Deep and Durable Learning

Michael Gray
  • 5.0 (16)
  • HOW TO
  • BIWEEKLY SERIES

Most learning is superficial and fades quickly. This podcast will equip you to move to learning that is durable because it is deep. Deep learning lasts because it respects the way the brain works. Inquiring minds want to know "how" and "why"—not just what!

See All

  1. EPISODE 1

    Learning Despite Schooling

    Children are all born learners—at least until they go to school. Many children and their parents are frustrated and mystified by the setbacks that are experienced at school and it doesn't need to be this way! This is the first episode of an entire season dealing with why your child may not like school and what to do about it. The season is structured around Daniel Willingham's book, Why Don’t Students Like School? Willingham articulates 10 principles of learning and I interact with his first principle in this episode. Contrary to Willingham, I emphasize the reality that children are born looking for patterns, but they are not good at finding the flaws in those patterns. By asking questions, you as a parent can help correct and solidify their mental categories and help them to thrive in any educational environment.

    18 min

  2. EPISODE 2

    Is That a Fact?

    Most schools design curriculum around a fact forward approach. Facts are always in the foreground while ideas lurk in the background and generally make only cameo appearances. This is exactly wrong. The role of facts is to support ideas. Facts are organized by ideas and not the reverse. It is ideas that have consequences. While there may be "inconvenient facts," they are inconvenient only to ideas that fail to take them into account. Critical thinking seeks to give structure and meaning to facts and harness them for much greater ends than mere retrieval. This episode seeks to put facts in their rightful place and empower parents to help their children focus on ideas even when the education establishment does not.

    22 min

  3. EPISODE 3

    I Can't Remember

    Many parents and children view their inability to memorize as their greatest educational weakness. Learning is more than remembering, but it is not less. Today's episode centers on the reality that durable memory is the byproduct of thinking about ideas. Using mnemonics and other gimmicks to bypass the need for thinking is doomed to fail and is boring to boot.

    22 min

  4. EPISODE 4

    Constructing Ideas or Collecting Information?

    How can you help your child move from being absorbed with taking in information in the classroom to a fixation on understanding ideas? This is key to durable learning that is extensible; learning that you can build on and apply to solving real world problems. This episode operationalizes the creation of robust networks of powerful ideas.

    24 min

  5. EPISODE 5

    Mind-full Repetition

    "Drill and kill," the mindless and seemingly endless repetition of facts, kills motivation to learn. "Repetition aids learning" is only true with carefully crafted variety in the repetition. "Extended practice" is a better way to approach the need for the brain to wrestle with ideas in an intriguing journey to understanding. This episode will help parents operationalize effective homework that embeds their kids in a stimulating exploration of ideas and their consequences. And, oh yes, the facts their school expects come along as a bonus.

    23 min

  6. EPISODE 6

    I Can Figure It Out!

    The cognitive power tools of the well-taught beginner create increasingly useful knowledge as the learner's skill level increases through practice that challenges plateaus. This episode makes the case that learning should always be embedded in a way of thinking; thinking like a biologist, a historian, an economist, a mathematician, etc. Learners should engage with authentic problems in a scaled-down junior version of every subject. Pedagogy in the early years of learning that privileges the creation of concepts over the collection of information will pay substantial dividends as the student grows.

    21 min
See All Season 10 (6)

    Ratings & Reviews

    5
    out of 5
    16 Ratings

    About

    Most learning is superficial and fades quickly. This podcast will equip you to move to learning that is durable because it is deep. Deep learning lasts because it respects the way the brain works. Inquiring minds want to know "how" and "why"—not just what!

    Information

    You Might Also Like

    Content Restricted

    This episode can’t be played on the web in your country or region.

    To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

    Stay up to date with this show

    Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
    Select a country or region

    Africa, Middle East, and India

    Asia Pacific

    Europe

    Latin America and the Caribbean

    The United States and Canada