How Memory Works: 10 Things Most People Get Wrong — PsyBlog

#5 "Memory is unstable

The fact that the simple act of recall changes memory means that it is relatively unstable. But people tend to think that memory is relatively stable: we forget that we forgot and so we think we won't forget in the future what we now know.

What this means is that students, in particular, vastly underestimate how much effort will be required to commit material to memory. And they're not the only ones."

Reading Your Textbooks Effectively and Efficiently

Dr. Julian Reed Homepage - on Exercise and Learning

"Dr. Reed is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Furman University in Greenville, SC and is an Affiliate of the Prevention Research Center in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. His area of research focuses on examining the impact of built environmental supports on physical activity."

5 reasons you might want to learn more

Amen!
Scroll down to read Daphne's blog entry titled "5 Reason You Might Want to Learn More."

The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve – And How To Overcome It

The Learning Virtues - NYTimes

Jin Li's research sheds light on the culture of East and West students: "Westerners tend to define learning cognitively while Asians tend to define it morally. Westerners tend to see learning as something people do in order to understand and master the external world. Asians tend to see learning as an arduous process they undertake in order to cultivate virtues inside the self."

NYT columnist David Brooks comments, "I’d just note that cultures that do fuse the academic and the moral, like Confucianism or Jewish Torah study, produce these awesome motivation explosions. It might be possible to champion other moral/academic codes to boost motivation in places where it is absent."

Teaching Metacognition

Relax! You’ll Be More Productive - NYTimes.com

Tony Schwarz, CEO of The Energy Project and author of "Be Excellent at Anything," writes, "Working in 90-minute intervals turns out to be a prescription for maximizing productivity. Professor K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues at Florida State University have studied elite performers, including musicians, athletes, actors and chess players. In each of these fields, Dr. Ericsson found that the best performers typically practice in uninterrupted sessions that last no more than 90 minutes."

Now, how does this research play out for students facing 2+ hours of homework each night?

'via Blog this'

U.S.C. Exhibit Shows Fractals Built From Paper - NYTimes.com

On Ideas and Play
"Despite these explorations, none of these people will be able to pass a university geometry exam, and there will always be vast areas of math inaccessible to nonprofessionals. Nonetheless, many important mathematical concepts can be expressed without formal symbols. After all, nature does it without an alphabet.

Everyone knows about think tanks; at the Institute for Figuring, we have set ourselves up as a “play tank.” By inviting people to play with ideas, we encourage them to experience not just the beauty inherent in mathematics, but its awesome structural power."

Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work | Video on TED.com

"We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity."

Struggle For Smarts? How Eastern And Western Cultures Tackle Learning

Process and perseverance: Alex Spiegel explores the differences between Eastern and Western cultures.

"Jin Li, a professor at Brown University, who, like Stigler, compares the learning beliefs of Asian and U.S. children finds that 'the focus is on the process of persisting through it despite the challenges, not giving up, and that's what leads to success.'" Li observes, "All of this matters because the way you conceptualize the act of struggling with something profoundly affects your actual behavior."

Thanks to Will for sharing!

How Children Succeed

Thank you to Michelle Icard who brought this author to my attention.

Pure IQ is stubbornly resistant to improvement after about age eight. But the ability to handle stress and manage strong emotions can be improved, sometimes dramatically, well into adolescence..." - Paul Tough

Tips for Succeeding in College (and High School)

While this fact sheet is for college students with dyslexia, I believe these tips are helpful to most high school students who are just developing their study skills and habits.  Don't be shy - take a good look at the list and highlight or circle skills you want to develop. It's all about YOU.

Dysgraphia Fact Sheet

Dysgraphia defined and described. List of clear strategies.

How to Get the Most Out of Studying | Samford University | Birmingham, Alabama

View these short videos and think about how you will begin to practice deep processing while you study.  Save this link to favorites.

Dr. Stephen L. Chew on Effective Studying

Dr. Chew's notes for the five videos.

How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 5 of 5, "I Blew the Exam, Now What?" - YouTube

Dr. Stephen Chew examines what to do when you've done poorly on an exam.

How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 4 of 5, "Putting Principles for Learning into Practice" - YouTube

The fourth video applies the principles of deep processing to common study situations, including note taking and highlighting while reading. Also, Professor Chew identifies how an effective study group functions. Thank you to Professor Stephen L. Chew of Samford University,
Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama.

How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 3 of 5, "Cognitive Principles for Optimizing Learning" - YouTube

Basic principles of how people learn best. Take a look. Thank you to Stephen L. Chew, Ph.D., Samford University. What is the role of automaticity and over learning?

Deep Processing Skills
 - Elaboration with meaningful information
-  Distinctiveness (noting key differences
-  Relate to personal experience
-  Practice appropriate recalling and using the information in the way you'll be expected to show mastery

How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 1 of 5, "Beliefs That Make You Fail... Or Succeed" - YouTube

How do people learn? Even though this information is for college students, I know you'll benefit from the information in this video. Thank you to Stephen L. Chew, Samford University.