The Science of Learning

Author: The Editors of TIME (special edition) URL: https://www.amazon.com/TIME-Science-Learning-Editors/dp/1547854472 One-line: The adult brain is not fixed — it can grow and re-wire — and learning is the work of turning information into knowledge that can be summoned and acted upon at the right moment.

[!note] Metadata note This is a print TIME special edition; there is no canonical article URL. Linked to the Amazon catalog entry as the best stable pointer. source_published recorded as a year (2018) — exact publication month not confirmed.

Key Takeaways

• Neuroplasticity is real: the adult brain’s neurons can grow and its connections stay nimble — learning is not bounded by a fixed wiring laid down in childhood.
• The 10,000-hour “rule” is a myth for most domains; repetition makes a surgeon or mechanic excellent but does not, by itself, make a compassionate minister, an intuitive therapist, or a good parent.
• Learning requires three ingredients — motivation (a noticed discrepancy between what the brain knows and wants to know), opportunity, and sustained attention — plus the habits of mind of Curiosity and diligence.
• Environment and pedagogy compound: cognitively rich homes, project-based and Montessori approaches, well-sequenced Curriculum, and a Growth Mindset all measurably improve learning.

Highlights

• “Science has already dispensed with the notion that the adult brain is more or less fixed thing, that its neurons can’t grow and their connections can’t stay nimble. They can.”
• “There is a popular myth at large in the world—the 10,000 hour myth. Practice something for that length of time—the equivalent of 60 straight weeks—and you can become an expert at it. Maybe that’s so for some things. The surgeon of the mechanic who performs 10,000 hours’ worth of bypasses or engine repairs does become awfully good at the job. But it takes more than that to become a compassionate minister, an intuitive psychotherapist, or even a good parent or a faithful friend.” #Kobe Bryant #10,000 Hour Rule #A List of All Major Psyc… (highlights)
• “How can people both lock away useful knowledge or wisdom, and, just as important, summon it at the appropriate moment?”
• “The task of learning is to transform some of that information into knowledge that can be used and acted upon.” Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
  • Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust. T.S. Eliot
• Necessary Learning Ingredients
  • Motivation: Discrepancy the brain notices between the knowledge it has and the knowledge it wants
    • Expose the brain to new things.
  • Opportunity
    • “If you’re highly motivated you’ll create your own opportunities.”
  • Sustained Attention
    • “The ability to learn new things—whether thats calculus or hitting a fast ball—requires stretching your brain past the point of what’s familiar or comfortable. And that stretch requires unbroken concentration.” Cal Newport
• Habits of Mind
  • Curiosity
  • Diligence
• Parenting
  • “Children who grow up in cognitively stimulating and linguistically rich environments tend to be more sophisticated in their knowledge of the world and their ability to grasp things.” Charles Nelson III
  • “There’s a lot of evidence that project-based learning has a better impact on student learning and readiness for life after high school.” Doug Knecht
  • Montessori-educated kids had different patterns of behavior and brain activity than kids that went to traditional schools
    • “Montessori students were more effective at directing their own learning, and by adolescence were much faster and more likely to correct their own mistakes.”
  • Growth Mindset #A List of All Major Psyc… (highlights)
    • “Belief that one’s ability and knowledge are capable of evolving.” Carol Dweck
• Education
  • Samuel Reed Hall outlined some impediments to Teaching in “Lectures on School Keeping”
    • Lack of supplies
    • Political factions within the school district at the expense of educational progress
    • Poorly qualified teachers
    • Poor remuneration of qualified teachers
  • John Dewey: Advocated against an authoritarian classroom and argued for one pragmatically relevant to students lives
  • Maria Montessori: Stressed the development of a child’s own initiative and natural ability #Montessori
  • Jean Piaget: Multiple Intelligences
  • “We have solid research going back 50 or 60 years that establishes how a teacher might boost student learning. But many teacher educators reject out of hand a method that will work with 95% of the kids because of the 5%—they fervently believe in the uniqueness of every child. Some of that attitude is grounded in a romanticism dating back to 18th century Swiss Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a distrust of formal education for threatening children’s true and good natural state. It’s a kind of anti-intellectualism that almost disdains Knowledge as if it were Trivial Pursuit and not something that has engaged the human mind since the beginning of time.” Kate Walsh, National Council on Teacher Quality
  • “Students learn best by building on ideas they already know, which is why ‘a well-sequenced Curriculum’ is crucial. Burdening students with too much information at once, meanwhile, can cause a kind of cognitive overload.” Daniel Willingham

How it connects

• Learning · Education · Parenting — the core topics this piece sits across.
• 10,000 Hour Rule — the source explicitly pushes back on the popular framing.
• Growth Mindset / Carol Dweck — belief that ability and knowledge can evolve.
• Cal Newport — sustained attention / deep concentration as a prerequisite for learning.
• Montessori · Maria Montessori · John Dewey · Jean Piaget — the reform lineage in education.