Learning How to Learn

By: Tesia Marshik, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Tesia Marshik

Education can be enriching and transformative. It can also be downright excruciating—even demoralizing. When it comes to learning, why are some of us lovers and some of us haters?

Welcome to the world of educational psychology, which uses science to explore what causes people to engage and learn, and what we can do to make learning opportunities more enjoyable and impactful. Spoiler alert: Teachers can only do so much. Students, too, must take control of their learning. Unfortunately, many of us never, ahem, learned the skills to do just that.

Enter Tesia Marshik, a specialist in educational and developmental psychology. Her eye-opening Audible Original, Learning How to Learn, teaches you how to apply research-based tactics to improve your learning in any context, whether you’re in a typical classroom setting, pursuing a professional development opportunity, or working your way toward accomplishing almost any personal goal imaginable. By challenging basic assumptions about learning, you’ll develop effective strategies for studying smarter, staying focused, taking notes, learning online, and dodging the common pitfalls that keep so many of us from growing into our full potential.

Think you’re not a math person, or no good at photography, or too old to learn a new language, or that you simply can’t bake to save your life? Think again.

©2022 Audible Originals LLC (P)2022 Audible Originals LLC

Great For All

The course has wonderful tips for beginners and seasoned learners. Additionally, it helped me reframe my thinking for my own high school classroom students.

Learn To Study

This is an excellent lesson in studying and learning for students ... unfortunately, I was hoping for more brain/body science and fewer flashcards.

Very useful

I am excited to continue my education. The next leg of my journey will look much different now that I have better tools for learning and studying. Professor Marshik is an expert in the science behind learning and can explain the science in an easy to understand style that is enjoyable to listen to. Her analogies are fantastic! - I recommend the book to all learners.

Top notch content

As an educational psychologist myself I can vouch for everything she says. It’s all well established researched based advice.

This truly helps!

I have read and listened to many supposedly learn how to learn programs. I've never gotten anything out of them, only a big waste of time. She gives you many different strategies, and the reasons why these work. and how to go about it step by step is just what I needed. All I can say is wow, and thank you! I look forward to taking courses and actually learning these courses for my own personal knowledge.

An excellent and quick learning resource

Even though this audible book is short, it is packed with valuable information to facilitate the learning process! I found it to be well, written with clear points and goals, which can quickly be incorporated into real world courses.

Valuable Information

Anyone wanting to better themselves can find something valuable in this book. There are tips and examples for bettering your education, life habits, and new or existing hobbies.

Variable, Applicable, Repetitive

Why (I Listened)
I listen to a lot of educational material on Audible, and I want to ensure I get the most out of the material.

How (it Executed)
Marshik provides specific processes with easy-to-follow steps and explanations, informing you how to identify why you want to learn something, connect it to something you've learned before, set long term study goals for it and break those down into shorter ones, prepare to engage with material you want to learn by organizing notes in advance, take notes while engaging, and review your notes to not just commit them to memory, but also to learn them in the long term.

Unfortunately, Marshik repeats herself over the lecture series often, to the point of repeating the exact same quotes to you. This was the first Great Courses series that left me wondering if the lecturer was made aware that the format of the audio book was not like a podcast, where listeners could potentially start from any episode/lecture, and was instead cumulative. It made for a listening experience that had me paying fluctuating amounts of attention throughout.


What (I'll Remember)
There is a myth busting section early on in the lectures. It informs you that highlighting, rereading, and trying to force studying to conform to your learning style are all ineffective strategies. Learning styles in particular she cites as myths; you should study according to what type of material you're studying, not always in an audio, textile, or photographic form.

WOW. FANTASTIC!!

I was listening and jumped up to take notes.Very motivating. Great set of tips.

Should be required reading for students!

This was a quick explanation of best learning practices. It was mostly ideas I already knew, but have never followed (to my own detriment)! Maybe if I had this back in college I would have been more motivated to actually do it right! It also had some eye-opening moments where something really clicked about my own mindset and why sometimes studying seemed so ineffective. It was pretty brief, but even so tended to be a bit repetitive and could have been trimmed down even more. It is mostly targeted for college students but I wish there was a simplified version for middle school and highschool kids. I think starting these practices early would be hugely beneficial.