Episode 7: Learning is a Skill with Mark McDaniel
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Thank you to Howard Hughes Medical Institute BioInteractive for providing these transcripts.
Learning Is A Skill: Why do we keep it a secret?
Dr. Mark McDaniel of Washington University, author of “Make It Stick”, discusses learning and the importance of recognizing that learning is a skill. A skill that can and should be learned, a skill that can and should be taught.
A variety of researchers study how people learn. There are reams of data about the effectiveness of various learning strategies. We have evidence about which strategies are more effective than others. We certainly don’t know everything there is to know about learning, but we know quite a bit and this knowledge can and should help students succeed.
Yet we enroll students in schools and we expect students to learn without ever teaching them effective strategies for learning.
Why are we keeping these strategies a secret? Why do we expect our students, our children, to discover effective strategies for learning on their own?
In this episode, Dr. McDaniel will discuss a new proposal, a new framework for how we might teach students to learn and how to apply this knowledge about learning, giving our students, all students, our children, all children, the skills they need to learn efficiently and effectively.
If you are interested in how you can really help your students succeed, how you can help your students become life-long learners, how you can help your students learn the SKILLS needed for learning, then please, listen to this episode.
References
M. A. McDaniel and G. O. Einstein (2020). Training Learning Strategies to Promote Self-Regulation and Transfer: The Knowledge, Belief, Commitment, and Planning Framework. Perspectives on Psychological Science 15(6):1363-1381. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620920723.
Reading Recommended by Mark McDaniel
Willingham, D. (2021). Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom 2nd Edition
Mayer, R. E. (2019) How To Be a Successful Student.
Oakley, B. Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teen
McGuire, S. Teach Yourself How to Learn (1st edition). Strategies You Can Use to Ace Any Course at Any Level
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