Summary of the key concepts in the book:
Conventional Wisdom: Make learning easy
Best practice: Design learning with desirable difficulties
Discussion: “Learning is deeper and more durable when it is effortful.” “Difficulties that elicit more effort and that slow down learning… will more than compensate for their inconvenience by making the learning stronger, more precise, and more enduring. Short-term impediments that make for stronger learning have come to be called desirable difficulties.” “Don’t assume you are doing something wrong if the learning feels hard.” “Not all difficulties in learning are desirable ones. Anxiety while taking a test seems to represent an undesirable difficulty.” Slow down to find meaning. Always read prior to the lecture. “Training has to be engaging in order to hold employees’ attention.”
Conventional Wisdom: Concentrate on one topic at a time (aka. massed practice)
Best practice: Interleave different but related topics
Discussion: “Learning from interleaved practice feels slower than learning from massed practice.” While interleaving can impede performance during initial learning (tests taken immediately after exposure), interleaving has been show to boost “final test performance by a remarkable 215 percent.” In addition, “commonalities… learned through massed practice proved less useful than the differences … learned through interleaving.” “In interleaving, you don’t move from a complete practice set of one topic to go to another. You switch before each practice is complete… You need to shuffle your flashcards.”
Conventional Wisdom: Reread material multiple times and in close succession
Best practice: Space repetition
Discussion: “Repetition by itself does not lead to good long-term memory… It makes sense to reread a text once if there’s been a meaningful lapse [at least a day in between] since the first reading.” “The increased effort required to retrieve the learning after a little forgetting has the effect of retriggering consolidation, further strengthening memory.” “Design quizzing and exercises to reach back to concepts and learning covered earlier in the term, so that retrieval practices continues and the learning is cumulative.” Spiral upward at increasing levels of difficulty with each re-exposure.
Conventional Wisdom: Reread to lock-in knowledge
Best practice: Focus on effortful recall of facts or concepts or events from memory (aka. Retrieval practice)
Discussion: “Retrieving knowledge and skill from memory should become your primary study strategy in place of rereading.” There are many methods of retrieval practice. Elaboration, expressing new material in your own words and connecting it with what you already know to find new layers of meaning, for instance by writing daily summaries, is the most effective. Moreover, “cultivating the habit of reflecting on ones’ experiences, of making them into a story, strengthens learning.” Essays and short answer tests are the next most effective durable learning strategies because they involve “Generation… an attempt to answer a question… before being shown the answer”, followed by practice with flash cards, reflection, and, least effective though still useful, multiple choice or true/false questions. To foster this, convert main points into questions to answer during subsequent studying rather than (or in addition to) highlighting and underling,
Conventional Wisdom: Conduct pop-quizzes and high-stakes post-testing with a goal toward errorless results
Best practice: Conduct frequent, predictable, low-stakes testing (including pre-testing)
Discussion: “Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt.” In fact, “making mistakes and correcting them builds the bridges to advanced learning.” In addition, frequent quizzing – especially when quizzes are announced in advance - actually reduces learner anxiety. With respect to anxiety, the peak-end rule applies; people judge experiences based on how they were at the peak and at the end. Appreciate that “errors are a natural part of learning.” “Make quizzing and practice exercises count toward the course grade, even if for very low stakes.” Set “clear learning objectives prior to each class.”
Conventional Wisdom: Match instructional style to each learner’s preference
Best practice: Match instructional style to the nature of the content
Discussion: While people do have preferred learning styles (ex: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile), empirical research does not support the notion that learning in your preferred style leads to superior outcomes. “When instructional style matches the nature of the content, all learners learn better, regardless of their differing preferences for how the material is taught.”
Conventional Wisdom: Memorize
Best practice: Extract underlying principles (aka “rule learning” and “structure building”)
Discussion: “It is better to solve a problem than to memorize a solution.” “Mnemonic devise are sometimes discounted as tricks of memory, not tools that fundamentally add to learning, and in a sense this is correct. The value of mnemonics to raise intellectual abilities comes after mastery of new material.”
Conventional Wisdom: Learn abstract concepts
Best practice: Learn using methods and examples that are concrete and personal
Discussion: “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.” Simulations and role-playing are excellent techniques. “Difficulties that don’t strengthen the skills you will need, or the kinds of challenges you are likely to encounter in the real-world application of your learning, are not desirable.” “Practice like you play, because you will play like you practice.” “Sustained deliberate practice… [is] goal-directed, often solitary, and consists of repeated striving to reach beyond your current level of performance.”
Conventional Wisdom: Read without pausing
Best practice: Spend 40% of time reading and 60% of time “looking up from the material and silently reciting” what it contains.
Conventional Wisdom: Provide immediate feedback
Best practice: Delay feedback
Discussion: “Delaying the feedback briefly produces better long-term learning than immediate feedback.” That said, receiving immediate corrective feedback is better than receiving no feedback at all.
Conventional Wisdom: Review all concepts equally
Best practice: Disproportionately focus on the least familiar material (aka dynamic testing)
Discussion: To increase frequency of practice on less familiar material without completely ignoring the most familiar material, use the Leitner box method. “Think of it as a series of four file-card boxes. In the first are the study materials… that must be practices frequently because you often make mistakes in them. In the second box are the cards you’re pretty good at, and that box gets practiced less often than the first, perhaps by half. The cards in the third box are practiced less often than those in the second box, and so on.”
Conventional Wisdom: Accept that IQ is fixed
Best practice: Focus on mindset
Discussion: “Average IQs have risen over the past century with changes in living conditions... IQ is a product of genes and environment” including increased stimulation, nurturing, nutrition “One difference that matters a lot is how you see yourself and your abilities. As the maxim goes, ‘Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.’” Adopt a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset; “consider your expertise to be in a continuing state of development.” “Success is less dependent on IQ than on grit, curiosity, and persistence.” Knowledge is a foundational element of creativity, critical thinking, and application. “The upper limits of your performance on any cognitive or manual skill may be set by factors beyond your control, such as you intelligence and the natural limits of your ability, but most of us can learn to perform nearer to our full potential in most areas by discovering our weaknesses and working to bring them up.” “Achieving expertise in any field if particular to that field… The central idea here is that expert performance is a product of the quantity of and the quality of practice, not of genetic predisposition, and that becoming expert is not beyond the reach of normally gifted people who have the motivation, time, and discipline to pursue it.”
Conventional Wisdom: Trust your own sense of mastery
Best practice: Calibrate your judgment
Discussion: “Calibration is the act of aligning your judgments of what you know and don’t know with objective feedback so as to avoid being carried off by the illusions of mastery that catch many learning by surprise at test time.”
Note: This book practices what it preaches with lots and lots of repetition. The authors are up-front about that but it does get well... repetitive.
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
4.6 | 4,336 ratings
Price: 25.21
Last update: 01-10-2025
Top reviews from the United States
Jeremey Donovan
Finally a learning book based on science!
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2015
Alejandra Jimenez
a must
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2024DES
Lots of Good Advice
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2023
DES
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2023
Key Takeaways from the Book:
Effective Learning Strategies:
• Periodic Practice and Spaced Retrieval: Periodic practice, spaced out over time, strengthens retrieval routes and prevents forgetting. Retrieval becomes harder but produces longer-lasting learning.
• Testing as a Tool: Testing identifies weaknesses and enhances mastery in various learning areas. It is more effective than relying on preferred learning styles.
• Elaboration: Expressing new material in your own words and connecting it to existing knowledge through elaboration can lead to limitless learning.
• Organizing Information: Creating mental models and connecting new information to prior knowledge enhances learning, especially for complex mastery.
Challenging Popular Beliefs:
• Learning Styles Myth: The idea that instruction should align with one's preferred learning style is not supported by research.
• Difficulty and Strength of Learning: Contrary to the belief that making learning easier and faster leads to better outcomes, research suggests that harder learning is stronger and lasts longer.
Optimizing Retrieval Practice:
• Spaced Practice vs. Massed Practice: Spaced retrieval practice, with intervals between sessions, is more effective for long-term retention compared to massed practice (cramming).
• Feedback and Reflection: Regular self-quizzing, feedback, and reflection recalibrate understanding and contribute to stronger learning.
Memory and Learning Process:
• Consolidation and Reconsolidation: Learning involves consolidation, where memory traces are strengthened and connected to prior knowledge. Reconsolidation through retrieval practice modifies and strengthens learning.
• Effortful Learning: Effortful learning builds new connections in the brain and is essential for complex mastery.
Learning Tips for Students:
• Retrieval Practice: Self-quizzing enhances learning more than repeated readings.
• Spaced Practice: Studying information with intervals between sessions improves retention.
• Effective Study Strategies: Elaboration, generation, and mnemonic devices enhance mastery.
Cognitive Differences and Intelligence:
• Structure Building: Extracting salient ideas and constructing mental frameworks improves learning.
• Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence: Both types of intelligence contribute to learning, reasoning, and problem-solving.
Lifelong Learning:
• Applicability of Strategies: The outlined learning strategies are effective for learners of all ages, even outside formal classroom settings.
• Tips for Lifelong Learners: Continuous practice of effective strategies contributes to ongoing learning and knowledge retention.
The book, "Make It Stick" challenges traditional learning approaches and provides evidence-backed strategies for effective and durable learning, emphasizing the importance of retrieval practice, spaced learning, and active engagement with new material. The book encourages learners to embrace the complexity of the learning process and adopt strategies that optimize memory consolidation and recall.
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Dayton Family of Four
Should be required reading for educators
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2024