Introducing Learning and Memory

by Ziauddin Sardar, Richard Appignanesi, Ralph Edney (Illustrator)

This book traces the fascinating intellectual quest for a method of gaining universal knowledge.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Science

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 1998

About the author

Ziauddin Sardar has written or edited 45 books over a period of 30 years, many with his long-time co-author Merryl Wyn Davies. Recent titles include Balti Britain: a Journey Through the British Asian Experience (Granta, 2008); and How Do You Know: Reading Ziauddin Sardar on Islam, Science and Cultural Relations (Pluto, 2006). The first volume of his memoirs is Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim (Granta, 2006). His recent television work includes a 90-minute documentary for the BBC in 2006 called 'Battle for Islam'. Sardar's online work includes a year-long blog on the Qur'an published in 2008 by The Guardian newspaper.
Sardar is a Visiting Professor of Postcolonial Studies in the Department of Arts Policy and Management at City University London and is Editor of the forecasting and planning journal, Futures. He is also a member of the UK Commission on Equality and Human Rights. His journalism appears most often in The Guardian and The Observer, as well as the UK weekly magazine, New Statesman. In the 1980s, he was among the founders of Inquiry, a magazine of ideas and policy focusing on Muslim countries. His early career includes working as a science correspondent for Nature and New Scientist magazines and as a reporter for London Weekend Television.
>>(from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziauddin... )<<
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*You can know more from his own site:
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Reviews

[Michael P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a nasty little book this is. It pretends to explain the process of learning and memory as understood from the past through the present, but it is really a cynical pitch for readers to buy more books in the INTRODUCING series. Most of the pages are spent on memory, well peppered with pages from other books from the INTRODUCING series so that you will (hopefully) be impressed and want to buy them. These sometimes stop the narration dead. Take pages 61-3, an explanation of Richard Fludd’s rather obscure memory theory. Fludd used Elizabethan playhouses as a metaphor for how memory works. What he meant is not at all clear. The first two pages explain this and make one guess as to what Fludd meant. No other guesses are included because page 63 reprints a page from INTRODUCING SHAKESPEARE that does not address Fluud or his ideas. It changes the subject. This is too typical of how the reprints are used in this shameful book.

Learning is nearly ignored. There is little mention on different theories of learning, which could be the subject of another book. The efficacy of memorization, teaching a concept, critical thinking, repetition, ideas about the ideas classroom size and etiquette, different learning systems, and other important learning issues are barely mentioned or not addressed at all. Instead, the book tells us that the INTRODUCING series is the best possible way to learn.

This is despicable. Icon should recall this book the way Detroit does bad cars and offer back the money spent on it.

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This doesn't really "introduce" anything. Compared to other books in the series, there's no flow to speak of, just a series of small disconnected sections. Each one briefly mentions a thinker, fails to expand on jargon, then moves on to more of the same. Some pages are reproduced in their entirety from other books in the series which can be quite jarring. 'Introducing Mind and Brain' is better for understanding learning and memory and a much better book overall.

[Josafat Ituarte · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's definitely a 3.5.

The books displays pretty good what it's trying to say, but because of the format of referencing other books, it loses the thought flow in some parts.

[Dana Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best entry in the series. it spends a lot of time on historical ideas about learning and memory and not so much on modern ones. The former is interesting, of course, but maybe the title could reflect that.

[Michael Moseley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I strange little book written in a cartoon format. quite appropriate for one with a large theam in visualisation. I think the idea was to entice you in to a multitude of different areas and encourage you to read more "introduction" books. We will see where I go.

[Shishir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very skeletal and slightly pretentious

[John Martindale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some people have a gift for writing introduction books, some authors obviously do not.