiation: visualize how the sun pools in the den on a wintry day.
  • Convection: think of the life saving A/C as your uncle squires you slow through his favorite back-alleys haunts of Atlanta.
  • Structure of the Atom: Teacher offers the analogy of the solar system where the sun is the nucleus and the planets are the electrons

While the above examples show you how one can apply the principle elaboration. There is the case that the more can elaborate the new learning with what you know, the stronger the grasp of the new material and the more connections you create to remember it later.

Here is another form of elaboration that add layers to meaning and promotes the learning of concepts, structures, and interrelationships of the new material. You take some form of tool like a sheet of paper or a drawning tool. You then write down the material you’ve been taught and then using key words you connect the different material together. This will produce a better connection of the new material with what you know and make it easier to remember it in the future.

Elaboration improves your mastery of the new material and multiplies the mental cues available to you for recall and application of it.

Generation: is an attempt to answer or solve a problem before being taught the material.

For a simple example, there is the act of leaving out some text that one would try to surmise. This act results in better memory and learning than just providing text with the missing text.

Another form of generation is Experimental learning where you set out to accomplish a task and you learn along the way by experimenting. During this process one be requires to use their creativity and knowledge source to be able to accomplish the task. If necessary you then consult with experts, texts or search the web whenever you are unable to move forward with your task. The process of trying to figure things out yourself is more likely to cause you to learn and remember the solution than having someone tell you.

Generation has the affect of making the mind more receptive to new learning.

Reflection: is the act of taking some time to review what has been learned in a recent class or experience and asking yourself questions. Like,

  • What went well?
  • What could have gone better?
  • What other knowledge or experiences does it remind you of?
  • What might you need to learn for better mastery, or what strategies might you use the next time to get better results?

Reflection is a combination of retrieval practice and elaboration that adds layers to learning and strengthens skills.

Calibration: is the act of aligning your judgements of what you know and don’t know with objective feedback so as to avoid being carried off by the illusion of mastery that catch many learners by surprise at test time.

We are all prone to a host of cognitive illusions. Calibration is the act of using an objective tool to clear away the illusions and adjust our perception to better reflect our reality. The aim is too insure that what you know is in fact correct.

The point is that you should always answer your question even though you think that you already know the answer. Answering each question no matter if you know it or not provides clear feedback if you really do know that answer or not. Thus, practice tests should be thought of real tests that require answers to question that you think you know. This will allow you to be better able to focus on things that you don’t know.

Calibration is the act of aligning your judgements of what you know and don’t know with objective feedback so as to avoid being carried off by the illusion of mastery that catch many learners by surprise at test time.

Mnemonic Devices: are like mental file cabinets. They give you handy ways to store information and find it again when you need it.

Mnemonic devices are like mentel file cabinets that are used to store information in. They provide a convenient way to store information in and find it again whenever you need it.

For instance, one can use the following mnemonic to remember the great lakes from east to west: Old Elephants Have Musty Skin.

Mnemonic devices help you to retrieve what you have learned and to hold arbitrary information in memory.

Mnemonics are not tool for learning per se but for creating mental structures that make it easier to retrieve what you have learned.

Tips for Lifelong Learners

Retrieval Practice

Generation

Reflection

Elaboration

Tips for Teachers

Explain to Students How Learning Works

A classroom students must be helped to understand the fundamental ideas of the following techniques.

  • Some kinds of difficulties during the learning help make the learning stronger and better to remember
  • When learning is easy, it is often superficial and soon forgotten
  • Not all of our intellectual abilities are hardwired. In fact, when learning is effortful, it changes the brain, making new connections and increasing intellectual ability
  • You learn better when you wrestle with new problems before being shown the solution, rather than the other way around
  • To achieve excellence in any sphere, you must strive to surpass your current level of ability
  • Striving, by its nature, often results in setbacks, and setbacks are often what provide the essential information needed to adjust strategies to achieve mastery

Teach Students How to Learn

Create Desirable Difficulties in the Classroom

Use frequent quizzing to help students consolidate learning and interrupt the process of forgetting. The quizzes should be predictable and fairly easy to allow students to be able to answer then while removing the need to assign makeup quizzes. Making sure that these quizzes are acceptable by the teacher and the students.

Create study tools that incorporate retrieval practice, generation and elaboration. These can be

  • exercises that students are required to try and solve prior to showing the solution in class
  • practice tests that students can download and test their knowledge against. These will include solutions to the tests
  • writing exercises that require the students to reflect on the material that they have learned and how this is related to themselves
  • exercises that require the students to generate short answers that include key ideas about the material that they’ve learned in class

Making quizzes and exercises count towards the students grade has shown that they are more beneficial that ones that don’t count towards the students final grade. These need not have to count for a sizeable amount of a students grade and can account for a small amount of the students grade. The act of going through the act of performing the tasks about allow for the students to get a better grasp of the material while reducing the affect to forgetting.

Be Transparent

It is important that the teacher explains what is their objective when using the techniques and tools above. This allows the students to understand why they should apply themselves with the techniques described by the teacher.

In 1956, a committee chaired by psycologist Benjamin Bloom devised the taxonomy of learning which are divided into six levels.

  1. Gaining knowledge
  2. Developing comprehension of the underlying facts and ideas
  3. being able to apply learning to solve problems
  4. being able to analyze ideas and relationships so as to make inferences
  5. being able to synthesis knowledge and ideas in new ways
  6. being able to evaluate opinions and ideas and make judgement based on evidence and objective criteria

Transparency is the act of explaining the goals that one is trying to accomplish using the techniques that are being explained. This has to be backed by the studies that shows how these techniques help the student grasp and remember the material that is being taught. One shouldn’t just tell the students what is expected but should also explain why it works.

Testing groups is the act of a group of students wrestling with a given question, without opening the textbook. They are exploring their current level of knowledge while gaining knowledge through discussing the material among themselves. They will be able to get a different perspective which allows them to gain a better grasp of the material.

Free recall is the act of taking some time after a class to write down all of the new material that has been taught without looking at any of the notes that the student has produced. The act of performing this will direct one to what they need to look at when quizzing oneself. This should take no more than 10 minutes but it is recommended that one use all of the time to see if you can come up with any of the new material that you weren’t able to produce.

Summary sheets is the use of drawings containing the key ideas, arrows and graphs of the new material. This allows the student to look at the new material with a different frame of mind. It makes then see the connections that the new material contains. While this could potentially provide insight in how the current material can also be connected with prior weeks material.

Learning paragraphs is the act of generating a small amount of sentences that the student uses to stimulate retrieval and reflection of the new material with the use of questions. This allows a student to better recall the new material and also allow then to better capture the new materials.

Bloom’s taxonomy of learning can be used to quantify the different testing questions to one of the six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning principles. This might be easier within a class setting but it would require more effort within a self-learning environment which is what most of us life-learners are in. Thus, any resources that provide insight into this type of qualification can be helpful.

Closing the achievement gap in science, “low-structure” classes compared to “high-structure” classes have been should that highly structured classes is better suited for learning compared to low structured classes. The difference is that low structure classes contain fewer tests that don’t necessarily test your knowledge of current and past material. While high structured classes include spaced quizzes that include prior knowledge. As part of this, the tests include whether mid-terms or finals. The objective is to include material from prior tests to allow for the student to reinforce their knowledge of the subject.

The use of high structured classes will reduce the number of failure students compared to low structured classes. This leads to a reduction of the gap between the lower performing students and the higher performing students benefiting everyone that takes the given class. The ability to understand and stick the material of the class will then benefit the student in subsequent classes.

Tips For Trainers

In-Service Training

Conclusion

While the above contains a combinations of techniques on how one can go about learning new materials. It comes down to how determine one is to wanting to master a subject or task. The techniques above will only benefit one if one is consistent in following the above techniques. This is also true with anything that one is trying to accomplish. Even though the above is something that has been studied by scientists throughout our lovely planet. We should keep in mind that we are all individuals and one should not experiment with different techniques. Since, no one knows you better than yourself you should then use that knowledge to experiment with different techniques to determine what works best for you. In the end, I hope that this will be beneficial to others besides myself.