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Learning That Sticks: A Brain-Based Model for K-12 Instructional Design and Delivery
In far too many classrooms, the emphasis is on instructional strategies that teachers employ rather than on what students should be doing or thinking about as part of their learning. What's more, students' minds are something of a mysterious "black box" for most teachers, so when learning breaks down, they're not sure what went wrong or what to do differently to help students learn.
It doesn't have to be this way.
Learning That Sticks helps you look inside that black box. Bryan Goodwin and his coauthors unpack the cognitive science underlying research-supported learning strategies so you can sequence them into experiences that challenge, inspire, and engage your students. As a result, you'll learn to teach with more intentionality—understanding not just what to do but also when and why to do it.
By way of an easy-to-use six-phase model of learning, this book* Analyzes how the brain reacts to, stores, and retrieves new information.* Helps you "zoom out" to understand the process of learning from beginning to end.* Helps you "zoom in" to see what's going on in students' minds during each phase.
Learning may be complicated, but learning about learning doesn't have to be. And to that end, Learning That Sticks helps shine a light into all the black boxes in your classroom and make your practice the most powerful it can be.
This product is a copublication of ASCD and McREL.
It doesn't have to be this way.
Learning That Sticks helps you look inside that black box. Bryan Goodwin and his coauthors unpack the cognitive science underlying research-supported learning strategies so you can sequence them into experiences that challenge, inspire, and engage your students. As a result, you'll learn to teach with more intentionality—understanding not just what to do but also when and why to do it.
By way of an easy-to-use six-phase model of learning, this book* Analyzes how the brain reacts to, stores, and retrieves new information.* Helps you "zoom out" to understand the process of learning from beginning to end.* Helps you "zoom in" to see what's going on in students' minds during each phase.
Learning may be complicated, but learning about learning doesn't have to be. And to that end, Learning That Sticks helps shine a light into all the black boxes in your classroom and make your practice the most powerful it can be.
This product is a copublication of ASCD and McREL.
- GenresTeaching
209 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 5, 2020
13 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 24, 2023
'The most important thing we may ever share with a student is not learning itself but rather the determination to commit to learning'.
This book is what every textbook should be - precise, to the point, no BS. In essence, it takes the information processing model from cognitive psychology and translates it into a model for instructional design for secondary education but I'd argue that it is just as applicable in higher and further ed. I'd recommend it to any teacher in the stages of conscious competence and unconscious competence as well as instructional designers and eLearning advisers such as myself.
On the basis of advancements in neuroscience and recognising that even before we approach any learning, we operate at close to max operation capacity (think information age and cognitive overload), the model offers a really well-structured plan how to create engaging learning content that doesn't bore the students to death but instead engages higher thinking (Bloom's taxonomy) and inspires life-long commitment to learning. The book is underlined by the author's belief that educators should care what students really think rather than what they are supposed to say ("stop talking, start listening"). One of my favourite facts was that students forget 90% of what they've learned within 30 days (forgetting is vital for our memory!). The "Goldilocks' zone of challenge as a guiding principle for creating learning tasks is also a great takeaway as well as the reference point phenomenon (we must know something about a topic first to be curious about it.
In addition, the book offers an array of techniques (not just for students) how to commit knowledge to our long-term memory so it's staying on my desk for every day reference.
This book is what every textbook should be - precise, to the point, no BS. In essence, it takes the information processing model from cognitive psychology and translates it into a model for instructional design for secondary education but I'd argue that it is just as applicable in higher and further ed. I'd recommend it to any teacher in the stages of conscious competence and unconscious competence as well as instructional designers and eLearning advisers such as myself.
On the basis of advancements in neuroscience and recognising that even before we approach any learning, we operate at close to max operation capacity (think information age and cognitive overload), the model offers a really well-structured plan how to create engaging learning content that doesn't bore the students to death but instead engages higher thinking (Bloom's taxonomy) and inspires life-long commitment to learning. The book is underlined by the author's belief that educators should care what students really think rather than what they are supposed to say ("stop talking, start listening"). One of my favourite facts was that students forget 90% of what they've learned within 30 days (forgetting is vital for our memory!). The "Goldilocks' zone of challenge as a guiding principle for creating learning tasks is also a great takeaway as well as the reference point phenomenon (we must know something about a topic first to be curious about it.
In addition, the book offers an array of techniques (not just for students) how to commit knowledge to our long-term memory so it's staying on my desk for every day reference.
December 13, 2025
This is one of my favorite books I've read for professional development. I read it as part of a district level class that I took, and I felt it provided lots of great examples, was easy to read, and did not drone on, and felt very well connected to research on the brain and student learning.
October 10, 2024
“Of all the wonders of the universe, one of the most amazing may well be the three-pound lump of gray matter inside your skull: the human brain…Teaching is like performing noninvasive brain surgery on a classroom full of patients, 180 days a year…What’s most important isn’t what you are teaching but what students are learning…School experiences ought to be exposing students to the mysteries of science, the drama of human history, the elegant language of mathematics, and great works of literature.”
Education is like dating. “You need to go on more than one date with your new bit of learning, but like any successful courtship, they should be good dates of increasing complexity (moving from superficial to deeper connections) and not simply a repeat of previous experiences. (Dinner and a movie…again?)”
Efficient teachers cover content, “the equivalent of waterskiing over something we could easily scuba dive into.” However, if we impart information without sparking curiosity, efficiency becomes the thief of the wonder of discovery, which is the heartbeat of learning. “Intellectual curiosity–the need to explore, answer questions, and encounter new experiences–is the best companion to learning.” Encouraging students to ask their own questions is an invitation “to experience the joy of chasing their own intellectual horizons.”
As educators, “our aim is precisely to help students connect knowledge and skills together to better understand the world around them and take informed action that creates positive outcomes for themselves and others.” Teachers “are in the business of helping students turn information into memories, and we hope what we teach students in our classrooms today sticks with them tomorrow and far into the future.”
“As we help them accrue, consolidate, and refine more mental models, students develop the building blocks of expertise and, along the way, discover that deep down, everyone has an expert inside them waiting to come out.” Bryan Goodwin’s Learning that Sticks is fuel for a teacher’s fire “to keep exploring and learning something new every day about the amazing profession you’ve chosen to pursue–to be a changer of students’ lives.”
Education is like dating. “You need to go on more than one date with your new bit of learning, but like any successful courtship, they should be good dates of increasing complexity (moving from superficial to deeper connections) and not simply a repeat of previous experiences. (Dinner and a movie…again?)”
Efficient teachers cover content, “the equivalent of waterskiing over something we could easily scuba dive into.” However, if we impart information without sparking curiosity, efficiency becomes the thief of the wonder of discovery, which is the heartbeat of learning. “Intellectual curiosity–the need to explore, answer questions, and encounter new experiences–is the best companion to learning.” Encouraging students to ask their own questions is an invitation “to experience the joy of chasing their own intellectual horizons.”
As educators, “our aim is precisely to help students connect knowledge and skills together to better understand the world around them and take informed action that creates positive outcomes for themselves and others.” Teachers “are in the business of helping students turn information into memories, and we hope what we teach students in our classrooms today sticks with them tomorrow and far into the future.”
“As we help them accrue, consolidate, and refine more mental models, students develop the building blocks of expertise and, along the way, discover that deep down, everyone has an expert inside them waiting to come out.” Bryan Goodwin’s Learning that Sticks is fuel for a teacher’s fire “to keep exploring and learning something new every day about the amazing profession you’ve chosen to pursue–to be a changer of students’ lives.”
February 17, 2023
It seems like I've learned this before, but in different terminology. It's like the ultimate lesson plan guide for units of study. Includes lots of practical ideas for teaching and brain studies to back up the practice.
January 16, 2022
A book every teacher should have at the ready, on their desk as they design instruction for their students.
August 4, 2024
Lectura de trabajo: una explicación actualizada de la ciencia cognitiva aplicada a la educación, desde la enseñanza compatible con el cerebro. Es un libro útil.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews