Get Better at Anything

Holding debates allows you to put together information you might not have initially considered when making a decision. The second advantage is that debate sharpens your thinking.

combine the three components of seeing an example, solving a problem, and getting feedback into a practice loop. By repeatedly cycling through the loop, we ensure that all three ingredients of successful learning are available to us.

The Difficulty Sweet Spot. Progress depends on finding a delicate balance between making practice too hard or too easy.

Unlearning isn’t easy. It requires not only the investment to practice new strategies until they can compete with old habits, but also the emotional punch of accepting a decline in your temporary performance.

Successfully recalling a fact, procedure, or idea strengthens memory more than repeat viewing. This is why flash cards are such an excellent tool when studying for a test. Simply looking over your notes is far less efficient for improving your ability to recall it in the future.

The Mind Is Not a Muscle. What

Examples alone are not always enough. Research finds that breaking apart worked examples into subgoals can help illustrate the reasoning behind a problem-solving procedure, and that encouraging students to engage in self-explanations of examples can enhance understanding.

For many skills, there is no “correct” procedure, but there are better ones.

we would like to create a positive feedback loop, where early mastery experiences encourage further investment of effort in learning and practice.