Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn [Audiobook]

A groundbreaking look at the science of learning - how it's transforming education and how we can use it to discover our true potential as individuals and across society - by a renowned MIT professor.

As the head of Open Learning at MIT, Sanjay Sarma has a daunting job description: to fling open the doors of the MIT experience for the benefit of the wider world. But if you're going to undertake such an ambitious project, it behooves you 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, which techniques are?

Grasp takes listeners across multiple frontiers, from fundamental neuroscience to cognitive psychology and beyond, as it explores the future of learning. Some of its findings:

*Scientists are studying the role of forgetting, exposing it not as a simple failure of memory, but a critical weapon in our learning arsenal.
*New developments in neuroimaging are helping us understand how reading works in the brain. It's become possible to identify children who might benefit from specialized dyslexia interventions - before they learn to read.
*Many schools have begun converting to flipped classrooms, in which you watch a lesson at home, then do your "homework" in class. Through such bold instructional changes, MIT has eliminated the gender performance gap in its introductory physics courses.
*By structuring its curriculum to better incorporate cutting-edge learning strategies, one law school in Florida has rocketed to the top of its state in bar exam passage rates.

Along the way, Sarma debunks long-held views (such as the noxious idea of "learning styles"), while equipping listeners with a set of practical tools for absorbing and retaining information across a lifetime. 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.