Grasp : the science transforming how we learn
Sanjay E. Sarma (Author), Luke Yoquinto (Author)
"In the spirit of 'Thinking, Fast and Slow', a groundbreaking look at the science of how we learn - and how we can use it to discover our true potential, as individuals and across society. As the vice president for Open Learning at MIT, Sanjay Sarma has a daunting job description : to educate the world. But if you're going to undertake such an ambitious project, it behooves you first to ask : How exactly does learning work? What conditions are most conducive? Are our traditional classroom methods - lecture, homework, test, repeat - actually effective? And if not, what techniques are? 'Grasp' takes readers across multiple frontiers, from fundamental neuroscience to cognitive psychology and beyond, as it considers the future of learning. It introduces scientists who study forgetting, exposing it not as a simple failure of memory but a critical weapon in our learning arsenal. It examines the role curiosity plays in promoting a state that brain researchers call "readiness to learn" (and its dark twin, "unreadiness to learn"). And it reveals how such ideas are being put into practice : at MIT (both on campus and online) ; at bold new programs like Ad Astra, located on the SpaceX campus ; and at a law school that began teaching innovative study techniques and saw its bar-passage rate rocket to the top of its state. Along the way, Sarma debunks long-held views such as the noxious idea of "learning styles", while equipping readers with a set of practical tools for absorbing and retaining information across a lifetime of learning. He presents a vision for learning that's more inclusive and democratic - revealing a world bursting with powerful learners, just waiting for the chance they deserve. Drawing from the author's experience as an educator and the work of researchers and educational innovators at MIT and beyond, 'Grasp' offers scientific and practical insight, promising not just to inform and entertain readers, but to open their minds."-- Provided by publisher
Print Book, English, 2020
First edition View all formats and editions
Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, 2020
Nonfiction
xxviii, 321 pages ; 24 cm
9780385541824, 9781101974155, 0385541821, 110197415X
1130764351
Introduction : The adventure begins
Part One. Learning Is Science and Science Is Learning
I. The learning divide
II. Layer One : Slug cells and school bells
III. Layer 2 : Systems within systems
IV. Layer 3 : Revolution
V. Layer 4 : Thinking about thinking
Part Two. Mind and Hand
VI. Voyages
VII. Outside in and at scale
VIII. Turn it inside out
IX. The showdown
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected bibliography
Index