LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

One of my pet peeves about teaching in college is that many of my students do not know much about efficient learning.  They are smart individuals, but their learning techniques can be rather primitive.  They want to learn and understand the material, but in middle school and high school they were able to succeed with little more than memorization and cramming.  When that strategy fails to work in college, they grow frustrated.  They sometimes seem like talented athletes who have never been taught proper form and, therefore, struggle even in matches that they should win easily. 

For that reason, I bribe (er, I mean, “give extra credit to”) my students in hopes that they will spend their summer months learning how to be better learners.  My classes will be so much more successful if they arrive back on campus next fall as efficient learners.  If that happens, I can challenge them to analyze deeper and more complex issues.

Here is an email (slightly edited) that I sent out this past Monday to my students for the coming semester.  I won’t get 100 percent participation from them, but I suspect I will get close to 50 percent.  Nothing ever pleases me more during a semester than when one of my students admits, “I’ve become a much better student because of that book you convinced us to read over the break.” 

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To:   My Students for the Fall Semester

From:  JH 

I hope your summer break is off to a great start.  I am hoping to travel across the country and also to Europe before I see you in the fall.  It’s a great chance to see the world outside of Virginia.

Chance for Extra Credit 

Several years ago, I read the book Make It Stick – The Science of Successful Learning, by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel.  As you might imagine, I am deeply interested in how to help students learn more effectively.  I found this book to be quite insightful.  For example, one of the things the authors say frequently is that reading material repeatedly is not really helpful in getting knowledge into your memory. 

According to Make It Stick, it is the mental retrieval of information that really solidifies learning and that is something we work on every day in class.  If you want to learn something, pull it out of your memory over and over, and your knowledge will get stronger and stronger.  As they say in the book, “One of the best habits a learner can instill in herself is regular self-quizzing to recalibrate her understanding of what she does and does not know.”    

They even have a chapter titled “To Learn, Retrieve.”    

I have taken tai chi for about 5 years and my teacher very much follows that same pattern.  The first 20-50 times you do a move in tai chi you get it wrong, but if you are persistent, eventually it becomes easy (or at least doable). With enough practice, what seems impossible becomes fairly easy.

We will do a lot of retrieval in our class this semester.   One of my mottoes is, “We will do it until you can do it.”  I like that thought (write it down). 

** 

This past semester I read Outsmart Your Brain, by Daniel Willingham, another outstanding book about learning.  In fact, the book’s subtitle is, “Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy.”  This book goes into dozens of tips on becoming a better learner.  Although I did not agree with every one of those tips, I certainly believed strongly in a lot of them. 

** 

The semester after I read Make It Stick, I offered my students three bonus points on the first test of the semester if they would read this book during their break.  Several did read it and those students all talked about how useful the information was and how the book helped them to understand what I was trying to accomplish in class.  I have been making this same offer every semester since that time.   

This semester, I am going to add Outsmart Your Brain to this list.  Read either book and you will get three bonus points on our first test.  (You can read both books, if you wish, but the offer is only for a total of three bonus points.) 

Both books are available on Amazon and used copies are fairly cheap.  I honestly believe my previous students have gained much more than three bonus points from the ideas and tips provided by their reading.  I have always been surprised by how very little some smart students understand about the learning process.  In high school, it can be easy to be successful just by using memorization without ever learning how to learn.  In college, or at least in my class, you need to be more efficient. 

Here are some of the things that two students told me about Make It Stick. 

“During high school, often times the material that you study is easy enough to cram in the night before an exam. When I started off at Richmond, I was overwhelmed with the amount of cramming I would have to do in order to make high grades. During my freshman and sophomore year at Richmond I decided to study a couple days in advance. After reading this book and seeing the results of students who study in advance and continue to look over what you learn, by the time of the test I often feel ready to go. This book has definitely had an impact on my semester, as I may be increasing my study times per day but by the day before the test, I don’t feel as stressed out and overwhelmed.” 

“I think reading Make is Stick has reminded me of how to best study and learn material. After being abroad last semester, I was craving work but the book gave me a sense of mind when it came to the best ways to study. I liked it because it didn't just plainly state how to memorize things efficiently. It provides evident and demonstrates why it works better. For example, sometimes when I don't feel like doing my homework or a practice problem, I think about how the more you actually do a problem the better you will know it. It is reinforcement such as that which gives sometimes seemingly repetitive and exhausting work purpose.” 

** 

Okay, I could include dozens of quotes like these, but I am sure you get the point. 

I will make the same deal with you as I have with my classes in the past.  If you read either Make It Stick or Outsmart Your Brain prior to the first test in the coming semester, I will give you three bonus points.  This is not a class requirement.  There is no penalty if you choose not to read one of the books.  I think it is a good offer.  I expect you to tell me the truth.  Don’t ever lie to me.  That is the only way I will get upset with you.  You are my students, and I expect you to be truthful with me.  Read either book and get three extra points on the first test.  

Let me know if you have already read both of these books (that is not likely but it is not impossible) and I will provide you with an alternative book to read.   There are a number of good possibilities. 

**

I am looking forward to having the opportunity of working with you in the fall.  If you and I both do our part of the work with enthusiasm and ambition, you will be amazed by how much you have learned by the end of next semester.  In fact, here are two important promises: 

--You will understand more about the subject matter than you could ever have thought possible.   

--You will be more confident in your ability to succeed in the real world after graduation.   

MY PRIMARY GOAL THIS PAST SEMESTER

To:  My Spring 2023 Students

From:  JH

Near the end of this semester, after you completed my course evaluation, I informed you that I had obtained the school’s permission to include one additional question on my evaluation form.  Over the decades, I have pored over thousands of student evaluations (many for me, some for others).  As a result, I had come to believe that a specific piece of information that I wanted to gather from my students was not available on the official forms. 

For that reason, you were asked to respond to one question that did not appear on the evaluations of any other teacher.  That question was, 

    “What do you believe is the professor's primary goal for this class?”

In my mind, establishing clear communications between teachers and their students is one of the necessary components for a strong learning experience.  If I failed in conveying to you what I was trying to accomplish, educational success would be difficult if not impossible.  We worked together for 14 weeks.  Between three 50-minute class sessions each week and countless emails, you have heard me espouse many thoughts.  What was my purpose in all of this?  You must surely have garnered some opinion about the identity of my primary goal for you.  I am always interested in student thoughts, but I will be especially fascinated to read your answers to this added query on my course evaluations.

I will not see your responses for several weeks.  In the interim, I have spent time trying to decide for myself what my primary goal was for this semester.  After so many years in the classroom, you would think I should be able to provide a solid answer without too much thinking.  In truth, I have so many learning goals for my students that it takes organization and ranking to determine which ones were most important to me.  Now that you have survived a very challenging semester, I thought you might be interested in my view of the primary goal that I had for you.  What was I trying to accomplish with all those strange questions and assignments?

Yesterday, a student emailed me and commented that the class had been a transformative experience.  I like that.  I want to make a real difference in the lives of each of my students.  That is essence of this job.  If students are no different at the end of a semester than they were at the beginning, we have wasted a lot of precious time.  Those students should demand a refund.  Therefore, in thinking about you and your course, I start with the central question, “What kind of student transformation was I trying to bring about over the course of the past semester?”

With that question in mind, here is what I identified as my primary goal for you (and every other student in my spring classes).  It is simple in one way but so very complex in many other ways.

When you finished this semester, I wanted you to be tremendously proud of what you had been able to accomplish. 

Nothing would please me more.  Forget your grade completely.  I do not care whether you earned an A+ or something less than an A+.  I wanted you to work hard and feel proud of what you learned.  As an example, this semester I was personally most proud of a student who made neither an A nor a B.  Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that grades are the goal.  

I hope you feel so proud of what you managed to learn that it gives you a huge influx of confidence in your ability to go out from this day forward and learn successfully (in other classes and in life in general).  If you are able to achieve that level of pride and self-worth, then this class was transformational in a wonderful way.  I wanted to help you believe in yourself.  That is education at its best. 

However, a little bit of thought will show that this primary goal is not really possible to achieve directly.  No teacher can walk into a class and simply say, “You should be proud of yourself,” and have that admonition make more than a slight effect on anyone.  Like chess at its best, successful learning is fascinatingly complicated.

In my recent ponderings, I realized that I also had three “facilitating goals.”  They are goals that are necessary to help students achieve my primary goal.  These facilitating goals are the building blocks needed to form the foundation for a successful educational experience. 

1--My first facilitating goal is that I always hope that I can assist students in becoming more efficient learners.  I want my students to realize that if they can train themselves to use their mental talents well, they would no longer need to be so dependent on teachers.  Effective learning can be learned.  Scores of books have been written on the topic.  Let’s see if we can put that research into practice.  How does a person develop critical thinking skills?  That was a question that was always close to the surface of our class sessions.

This was never going to be a “memorize and cram” course.  I wanted you to become strong learners and that requires other skills.  I tried to build the steps of that process into every assignment.  That is a transformation worth working toward.  Learn to be less dependent on teachers and more dependent on your own ability to think and learn.  Becoming an efficient learner will have a positive effect on you for the rest of your life.  That is a goal that I very much want each student to reach.

Soon, you will be out of college and teachers will become rare.  If you discover how to learn better now, you will be able to continue to grow in every future endeavor.  Sadly, mediocre learning habits can hold people back for their entire lives.  That is a warning you should repeat a few times. 

In our class, I hoped you would come to appreciate the importance of preparation, a step you have heard me preach on obsessively.  In addition, true learning requires practice and repetition – not a little practice but a life of practice.  Too often students seem to believe, “I’ve done it once.  I can do it forever.”  That is a type of thinking I sought to alter.

2—My second facilitating goal is more personal.  Over the course of this past semester, I wanted you to come to trust me.  Before this semester, only 2 of my 66 students had ever been in my class.  The other 64 had no reason to trust me one iota.  Months before the class began, I knew that I had to work to gain that trust. 

Over the past 14 weeks, I have asked you to spend hours upon hours on my assignments.  I have pushed you to prepare and practice on a daily basis.  I have challenged you to think deeply and analyze complicated situations and problems.  I have cold-called on you several times during every class session and expected an immediate response.  Students will resist doing that much work if they do not develop a level of faith in the teacher.  You have been in school for much of your life.  I hope you have had teachers that you trusted so much that if they asked you to do something you would comply without hesitancy.  For those people, you would do the work with nothing more than the belief that it would be beneficial.

At every step along the way, I have tried to explain what I needed from you and why.  “Here is what I want at our next class and here is the benefit.”  With faith in the teacher, a class can practically create miracles.  There is no limit to what can be achieved.   This is the vision that I had for our class.

Without faith, students will try to defer or shortcut every assignment.  That is just human nature.  I am always impressed that some students do better on my second test than on the first.  I think, at least in part, that is a sign that they have begun to trust the teacher and started viewing the assignments as being worth the effort.  On the other hand, when students do not respond, then I know that I have not yet gained their trust.

3—The third facilitating goal is my favorite.  Over the course of the semester, I wanted you to come to enjoy learning the subject matter.  I am not sure what happens to students during their years in school but too many seem to believe that learning is dull and boring.  Learning can be (and should be) fabulous fun.  As I often say, the more you learn the more the world opens up to you.  That has to be one of the main reasons that people attend college – to have the world beyond their current horizon open up to them.  That can be a very big positive for a person’s life.

Nothing ever made me happier this semester than when I would walk into the classroom 10-15 minutes before class time and discover a group of students standing around discussing the class assignment for that day (rather than burying their noses in their phones).  Those conversations did not seem to be out of a sense of dread but rather out of a genuine interest in figuring out a viable solution.  I always tell people that I teach using puzzles because puzzles are fun.  That was how I wanted you to view my class, “It was demanding but it was learning that was always enjoyable.” 

If you ever walked into my office over the course of the past semester and said something like, “We have this problem assigned for our next class and I’ve tried to figure it out several different ways but it is really tricky.  Can you give me a hint so that I can try to work it out for myself?” you will probably never understand just how delighted your question made me.  After you left my office, I probably got up and danced. 

Students will occasionally tell me that they will miss the class when it is over.  It is not me that they will miss but rather the joy of trying to learn in an effective manner so that they can solve those puzzles.

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In summary, you will likely have a different answer than me but here are my goals for our class.

Primary goal:  That you are extremely proud of what you accomplished this semester and you use that confidence as a springboard to be a more successful learner going forward.

Facilitating goals:

1 – That you have become a more efficient learner so that you can use your time in the future to learn more and understand it more deeply.  Better learning habits will go with you throughout life.  They can be truly transformative. 

2 – That you came to trust the teacher.  I realize that no one wants to do difficult work if they do not trust the person providing the orders.  I understand that perfectly.   If you did not do as well this semester as you would have liked, it is probably that you did not trust me enough to do whatever I suggested.  If that is the case, I deeply apologize.

3 – That you came to enjoy the class and the learning experience so much that you looked forward to each new class with anticipation rather than dread.  I believe to the bottom of my toes that learning should be enjoyable.  There should be a thrill as you put those pieces together.  There should always be an “Ah-Ha!” moment in education.  I hope I was able to convey that sense of wonder and joy to you this semester.

I look forward in a few weeks to reading my course evaluations.

Have a great summer.  I will miss you.  Most importantly, I am very proud of each of you and what you accomplished.  Truly.