Seven pages into the preface of his huge collection of poems, Carl Sandburg tells us that he will not pontificate on the art of poetry, which is what famous writers often do in that section. Instead, he says “A poet explains for us what for him is poetry by what … Read More
Tag: learning
“Yet we now know that a brief distraction can help when we’re stuck on a math problem or tied up in a creative knot and need to shake free.”
After having read my share of books about learning, I was initially reluctant to read this one because a reviewer said it is a “gift to guilt-ridden slackers everywhere.” Fortunately, it’s the review, not the book, that is misleading about the effort learning requires. How We Learn, written … Read More
“The first key fact is that attention is limited.”
“I began to think about what it means to be a facilitator of learning rather than a teacher.”
What is the difference between “educating people” and “helping people learn”? This classic book by Malcolm Knowles — the central figure in US adult education during the last century — explores the different sets of assumptions behind these two approaches. Educators who lecture, for example, assume that their job is … Read More
“For the most part, we are going about learning in the wrong ways.”
The authors tell us that going over and over something is “a time-consuming study strategy that yields neglibile benefits at the expense of much more effective strategies that take less time.” (15) What works better? Quizzing yourself, or writing a summary paragraph about possible applications, or drawing diagrams, or even … Read More