In the spirit of Thinking, Fast and Slow, a groundbreaking look at the science of how we learn-and how we can use it to discover our true potential, as individuals and across society
As the vice president for Open Learning at MIT, Sanjay Sarma has a daunting job description: to educate the world. But if you're going to undertake such an ambitious project, it behooves you first to ask: How exactly does learning work? What conditions are most conducive? Are our traditional classroom methods-lecture, homework, test, repeat-actually effective? And if not, what techniques are?
Grasp takes readers across multiple frontiers, from fundamental neuroscience to cognitive psychology and beyond, as it considers the future of learning. It introduces scientists who study forgetting, exposing it not as a simple failure of memory but a critical weapon in our learning arsenal. It examines the role curiosity plays in promoting a state that brain researchers call "readiness to learn" (and its dark twin, "unreadiness to learn"). And it reveals how such ideas are being put into practice: at MIT (both on campus and online); at bold new programs like Ad Astra, located on the SpaceX campus; and at a law school that began teaching innovative study techniques and saw its bar-passage rate rocket to the top of its state. Along the way, Sarma debunks long-held views such as the noxious idea of "learning styles," while equipping readers with a set of practical tools for absorbing and retaining information across a lifetime of learning. He presents a vision for learning that's more inclusive and democratic-revealing a world bursting with powerful learners, just waiting for the chance they deserve.
Drawing from the author's experience as an educator and the work of researchers and educational innovators at MIT and beyond, Grasp offers scientific and practical insight, promising not just to inform and entertain readers, but to open their minds.
