Applied Coaching Research Journal Research Journal 3 | Page 42

APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2019, Vol. 3
Book Review: Make it Stick
– The Science of Successful
Learning
Book by: Peter Brown, Henry Roediger III and Mark McDaniel
Reviewed by: Mark Scott, UK Coaching
“People generally are going about learning in the
wrong ways.”
The opening statement in this book hits home,
especially if you are involved in any form of
learning, teaching or coaching. As the principal
investigator of a collaborative group of 11
researchers tasked in 2002 with applying principles
of cognitive psychology to educational practice,
Roediger has plenty of evidence to back up this
claim.
Roediger and colleagues go on to suggest that this
is because the strategies that research has shown
to be evidence-based do not seem intuitive to us
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as effective methods of learning. Methods such as
retrieval practice (testing yourself) seem difficult,
which makes people think they are not learning.
This leads to people using techniques they find
easy, such as re-reading notes. This seems to be
intuitively better for learning (it’s not!).
Make it Stick is the result of the researchers’
programme of research beginning in 2002 as well
as research findings from the last 100 years, and
suggests the main evidence-based strategies that
have consistently shown to help us learn and
remember. The three strategies that the authors’
research consistently shows to enhance learning are