Book Review: The New Science of Learning

We’ve talked previously about Classroom Assessment Techniques by Thomas Angelo and K. Patricia Cross (here, here, and here), so I thought I’d post a review of another book:

Terry Doyle and Todd Zakrajsek, The New Science of Learning: How to Learn in Harmony with Your Brain, Stylus Publishing, 2013.

The New Science of Learning is a very concise and easy-to-read advice guide for undergraduates that is based on the findings of cognitive science research. I’ll be using it this fall in my first-year seminar. My hope is that it will help students, many of whom are not that well prepared for college, improve their academic performance. Here is one of the book’s authors speaking at Quinnipiac University, from the perspective of how to teach more effectively.

I’ve created these writing assignments that correspond to the chapters of the book:

• Of the different practices that help people learn more effectively, which is the one that you currently use the least frequently? What would you need to change in your life so that you used it more frequently?
• Think about the last three nights. How well did you sleep on each of these nights? What changes would enable you to sleep better? How can you implement these changes?
• Thinks about the last three days. At what times were you physically active and for how long? How did your levels of mental alertness change during the day? Do you notice any pattern between physical activity and alertness?
• Do you write notes by hand in your college courses? Do you annotate text that is assigned in these courses? Why? Given the benefits on learning of note-taking and annotating reading assignments, how well will you perform academically this semester? 
• Describe an assignment in one of your courses this semester that reflects the pattern recognition principle of similarity/difference, proximity, figure-ground, or cause/effect. What is the assignment and how does it reflect the principle? What will be the effect on your understanding or memory of the material?
• Name an activity in which you use either distributed practice or elaboration. What is a specific change that you can make in your daily behavior to better incorporate either one into your college experience?
• What is your approach to failure? Do you embrace the possibility of it or try to avoid it at all costs? When you fail, what is your reaction? Based on your answers to these questions, do you have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset toward learning? Why?
• Do you engage in task shifting? When? What is a specific change that you can make in your daily behavior to reduce task shifting?