Michigan Online Educator Certification System

Making Learning Stick: The Science of Learning

This workshop will be an online book discussion/book study offered to individuals interested in understanding current research from cognitive science on enduring learning. Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel, in Making It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, will serve as the text for this book study, with additional sources incorporated as necessary. In their work as a cognitive scientists and educators, Roediger and McDaniel collaborated with Brown to write an accessible book on cognitive science, learning, and teaching. In their book, the authors organize and present current research on learning from cognitive science. They present known information about learning and new information. Perhaps their greatest contribution with this book, however, is their application in unique ways of the current research. They describe instructional strategies, based on cognitive science, that will promote enduring learning in classrooms across the age/grade-span. And, they offer strategies that students can employ to make their learning deep, meaningful, and enduring. Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel accomplish these descriptions and applications while writing in a way that is engaging and appropriately challenging. Educators of all levels will find themselves absorbed by the research that is presented and the applications that are made. Some of the issues and concepts addressed by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel include: Deep learning requires retrieval. That is, the learner must visit, and revisit concepts and practices previously encountered. Learning “for the test” is insufficient for learning that endures. Practice must be varied if enduring learning is to occur. Situations in which one practices must vary, as well as the form of practice must vary to establish real learning. Superficial learning is an illusion of knowing. Learning styles, while a popular idea, have no support for their existence from cognitive science. Real learning depends on making learning stick. Making learning stick requires active and deep experience with information, practice, and bodies of knowledge. Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel provide a thorough, yet accessible, discussion of current research and up-to-date knowledge of the brain and learning. They lay out clear application to schooling. Any educator, including teachers, administrators, and preparers of teachers, will benefit from reading and digesting the content of this book. This book contains important potential to transform how we teach and how we assess what students have learned. Participants in this book study who are new to cognitive science will feel comfortable with the level of technical language and concepts used. This book study will be conducted completely online in an asynchronous manner, meaning that participants will not have to be online at the same time as other participants. The workshop facilitator will guide participants through the book, including assigning readings and facilitating the online discussion among participants. The pace of the workshop will be to read and discuss assigned chapters each week from Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.