WORLD OF LEARNING: STUDY HABITS

"Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits" New York Times 9/6/10

Another incisive piece by Benedict Carey. Much to think about, but I especially liked this: "...many study skills courses insist that students find a specific place, a study room or a quiet corner of the library, to take their work. The research finds just the opposite." Why? "The brain makes subtle associations between what it is studying and the background sensations it has at the time.... It colors the terms of the Versailles Treaty with the wasted fluorescent glow of the dorm study room, say; or the elements of the Marshall Plan with the jade-curtain shade of the willow tree in the backyard. Forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material may, in effect, give that information more neural scaffolding."

That's poetic and evocative. And insightful.