Sometimes, we face a new challenge and need to learn a lot of information fast. I recently changed roles to a different team at work, which meant working with a completely different set of technologies and pursuing different goals. With so much to learn, I decided it would be better to read up on how to learn effectively, rather than just winging it like I did during university. Which is why I read
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, and Mark A. McDaniel, where the authors review numerous studies on learning methods. It has great advice - and plenty of references to support it all - so it would be remiss of me not to encourage you to read it too.
The book’s main recommendations for effective learning are to incorporate these strategies into your revision methods:
Retrieval Practice
Actively test how well you can retrieve the knowledge from your memory by challenging yourself. This can be done by using flash cards or by quizzing yourself on a regular basis. Interleaving subjects (switching between topics rather than focusing on just one at a time) has also been shown to improve retrieval ability.
Generation
This technique involves struggling with a problem and trying to generate an answer before reading the solution. Studies referenced in the book show that expending this mental effort increases the retention of the answer once it is revealed.
Elaboration
Teach others about the subject is a great way to solidify your understanding. As Albert Einstein is often credited with saying, “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.” Organising your thoughts and explaining them to others ensures you have a thorough understanding of the subject. This can either be done by teaching in person or by writing your thoughts out, like in a blog post (#meta).
Contextualisation
Relating new information to what you already know helps embed it more deeply in your understanding of the world. This understanding of context is more effective than simply knowing about it as an isolated concept.
Reflection
Taking time to review what you have recently learned, whether by reading, quizzing, or any of the other activities mentioned above, will lead to greater overall retention. Mental rehearsal, or ‘going through the steps in your mind’, is also an effective form of reflection, especially if you are actively analysing the rehearsal subject.
One aspect that I like with this book is that it’s evident that the authors took the results from the research into consideration when planning the structure of it. For example, rather than having a chapter dedicated solely to retrieval practice, they interleave all of the recommendations throughout the book. This means that when you read it you experience the benefits of interleaved practice and exposure with the content and see first-hand how effective the learning strategies are.
Since reading the book I have been incorporating these techniques into my own study (as mentioned
here), and personally, I find them to be very effective. Learning new information can be quite daunting, but these study tools make the process much more manageable and effective, regardless of the subject. If you are facing a similar challenge, I highly recommend giving these strategies a try.