Learn Better: Mastering the Skills for Success in Life, Business, and School, or

Description: Learn Better by Ulrich Boser For centuries, experts have argued that learning was about memorizing information: Youre supposed to study facts, dates, and details; burn them into your memory; and then apply that knowledge at opportune times. But this approach to learning isnt nearly enough for the world that we live in today, and in Learn Better journalist and education researcher Ulrich Boser demonstrates that how we learn can matter just as much as what we learn.In this brilliantly researched book, Boser maps out the new science of learning, showing how simple techniques like comprehension check-ins and making material personally relatable can help people gain expertise in dramatically better ways. He covers six key steps to help you "learn how to learn," all illuminated with fascinating stories like how Jackson Pollock developed his unique painting style and why an ancient Japanese counting device allows kids to do math at superhuman speeds. Bosers witty, engaging writing makes this book feel like a guilty pleasure, not homework.Learn Better will revolutionize the way students and society alike approach learning and makes the case that being smart is not an innate ability—learning is a skill everyone can master. With Boser as your guide, you will be able to fully capitalize on your brains remarkable ability to gain new skills and open up a whole new world of possibilities. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography ULRICH BOSER is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank. A former contributing editor for U.S. News & World Report, Boser is the author of two previous books. His work has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two daughters. Review "Learning makes us human, yet few of us truly understand how the brain, the heart, and the body work together to create new knowledge. Learn Better pulls back the curtain on the hidden ways we are wired for learning, in ways that are alternately humorous, surprising, and profound."—Walter Isaacson, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute and author of The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution"Brimming with helpful insights and interesting stories, this surprising and engaging new book provides an important, much-needed introduction to the science of learning. It belongs on the bookshelf of every learner."—Linda Darling-Hammond, President of the Learning Policy Institute and Charles E. Ducommon Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University"This critically important book offers valuable—and fun to master—insights about how to learn deeply and meaningfully in a time when all the knowledge in the world is just a swipe of the finger away."—Laura Moser, former education blogger at Slate"Learning is the project of a lifetime. In this humane and insightful book, Ulrich Boser reveals the tools that everyone from grade school children to their parents in the workplace can use to keep pace in a fast-changing world."—Kevin Carey, author of The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere"This book is a great read. I enjoyed every moment of it. I enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on my own experiences in the classroom and my own experiences as a student."—John King, Former U.S. Secretary of Education "Learn Better is at once comprehensive and delightful, filled to the brim with definitive insights on how we learn best. Boser is an engaging guide who has thoroughly sifted through the vast research on the science of learning to offer key takeaways that can be put into practice immediately. Essential reading for educators, parents, and anyone who wants to learn, once and for all, what it actually takes to learn better."—Christine Gross-Loh, bestselling author of The Path and Parenting Without Borders "Where was this book when I was struggling through undergrad, fighting off sleep as I burnt the proverbial midnight oil and laid the foundation of my current carpal tunnel condition from taking copious class notes that I now know—all these years later—were all but worthless? As Ulrich Boser reveals in an engrossing and highly entertaining way, the retention of facts, dates, and principles—learning—isnt about what you do, but how you do it. One cant simply vacuum up data, instead one has to "meaningfully process information." Best of all for this old dog, anyone can master new skills by following the straightforward techniques detailed in Learn Better."—Carl Chancellor, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Review Quote "Learning makes us human, yet few of us truly understand how the brain, the heart, and the body work together to create new knowledge. Learn Better pulls back the curtain on the hidden ways we are wired for learning, in ways that are alternately humorous, surprising, and profound." --Walter Isaacson, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute and author of The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution "Brimming with helpful insights and interesting stories, this surprising and engaging new book provides an important, much-needed introduction to the science of learning. It belongs on the bookshelf of every learner." --Linda Darling-Hammond, President of the Learning Policy Institute and Charles E. Ducommon Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University "This critically important book offers valuable--and fun to master--insights about how to learn deeply and meaningfully in a time when all the knowledge in the world is just a swipe of the finger away." --Laura Moser, former education blogger at Slate "Learning is the project of a lifetime. In this humane and insightful book, Ulrich Boser reveals the tools that everyone from grade school children to their parents in the workplace can use to keep pace in a fast-changing world." --Kevin Carey, author of The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere "This book is a great read. I enjoyed every moment of it. I enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on my own experiences in the classroom and my own experiences as a student." --John King, Former U.S. Secretary of Education "Learn Better is at once comprehensive and delightful, filled to the brim with definitive insights on how we learn best. Boser is an engaging guide who has thoroughly sifted through the vast research on the science of learning to offer key takeaways that can be put into practice immediately. Essential reading for educators, parents, and anyone who wants to learn, once and for all, what it actually takes to learn better." --Christine Gross-Loh, bestselling author of The Path and Parenting Without Borders "Where was this book when I was struggling through undergrad, fighting off sleep as I burnt the proverbial midnight oil and laid the foundation of my current carpal tunnel condition from taking copious class notes that I now know--all these years later--were all but worthless? As Ulrich Boser reveals in an engrossing and highly entertaining way, the retention of facts, dates, and principles--learning--isnt about what you do, but how you do it. One cant simply vacuum up data, instead one has to "meaningfully process information." Best of all for this old dog, anyone can master new skills by following the straightforward techniques detailed in Learn Better ." --Carl Chancellor, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Excerpt from Book INTRODUCTION The elementary school stood at the end of a cul-de-sac. It was a low-slung red-brick building some ten miles north of New York City, tucked away among ribbons of suburban streets, surrounded by solid ranchers and brawny Colonials. It was January 6, 1986, a cold morning, just above freezing. Parents pulled in front of the school in a convoy of cars, their children slipping out, laughing, talking, letting out the occasional raucous scream. Shortly after 10:30 a.m., a young boy tucked himself into a chair in one of the schools classrooms. He was green-eyed with a big bowl of dirty blond hair. It was a few days before the boys 11th birthday, and he almost certainly wore a turtleneck sweater and corduroy pants. Pages of schoolwork stuffed his backpack, most likely mixed together with some Dungeons & Dragons-inspired drawings. The green-eyed boy had a difficult time learning, and that morning was no different. Class began with the teacher discussing how to subtract one fraction from another, and the boy strode to the blackboard to answer a problem from his homework. But the boy wrote down the wrong equation and had to redo the problem. Then the boy became distracted, twisting around in his seat, contorting like an aspiring Houdini, and the teacher scolded him: Please focus. The other children answered questions. They solved problems. But the green-eyed boy remained bewildered. So rather than work through the math problems, the boy simply cheated, copying down solutions from a friend sitting nearby. Then, some twenty minutes into the class, the teacher called on the boy to answer a division problem: Whats 770 divided by 77? The boy didnt know. Another division question. Another confused grimace. Eventually, the class wound down. The teacher discussed homework assignments, while the green-eyed boy nattered on to a friend--sports, books, recess, who knows. The teacher scolded the child one last time before the class let out. In many ways, the boy with the green eyes is everyone. A lot of kids make a mess of their homework. Its easy to get distracted. But that child was me. I lumbered along in my classes. My grades were weak. I floundered on exams. Teachers complained about my inability to learn, one telling my mother I would probably become a cook. So one morning, in January 1986, a school psychologist slipped into my 4th grade classroom to observe me in class. While Ive tried to recall the day, I dont have the slightest scrap of a memory. But for decades, I kept the psychologists detailed report--a single-spaced black-and-white typewriter-created document. It describes how I managed to cheat, neglect my work, and forgo all focus during the one hour-long class. "Frustrated," "inattentive," and "distracted" are among the words of the school psychologist used to describe me. Kindergarten was probably my first academic challenge. I was the youngest in my class, and I ended up repeating the grade because I couldnt keep up. In elementary school, teachers sent me for special testing, and I filled in the bubbles of a long list of unpronounceable psychological exams that sound today like a bit of Psych 101--the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test, the Zeitlin Coping Inventory, the Projective Figure Drawing exam. For a few years in middle school, I spent a few hours each week in special education, a holding pen for cranks and misfits, social oddities, and academic outliers. Different theories about the cause of my difficulties floated around, vague potential explanations. One account held that I was slow to learn because my immigrant parents spoke German at home. Others claimed that I had an auditory problem, that my brain wasnt wired correctly when it came to listening. Still others believed I lacked intelligence, that almost magical ability to think through issues and solve problems. Theres a bit of accuracy to each of these theories. My parents have lived in this country for decades, yet they still sometimes slip into German while speaking English. I do, indeed, have a learning disorder that makes it difficult to follow auditory details, and I still have a hard time following verbal directions. And lets be clear--Im no genius. Theres another perspective on what happened, though, and when I look back now, it seems that I didnt know how to learn. I didnt have ways to think about my thinking. I didnt ask myself questions or set goals or even know what it meant to know something. The ability to learn appeared beyond me, and it left me "lost," as the school psychologist wrote in her evaluation. With the help of some teachers, I eventually developed a few basic learning strategies. I would ask myself questions like: Do I really know this? Did I understand the underlying logic of what I was learning? I also came to terms with the idea that people learned at different rates, that I might need to put in more effort than my peers. Over the years, I discovered better ways to focus, becoming a devotee of anything that promoted silence, and even today, I buy earplugs by the box. Eventually, my academic confidence began to tick upward, and so did my grades. Student government became an interest. So did sports--track, basketball, cross-country. I did well on my college admissions exams, and then, with a bit of luck--and a lot of work--a thick envelope from an Ivy League college arrived in the mail. My academic experiences are not the basis for this book. In fact, if you compare my experience to the experiences of those stuck in dead-end colleges or bad corporate training, I had it great--supportive parents, well-funded schools, generally caring teachers. Plus, my auditory disability makes me less than representative. But in the end, my experience drove an interest, one that developed into a career, and today I believe that a lot of people are like an early version of me--they dont think much about the best way to gain new knowledge and skills. People will often reread material, for instance, even though its a weak approach to learning, or theyll use highlighters, which have a very limited research base. People also wont reflect on their skills or track their progress, despite the library of evidence on these learning approaches. This happens despite the fact that most of us are constantly developing our skills and knowledge. Someone gives you some new software? Youll need to master the application. (Be sure to explain key ideas to yourself so you really understand them.) Land a new client? Youll want to present your ideas in a way thats engaging. (Dont put too many graphics on a PowerPoint slide; it overloads working memory.) Need to remember a phone number? (Use your fingers; theyre a great way to store numbers for a short period of time.) Not long ago, I grabbed coffee with one of my old special education teachers. We sat in a Starbucks, spinning out recollections. As we discussed some long-lost moments of elementary school--my issues with homework, certain teachers, other students--it made me feel like a kid again. At least my experience of being a kid--the odd shame, the addled confusion. At one point, I tried to share with her what I had learned since middle school, everything that I knew about learning. But the words never quite tumbled out. I felt embarrassed. I didnt want to seem preening. So while I wrote this book for all sorts of reasons--to reframe the education debate, to hone my own thinking--one of my main drivers was to provide a guide to that green-eyed boy with the big blond hair--and to everyone else who might need one. An experiment took place some years ago at an all-girls school in New York City. It was an old Catholic school, with some crucifixes hanging from the walls, looking somber and stern. The girls were in their first two years of high school, teenagers wearing polo shirts and pleated skirts, and the young women would later receive a little gift for agreeing to enroll in the study. As part of the experiment, the girls were taught how to play darts for the first time, and the two psychologists conducting the study divided the young women into some groups. Lets call the members of the first group Team Performance, and they were told that they should learn the game of darts by trying to throw the darts as close to the center of the board as possible. In other words, the researchers informed the women that the best way to win was to rack up some points. The psychologists also pulled together another group of young women. Lets call them Team Learning Method, and they learned to play darts very differently. The researchers had these girls focus on the process of gaining expertise, and the women started by working on how exactly to throw the darts, mastering some basic processes like "keep your arm close to your body." Then, after the women showed some proficiency, they were encouraged to aim at the bulls-eye, slowly shifting from some process goals to some outcome goals like hitting the target. Finally, there was the control group. Their instructions? The researchers told them to simply "do their best." In other words, these young women could take any approach that they wanted to learning darts. Lets think of this group as Team Conventional Wisdom. To learn more about the experiment, I met up with Anastasia Kitsantas, who ran the study together with psychologist Barry Zimmerman. While the experiment took place some years ago, Kitsantas still had the darts stashed away in her office at George Mason University, and o Details ISBN0593135318 Author Ulrich Boser Pages 304 Language English Year 2019 ISBN-10 0593135318 ISBN-13 9780593135310 Format Paperback Short Title Learn Better Imprint Rodale Books Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2019-09-03 NZ Release Date 2019-09-03 US Release Date 2019-09-03 UK Release Date 1900-01-01 Publisher Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale Publication Date 2019-09-03 Subtitle Mastering the Skills for Success in Life, Business, and School, or How to Become an Expert in Just About Anything DEWEY 370.1523 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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