40 pages • 1 hour read
Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDanielMake It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Avoid Illusions of Knowing”
Chapter 5 discusses the benefits and pitfalls of memory. The authors work through several processes that distort human memory and explain how these can hinder, aid, and altogether influence learning—with a focus on “perceptual illusions, cognitive biases, and distortions of memory that commonly mislead people” (103).
They cite a model described by scientist Daniel Kahneman that explains the way people analyze information. This process amounts to “two analytic systems” (105). System 1 is “automatic […] unconscious, intuitive, and immediate,” making quick assessments and judgments (105). Anything reflexive would fall under System 1. System 2 involves conscious effort, decision-making, and reasoning. System 2 can act as a check on System 1, the latter being highly subjective but very influential. The authors conclude that people shouldn’t habitually trust their intuition—their System 1 responses—because they are so faulty.
Because learning is a personal and malleable process, it is subject to distortion—the power of suggestion being one of them. Suggestion is persuasive even to efficient learners and can lead people to remember false or exaggerated details.
People might conflate memories as other information interferes with the initial ones; they might also be convinced of information simply from frequent exposure to it. In some cases, familiar information might even feel learned. Such is the illusion of massed practice: Familiarity does not necessarily breed mastery. Contextualizing one’s own knowledge can be difficult. For example, some people have a hard time teaching material they mastered because they can’t remember what it was like to not know it, or they might assume that their personal opinions are universal truths.
People can improve the accuracy of their knowledge and memory by verifying it with external accounts. The authors offer an example via piloting a plane. Human judgment of direction and speed can easily become inaccurate, hence the need to monitor the many gauges and meters in the cockpit.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Get Beyond Learning Styles”
This chapter tackles the “folklore of educational practice” that asserts individuals have distinct learning styles—different preferences and strengths when it comes to learning—that should direct their strategies (131). The authors reject the idea that the best learning happens when information is delivered in a person’s preferred learning style. They do, however, concede that “there are other kinds of differences in how people learn that do matter” and go on to explore some of these differences (132).
Among these differences are “the level of language fluency and reading ability” that an individual possesses (141). The authors mention the common learning disability dyslexia, which makes reading difficult due to it distorting written letters and their connections to language. The impact of dyslexia can be severe, seriously reducing a person’s self-esteem and acquainting them with regular failure in a system that does not generally accommodate special needs. However, there is also a discernable pattern of people with dyslexia becoming high achievers and leaders in their fields under the right conditions. Many believe that those with dyslexia develop “a greater capacity for creativity and problem solving, whether as a result of their neural wiring or the necessity they face to find ways to compensate for their disability” (142). Either way, such a condition certainly shapes learning.
The authors also weigh rule learning and example learning. Rule learning involves extracting principles that define and differentiate examples. Example learners instead focus on details regarding the examples themselves. In general, learners who can access underlying principles gain transferable knowledge more effectively.
Learning styles are not so crucial. Common articulations of these paradigms include preferences for visual, auditory, reading, or kinesthetic learning—but there are also models that prioritize categories like concrete versus abstract learning and active experimentation versus reflective observation (144). Regardless of labels, the learning styles theory states that “we learn better when the mode of presentation matches the particular style in which an individual is best able to learn” (144). Science does not support this claim. But since learning style theories are so expansive, the authors do not wish to outright reject the entire field. Instead, they say, “Until such evidence is produced, it makes more sense to emphasize the instructional techniques, like those outlined in this book, that have been validated by research as benefiting learners regardless of their style preferences” (146).
The authors ultimately advocate taking charge of one’s own education by practicing skills and knowledge, disregarding commonly held notions about learning styles that threaten to pigeon-hole learners, and trying to distill principles and structures from learning materials.
Chapters 5-6 Analysis
Like the sections before it, this section continues to recycle and elaborate on crucial lessons, but also presents many new terms and concepts.
Chapter 5 explores specific distortions that prevent accurate memory. The takeaway is that learning and memory are malleable and impressionable. This fact both enables durable learning and distorts it, the authors describing various illusions and biases in the mind. Chapter 6 explores learning differences and provides a list of models used to articulate and explain these differences. People learn differently—some differences matter and others likely don’t and require more scientific exploration. Both chapters suggest that proper self-reflection and accurate assessment can steer learners to effective strategies that will improve their learning abilities.
This is the first section in which the authors discuss learning disability in some detail. They focus on dyslexia, but the example demonstrates that certain learning differences pose challenges that do not aid learning the way “desirable difficulties” do. They contend, however, that these challenges do not render people with disabilities ineffective in the long-term. In fact, everyone is susceptible to various pitfalls when it comes to learning and memory.
This is also the first section in which the authors critically deal with intelligence—a concept often linked to learning and memory in the mainstream. The authors discuss the difficulty of defining and measuring intelligence in Chapter 6. They go on to discuss psychologist Howard Gardner’s theory of eight types of intelligences (logical-mathematical, spatial, linguistic, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic) and laud it for the way it “elevates the sheer variety of tools in our native toolkit” (148). Unlike the learning style theory, Gardner's theory doesn’t “have the perverse effect of causing individuals to perceive their learning abilities as limited” (148). The authors acknowledge, however (as did Gardner), that there is a lack of empirical evidence to support any of these theories. While the authors do not endorse such theories as facts, their discussion of Gardner’s model is much more sympathetic and supportive than their discussion of others because it avoids the major pitfalls of other common theories.
The authors then discuss a more empirically-backed model of intelligence posed by psychologist Robert J. Sternberg: a threefold model of analytical, creative, and practical intelligences (148). Their takeaway is that measuring intelligence is complex, diverse, and has a history of being misused to characterize people of non-academic backgrounds as subpar learners and thinkers (when they often possess superior aptitude in non-academic fields). This pattern also demonstrates that different conditions demand different types of learning. Everyone has to carefully monitor their brain’s natural tendency to distort information and apply personal biases. Chapter 6’s conversation about intelligence reiterates that there are no good learners and bad learners by simple measures.
