Quotes About Education

a failure to know the areas where their learning is weak—that is, where they need to do more work to bring up their knowledge—and a preference for study methods that create a false sense of mastery.11

The whole idea of the testing effect is that you learn more by testing yourself than by rereading. Well, it's very hard to get students to do that because they've been trained for so long to keep reading and reading the book.

Pitting the learning of basic knowledge against creative thinking is a false choice

The greater the effort to retrieve learning, provided that you succeed, the more that learning is strengthened by retrieval

When you praise for intelligence, kids get the message that being seen as smart is the name of the game. "Emphasizing effort gives a child a rare variable they can control," Dweck says. But "emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of a child's control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure." 18

the more effort required to retrieve (or, in effect, relearn) something, the better you learn it.

the kind of retrieval practice that proves most effective is one that reflects what you'll be doing with the knowledge later. It's not just what you know, but how you practice what you know that determines how well the learning serves you later.

Simply including one test (retrieval practice) in a class yields a large improvement in final exam scores, and gains continue to increase as the frequency of classroom testing increases. Testing

factual knowledge," considered to be a lower level of learning than "conceptual knowledge." Conceptual knowledge requires an understanding of the interrelationships of the basic elements within a larger structure that enable them to function together.

When it comes to learning, what we choose to do is guided by our judgments of what works and what doesn't, and we are easily misled.

When retrieval practice is spaced, allowing some forgetting to occur between tests, it leads to stronger long-term retention than when it is massed.

The paradox is that those students who employ the least effective study strategies overestimate their learning the most and, as a consequence of their misplaced confidence, they are not inclined to change their habits.

first time and then waited some days before they reread it.

Trying to come up with an answer rather than having it presented to you, or trying to solve a problem before being shown the solution, leads to better learning and longer retention of the correct answer or solution, even when your attempted response is wrong, so long as corrective feedback is provided.

where more cognitive effort is required for retrieval, greater retention results.

central challenge to improving the way we learn is finding a way to interrupt the process of forgetting.2

First, to be useful, learning requires memory, so what we've learned is still there later when we need it. Second, we need to keep learning and remembering all our lives. We can't advance through middle school without some mastery of language arts, math, science, and social studies. Getting ahead at work takes mastery of job skills and difficult colleagues. In retirement, we pick up new interests. In our dotage, we move into simpler housing while we're still able to adapt.

Ease of retrieval after a delay, however, is a good indicator of learning.)

Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt.

It's not just what you know, but how you practice what you know that determines how well the learning serves you later.

Retrieval practice—recalling facts or concepts or events from memory—is a more effective learning strategy than review by rereading. Flashcards are a simple example. Retrieval strengthens the memory and interrupts forgetting. A single, simple quiz after reading a text or hearing a lecture produces better learning and remembering than rereading the text or reviewing lecture notes.

Third, learning is an acquired skill, and the most effective strategies are often counterintuitive.

One of the best habits a learner can instill in herself is regular self-quizzing to recalibrate her understanding of what she does and does not know.

Learning is deeper and more durable when it's effortful. Learning that's easy is like writing in sand, here today and gone tomorrow.