You’ve Been Learning All Wrong - Making Knowledge Stick with Peter Brown

In this episode we discuss a highly counter-intuitive approach to learning that flies in the face of the way you think you should learn and how it might transform your learning process. We explore several powerful, evidence based learning strategies that you can start to apply right now in your life, we explain why you should focus on getting knowledge out of your brain instead of into it (and what, exactly, that means), we share a number of powerful memory strategies you can use to super charge your brain - and much more with our guest Peter Brown.
Peter Brown is a best-selling author and novelist. He is the author of five books including Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Peter’s work turns traditional learning techniques on their head and draws from recent discoveries in cognitive psychology to offer concrete techniques for becoming a more productive learner. His work has been featured in The New York Times, American Public Radio, The New Yorker, and more!What teaching and learning strategies lead to better retention of material?The non-intuitive approach to learning that flies in the face of the way you think you should learnThe act of wrestling with knowledge and material is what actually builds learning that sticks3 Big ideas from Brian’s research (1) It's about getting the knowledge out of your head, not getting it in(2) When learning is easy it doesn’t stick. You have to challenge yourself.(3) Intuition leads us astray. We think that simple repeated practice makes it easier to learn, but that may not be the case. You can’t rely on learning that feels constructive. How does memory get stored? How can your lack of understanding about this lead to worse learning strategies?The more connections you make to existing knowledge, the more you are likely to remember something The more complex knowledge that you build and develop the more you can develop complex mental models for explaining and understanding realityVisual markers, memory palaces and mnemonic devices can be very powerful memory techniques They are not about learning, but rather ORGANIZING what you’ve already learned The key to learning is to put ideas in your own words, to digest them, play with them, and think about the application of them - not just to review the text or information you’ve already read. The “forgetting curve” is a mental model that helps interrupt your pattern of forgetting things - and remembering them at just the right time  Mass practice vs mixed practice - and why the feeling of improvement may be misleading your learning efforts Mental effort and persistence towards a learning goal help build deeper memories - literally change the physical structure of your brain and lead to better and richer memories Homework: Look back at your own life and the things that you’ve tackled that were a struggle, and yet you became good at it - use these as examples for how this strategy can work Homework: Read about the science of learning in generalHomework: Create flash card sets or quizzes for things you want to memorize (even if you aren’t a student)  in order to TEST yourself. Practice retrieving information, over and over again. The retrieval is key! Only by doing it can you be confident you know how to do it. Self testing, space it out, and come back later to do it again.