How Learning Happens - Key Quotes
A collection of important quotes and insights from "How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice" by Paul A. Kirschner and Carl Hendrick.
Procedural Knowledge vs. Skills
"Acquiring/learning a procedure to solve a problem is not the same as being able to solve a problem. The former is a type of knowledge (procedural knowledge), the latter is a skill."
What this means:
- Procedural knowledge: Knowing the steps or algorithm
- Skill: Being able to apply that knowledge effectively in practice
- Learning the theory ≠ Being able to execute in real situations
Implications for learning:
- Practice is essential to convert knowledge into skill
- Understanding the procedure is just the first step
- Repeated application builds true competence
Learn Almost Nothing Without Prior Knowledge
"If the learner has no relevant prior knowledge stored in long-term memory, the only thing that can happen is that they will try to memorise the steps ... novices can encode superficial problem features and learn almost nothing."
Personal reflection:
It's mesmerizing how our brains work - they're not actually "tired" when we struggle with new concepts; they're simply bored from trying to connect dots that don't exist yet in our mental models. What my brain tells me is "I'm exhausted, I can't do this anymore" is really just "I need a short break because I'm frustrated with this pattern-matching game where I have no patterns to match." The brain doesn't give up from exhaustion; it protests from the tedium of building something from nothing, and a simple 5-minute break is often all it takes to reset that frustration.
What this means:
- Without foundational knowledge, learning becomes rote memorization
- Novices focus on surface features, not deep structures
- Building mental models requires connecting new info to existing knowledge
- "Tiredness" is often boredom from lack of connection points
Implications:
- Always establish prerequisites before diving into new topics
- Bridge new concepts to what learners already know
- Take short breaks to reset mental frustration, not because of exhaustion
- Progressive complexity is essential for retention
Additional Quotes
More quotes will be added here as reading progresses...