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A review by tegmo
How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens by Benedict Carey
3.0
This is a very approachable, readable, and well researched science non-fiction book. The science of learning has clearly come a long way in its short lifetime but still has a long way to go. The biggest take away I had from this book is that what we think of as “learning” isn’t actually beneficial for long term retention of information and quick recall.
As an educator and a learner this book gave me food for thought on how I could incorporate the science of learning into my instruction and how I could structure my own study for better results. However, this book did not seem intended to provide practical and concrete strategies to put that science into practice. This seemed like a lost opportunity as most people reading about learning are likely learners themselves or educators looking for scientifically backed strategies to increase learning. Likewise, the structure of the writing which provided a historical outline of different aspects of learning science and theory was interesting but made it difficult to parse which theories have the most scientific backing in current research. A good book that falls short of being very good.
As an educator and a learner this book gave me food for thought on how I could incorporate the science of learning into my instruction and how I could structure my own study for better results. However, this book did not seem intended to provide practical and concrete strategies to put that science into practice. This seemed like a lost opportunity as most people reading about learning are likely learners themselves or educators looking for scientifically backed strategies to increase learning. Likewise, the structure of the writing which provided a historical outline of different aspects of learning science and theory was interesting but made it difficult to parse which theories have the most scientific backing in current research. A good book that falls short of being very good.