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How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, And Why It Happens (2014)

by Benedict Carey(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0812993888 (ISBN13: 9780812993882)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Random House

review 1: This was a very interesting book with some fascinating ideas about how learning works. It could change the way people study and learn, because it provides many new ways ideas about how to learn and study tommaximise retention and understanding of the subject being studied. For example, I now know that I don't need to panic when trying to get started on designing some new material but just can't get going and prefer to read the news or rugby results, my subconsious is working on it. However, as with any psychology book the conclusions should be objectively and critically analyzed before being used. A lot of the research has bee done with university/college students and would have like to seen more studies that had been done with other age groups. The chapter about the impor... moretance of sleep was very interesting, but I don't know how this could really be applied by anyone, as society in general does not give you much choice in varying your sleep patterns. Also, it does not allow for people who have trouble getting to sleep when they are stressed about a test. Another problem with the book is that most of the chosen research supports the author's ideas and there isn't much counter argument, which may be partly due to the normal problem of negative results not being published so much. I would have like to have seen more discussions about the difficultiies and problems of using the ideas presented, but the author has left this to the reader to think about or hsi next book. Unfortunately, even if I used several of the ideas in this book I still don't think I would succeed at learning to play the guitar. Despite all this it was a very clear book that has provided something to think about and consider, whether you apply the ideas yourself or encourage someone else to do so. Well worth reading!
review 2: An easy, enjoyable read that doesn't quite live up to expectations. There's not a lot in the book that hasn't already been featured in the Times, Carey's home publication, and the book is repetitive despite its brevity. The author seems particularly taken with the importance of interruption to learning. This is an interesting point that is somewhat lost in the author's self-congratulatory reflections on his college years -- a period when he says he stumbled upon many of the techniques that contemporary research think effective for learning. Despite its shortcomings, anyone involved in education or at all intellectually curious will benefit from flipping through this book. less

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