Content Summary

           The authors begin the chapter with a story about Bruce Hendry, who they describe as a self-made man. He was born in 1942 near Minneapolis to a mechanic and a homemaker. Although Hendry is a self-made man, his road to success was filled with ups and downs. The authors use his story to illustrate the learning differences that matter. The first lesson we can learn about Hendry's story is that he took charge of his education regarding his business adventures. As he began his business, each set back was a lesson that he could draw upon to help him focus and choose better investments. Additionally, he built his own set of rules on what makes an investment opportunity worthwhile and stitched the rules into a template to follow and then found ways to apply it to his investments. Psychologists call these behaviors rule learning and structure building. Learners are who make extracting underlying principles and rules from new experiences tend to be more successful. Also, those learners who can single out concepts from less important information and link these key concepts into a mental model tend to be more successful. Authors tell Hendry's story to set the premise for the importance of why learning differences matter over others (Brown et al., 2014). 

            The belief in learning styles has been around for a long time for all levels of education. It is recommended that teachers use different learning styles when presenting materials in class so that each student takes in the material in the best way that they learn. However, according to the researcher's learning style theories are not based on science. To address this misconception, they discuss learning differences. Authors discuss that it matters how learners see themselves and their abilities. This is important because it can determine how hard they apply themselves, how they handle adversity, and their willingness to take risks. Additionally, they urge learners to embrace the notion of successful intelligence and do not just stick to their learning preferences. While every culture has its idea of intelligence psychologists today except that individuals possess two kinds of intelligence, fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence involves reasoning, thinking abstractly, and solving problems where crystallized intelligence is the accumulated knowledge of culture, its procedures, and mental models developed from prior knowledge and experience. Together these intelligences allow learners to think, solve, and reason. Rather than subscribing to the notion of learning styles, authors state that instructors should match their instructional style to coordinate with the nature of the presented content. If instructors do this, then learners will learn better regardless of their learning style preference (Brown et al., 2014). 

   In conclusion, learners should not rely on what feels best to them. Instead, they should use active learning strategies such as retrieval practices, spacing, and interleaving. These strategies should be used to help learners move forward with the content and set goals. Learners should not just assume that they are doing something wrong if there are times that learning feels hard. They should remember that any difficulties they may encounter in education can be overcome with more significant effort. Finally, the authors discuss that for learners to grow, they must distill underlying principles and build structure. This helps learners go from having more knowledge to having more know-how, which ultimately leads to mastery of the content when all put together (Brown et al., 2014). 

Content Summary

           This chapter begins with a study from the 1970s where researchers had nursery school-aged children go into a distraction-free room where they were to be seated add a table with only a marshmallow in front of them. The children were instructed to wait 15 minutes before they could eat the marshmallow, and if they did not eat it, they would receive an additional marshmallow. Researchers observed the children through a mirror. In their observations, they saw some of the children immediately pop the marshmallow into their mouth or come up with any way to distract themselves from eating the marshmallow. In this study of over 600 children, only about 1/3 could resist eating the marshmallow for long enough to get the second marshmallow. A follow-up study from 2011 found that nursery school children who had been successful in delaying gratification during the exercise grew up to have more successful careers and were more successful in school. This study shows that while we are born with certain genes, they are not the only factor in determining our success; our focus and self-discipline can also determine success (Brown et al., 2014). 

We have been taught to think that the brain is hard-wired and that intellectual potential is set from birth. In reality, the brain is elastic and can change throughout life. Studies have shown that when people suffer brain damage, the brain will somehow reassign duties, and it enables people to regain the information they lost. The authors discuss IQ, which they state is a combination of genes and the environment. In the last sixty years, IQ has risen by eighteen points. One theory is that this is due to culture, school, and nutrition has changed significantly. Another idea is in cognitive training; one study showed that when lower-income mothers were given educational tools, books, puzzles, and trained to help their children, their children showed IQ gains (Brown et al., 2014).  

Researchers state that there are three things learners can do to ramp up their intelligence they already have. They are embracing a growth mindset, practice like an expert, and construct memory cues. A growth mindset is about the power of belief. If an individual believes their level of intelligence is not fixed but is in their own hands, they will be more successful. This concept was studied by a psychologist named Carol Dweck. Dweck Ran a workshop with low-performing 7th graders in a junior high school in New York. She began by teaching them about the brain and gave the students effective study techniques. Then half of the students received a presentation on memory while the other half of the students were given an explanation on how our brain changes do to effortful learning. She explained to the students that when they try hard and learn something new, the brain will form new connections, and these connections will help make them smarter over time. This same group was also told that intellectual development does not unfold naturally but results from the new connections being made when they use effort while learning. Once the workshop finished, both groups went back to their classrooms. By the end of the school year, those students who were taught about effortful learning adopted what Dweck calls a growth mindset, and those students became high achievers over the students who were taught that learning is set from birth, which she calls a fixed mindset. Dweck's study concludes that the power to increase an individual's abilities is in their control (Brown et al., 2014).  

The principle of practice like an expert is essential because learners often think that experts in their field or top performers were born with the natural ability to be successful when they weren't. Their abilities come from hours of deliberate practice and development of their skills, and because of this, researchers believe learners be should be deliberate about their practice of materials. Additionally, memory cues can be used as a mental tool to help retain the material to memory. An example of a memory cue is a mnemonic device, memory palace, loci method, image cue memories, and the peg method. Researchers state that these memory cue devices, also known as continued retrieval practices, help make complex material become second nature to the individuals that use them (Brown et al., 2014). 

           In conclusion, the researchers want readers to understand that effortful learning changes the brain and helps them build new connections and strengthen their capabilities. Learners need to understand that what they do shapes who they will become and dictates what they will be capable of in the future. Learners should always have a growth mindset, self-discipline, grit, and perseverance to tackle any challenges or difficulties they may face (Brown et al., 2014). 

Content Summary

           This chapter is the culmination of the entire book. Researchers decided to wait until the final chapter to give students specific advice, lifelong learners, and trainers. They hoped that readers would find their conclusions and apply them to their study field. The tips and advice found throughout this chapter speak to the life of the high schooler, college, and graduate school students. Additionally, the information presented in this chapter has been used by individuals, and they have helped them become successful (Brown et al., 2014). 

They urge learners to understand that the most successful students are the ones who take charge of their learning and come up with discipline strategies. Researchers state that learners should embrace the fact that learning sometimes can be difficult, and learners may experience setbacks, but these setbacks do not mean failure. They go on to give students and lifelong learners learning tips to help them be successful. These tips include practicing retrieval strategies to help them commit the material to memory. These retrieval practices include self-quizzing, reading a text, stopping periodically, thinking of the key concepts, and how it pertains to your learning. Additionally, researchers discussed spaced practice, which allows the learner to study the information more than once. Still, they should be deliberate in how far they space out their practice times researchers say that it is crucial to establish a schedule when self-quizzing. Another learning strategy students should follow is interleaving, which is studying different problem types simultaneously. This can help students because it helps them differentiate between problem types, identify characteristics, and improve their success later because they did not practice the sequential order problems. Other learning strategies included in this chapter are elaboration, generation, and refection. Elaboration helps to improve the mastery of new material. Generation has the effect of allowing the mind to be more receptive to learning. Reflection is a combination of retrieval practices and elaboration. Reflection helps add layers to our learning and strengthens our skills. Collaboration helps the learner make judgments on what they know and do not know and gives objective feedback, which will keep them from thinking they mastered the skill , and mnemonic devices can act as a retrieval tool to help you retain important information and commit it to memory (Brown et al., 2014).

Finally, they end the chapter with tips for teachers and how they can help their students. Researchers state that instructors need to explain to their students how learning works and teach their students how to study. Additionally, teachers should create desirable difficulties in the classroom. These desirable difficulties can come in the form of frequent quizzing, which will help the students consolidate learning an interrupt them for getting the material. Teachers can create tools that can incorporate retrieval practices, generation, and elaboration. It's important to remember when designing quizzes that teachers should go back to concepts in the material that have been covered earlier in the term. Lastly, teachers should be transparent with students to help them understand why you incorporate desirable difficulties into the lessons. Always be upfront with how they may feel frustrated with this type of learning style but explain how it can help them for their future (Brown et al., 2014).