Invisible Learning

by David Franklin

Invisible Learning reveals the secrets behind one of Harvard’s most successful statistics courses. Dan Levy is famous at Harvard for his inclusive learning environment, which leaves students feeling not just confident about using statistics in the real world, but also seen, heard and loved. Written from the perspective of the student, the book is a fly-on-the-wall case study of the course. It argues that the learning environment is composed of invisible bonds between students and teacher, and considers how he strengthens those bonds and uses them to maximise learning. It seeks to answer the question, asked by students and Harvard faculty alike: “How does he do it?”

324 pages, Paperback

Published November 28, 2020

Reviews

[Matheus Silva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't get me wrong, the book is really well written and very fun to read. I felt like I sat in class and watched Dan lecture. However, as the book points out, one should resist the temptation to cherry-pick examples to reinforce their point. Dan’s teaching sounds so out-of-this-world I doubt David could fully resist the temptation not to show only the highlights of the classes.

Regardless of that, many if not all of the “self-improvement” lessons in the book are valuable (e.g., I always feel awkward when my students are silent during class and Dan teaches how to normalize silence.) Having had taught Stats at both the undergraduate and graduate levels though, I do feel that most of the other lessons are hard to apply outside of Dan's very specific context of stellar and highly motivated students who had experience with applied statistics and/or decision making in their professional lives.

Overall: great writing, but hard to say there is much to learn about teaching unconditional on your audience. I gave the book two stars because I felt like it did not deliver what it says on the back cover, but it may deserve three stars. I will definitely revisit it prior to the beginning of the Spring semester and reevaluate this grade.

[Catrihel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific book for anyone with a passion for teaching and learning statistics at any level.

I recommend it for at least three reasons. First, the author is a great communicator and storyteller: you will feel you are being transported right to the middle of the lectures he analyzes. Secondly, there's a strong emphasis all over the book on the importance of using statistics well in the real world, which I find quite honest and compelling. Last, but not least, it takes as a given that teaching is not the same as learning, explains why and gives some useful tips on how the gap can be closed in the classroom.

[Fiona Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve just read this newly published book about Professor Dan Levy’s approach to teaching his statistics course at Harvard. The book brings out the vision Dan Levy has of including and encouraging all his students and the mutual bonds of support which form when you create a positive learning environment. It’s a really inspiring book for anyone who teaches or coaches others. A big “plus” along the way was that I learnt more about how statistics can be used (and abused) - an important skill for all of us these days, I think, in assessing all the information we have to process. Highly recommended. Invisible LearningDavid Franklin