Make It Stick Quotes

“As you get more expert in complex areas, your models in those areas grow more complex, and the component steps that compose them fade into the background of memory (the curse of knowledge).”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“The better you know something, the more difficult it becomes to teach it.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“generative learning, meaning that the learner is generating the answer rather than recalling it. Generation is another name for old-fashioned trial and error.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“failure the source of inspiration, and is said to have remarked, “I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” He argued that perseverance in the face of failure is the key to success.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“people who are helped to understand that effort and learning change the brain, and that their intellectual abilities lie to a large degree within their own control, are more likely to tackle difficult challenges and persist at them. They view failure as a sign of effort and as a turn in the road rather than as a measure of inability and the end of the road.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“not all difficulties in learning are desirable ones. Anxiety while taking a test seems to represent an undesirable difficulty.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“students who have a high fear of making errors when taking tests may actually do worse on the test because of their anxiety.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“In testing, being required to supply an answer rather than select from multiple choice options often provides stronger learning benefits.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“Even if you’re being quizzed on material you’re familiar with, the simple act of filling in a blank has the effect of strengthening your memory of the material and your ability to recall it later.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“practice like you play, and you’ll play like you practice,”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“the more effort required to retrieve (or, in effect, relearn) something, the better you learn it. In other words, the more you’ve forgotten about a topic, the more effective relearning will be in shaping your permanent knowledge.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“the easier knowledge or a skill is for you to retrieve, the less your retrieval practice will benefit your retention of it. Conversely, the more effort you have to expend to retrieve knowledge or skill, the more the practice of retrieval will entrench it.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“when you let the memory recede a little, for example by spacing or interleaving the practice, retrieval is harder, your performance is less accomplished, and you feel let down, but your learning is deeper and you will retrieve it more easily in the future.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“How big an interval, you ask? The simple answer: enough so that practice doesn’t become a mindless repetition. At a minimum, enough time so that a little forgetting has set in. A little forgetting between practice sessions can be a good thing, if it leads to more effort in practice,”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“Sleep seems to play a large role in memory consolidation, so practice with at least a day in between sessions is good.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“The very techniques that build habit strength, like spacing, interleaving, and variation, slow visible acquisition and fail to deliver the improvement during practice that helps to motivate and reinforce our efforts.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“the way life usually unfolds: problems and opportunities come at us unpredictably, out of sequence. For our learning to have practical value, we must be adept at discerning “What kind of problem is this?” so we can select and apply an appropriate solution.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“Practice that’s spaced out, interleaved with other learning, and varied produces better mastery, longer retention, and more versatility. But these benefits come at a price: when practice is spaced, interleaved, and varied, it requires more effort. You feel the increased effort, but not the benefits the effort produces.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“practice is far more effective when it’s broken into separate periods of training that are spaced out.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“for kids to be able to evaluate, synthesize, and apply a concept in different settings, they’re going to be much more efficient at getting there when they have the base of knowledge and the retention, so they’re not wasting time trying to go back and figure out what that word might mean or what that concept was about. It allows them to go to a higher level.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“Simply including one test (retrieval practice) in a class yields a large improvement in final exam scores, and gains continue to increase as the frequency of classroom testing increases.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“Practice at retrieving new knowledge or skill from memory is a potent tool for learning and durable retention. This is true for anything the brain is asked to remember and call up again in the future—facts, complex concepts, problem-solving techniques, motor skills.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“learning is strengthened by retrieval. After an initial test, delaying subsequent retrieval practice is more potent for reinforcing retention than immediate practice, because delayed retrieval requires more effort.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“Practice at retrieving new knowledge or skill from memory is a potent tool for learning and durable retention.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“Delayed feedback on written tests may help because it gives the student practice that’s spaced out in time;”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“Studies show that giving feedback strengthens retention more than testing alone does, and, interestingly, some evidence shows that delaying the feedback briefly produces better long-term learning than immediate feedback.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“Studies show that giving feedback strengthens retention more than testing alone does, and, interestingly, some evidence shows that delaying the feedback briefly produces better”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“a schedule of quizzes before lessons, quizzes after lessons, and then a review quiz prior to the chapter test.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“multiple sessions of retrieval practice are generally better than one, especially if the test sessions are spaced out.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

“The stronger one’s knowledge about the subject at hand, the more nuanced one’s creativity can be in addressing a new problem.”
― Peter C. Brown, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning