If You Want to Learn, Join a Study Group
Build reports that according to a study done at Harvard in 1986, to be successful in college, the number one predictor isn’t GPA or SAT scores. Instead, It was a student’s ability to either create or...
View ArticleRemembering What You Read
Shane Parrish writes A System for Remembering What You Read. Briefly, it’s a matter of interacting with what you read by taking notes, thinking and asking questions about what you’re reading, reviewing...
View ArticleThe 30 second habit with a lifelong impact
Robyn Scott, quoting someone, wrote: Immediately after every lecture, meeting, or significant experience, take 30 seconds—no more, no less—to write down the most important points.After trying out this...
View Article6 Keys to Achieving Excellence
Tony Schwartz distills the path to achieving excellence in six parts: Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.Do the hardest work first....
View ArticleSecrets of a Mind-Gamer
Joshua Foer, in the New York Times, writes about his approach to becoming a memory champion in Secrets of a Mind-Gamer. One point is related to that of expertise: They’ve found that top achievers...
View ArticleDeliberate Practice
Shane Parrish writes about the nature of deliberate practice. As he notes, Despite repetition, most people fail to become experts at what they do, no matter how many years they spend doing it....
View ArticleStudents Learn by Talking to One Another
Stephanie Chasteen reviews the research showing that students learn by talking to one another. through a process of peer instruction developed by Harvard Professor of Physics Eric Mazur and for which...
View ArticleThree Keys to Greatness
David Vogelsang, summarizes Jim Rohn’s "Three Keys to Greatness": 1. Setting Goals: I call it the view of the future. Most people, including kids, will pay the price if they can see the promise of the...
View ArticleThe Lack of Power of Um and Uh with Non-Native Speakers
Jessica Love reports on research on the discourse markers um and uh, which act to let listeners know that there is a delay in the speaker’s continuing to talk. Although listeners generally pay...
View ArticleBest Practices in Facilitating Peer Instruction
Stephanie Chasteen cites and summarizes research on Best practices in facilitating peer instruction using clickers. You should read the entire post, but her three “take-home messages” are (verbatim):...
View ArticleAASL’s Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2014
The American Association of School Librarians have posted their Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2014 that foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and...
View ArticleFour Great Commencement Addresses
Shane Parrish has collected four excellent commencement addresses: Steve JobsDavid Foster WallaceNeil GaimanNaval Adm. William H. McRaven
View ArticleSix Principles for Making New Things
Paul Graham has six principles for making new things: Here it is: I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally...
View ArticleGetting It Wrong Helps Learning
An article in Scientific American, Getting It Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn, reports on research that shows learning becomes better if conditions are arranged so that students make...
View ArticleLearning Styles Challenge
Will Thalheimer updates his “Learning Styles Challenge” to $5000. That is, if any person or group creates a real-world learning intervention that takes learning styles into account--and proves that...
View ArticleThe University and Social Media
Thomas Basbøll writes about Academic Virtues and makes the point that using social media to spread research findings shows we are now trying to get people believe things they can't possibly understand....
View ArticleCreativity is the Art of Connecting
Many people want to believe that they aren’t that creative, that creativity is something special, intuitive. But Shane Parrish cites others who argue that creativity is simply connecting things. such...
View ArticleWinning an Argument
In Winning an Argument, Shane Parrish writes: If you want to win an argument, ask the person trying to convince you of something to explain how it would work. Odds are they have not done the work...
View ArticleClose Reading and Media Ecologies
Alex Reid talks about the meaning of close reading as used in English Studies and the difficulty of defining it. He writes: It’s really founded on the premise that interpretation and hence the meaning...
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