Make it Stick (2014) | Book Summary

Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (2014) uses cognitive science to explain effectual learning and how we can void the "illusion of knowing." 

What is Illusion of Knowing? The Illusion of Knowing refers to a phenomenon of not mastering the content after reading a book or spending time studying, The Illusion of Knowing happens when we focus on the process of learning rather than what we learn. For example, when you are aspired to read one book a week, your focus is on the number of books rather than mastering the content. After collecting a list of books, do you really remember anything? Can you use any knowledge from the book at practice? If the answers are NOs, then you are caught by the "illusion of knowing." 

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"It's not just what you know, but how you practice what you know that determines how well the learning serves you later." ― Peter C. Brown etc., Make It Stick.

How do we learn? To overcome the "illusion of knowing" learning barrier, we first need to understand how people learn. In the book, the authors explain that our study starts from receiving new knowledge. We then encode the information and store it in our short memory. The encoded message can be in a word description, a math formula, an image, or memory from our experiences. The selected short memory is then consolidated into long-term memory after we give meaning to this knowledge.  

How can we avoid the illusion of knowing? The book gives several techniques to make new knowledge stick: (1) Relating the information with what we already know: The process is also called elaboration. (2) Repeating the study: retrieving the information for reviews, asking questions, or taking quizzes can strengthen long-term memory. (3) Using the knowledge in practice. ​

"Elaboration is the process of giving new material meaning by expressing it in your own words and connecting it with what you already know." ― Peter C. Brown etc., Make It Stick.

I hope you enjoyed this brief summary and can take a moment to reflect on your learning process. If you remember one thing from this summary, then remember make your study practical 

Editor's Note: The theory can be applied to change management. When helping people learn new processes, tools, or technology, we can first frame the change to relate to people's existing knowledge, then repeat the practices and show positive results to anchor the new behavior. We can also offer an easy-to-remember cheatsheet or quiz to enforce long-term memory.