The LEARN Method: An Interactive Guide for Effective Learning

Reviewed by Rebecca Stoddart, Emerita Professor of Psychological Science, Saint Mary's College on 7/6/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The book describes 5 characteristics of effective learning: Listening (attention), Elaboration, Association, Retrieval, and Night (time management outside of class and sleep). Memory storage and how the brain organizes and stores newly acquired information is referenced briefly and short YouTube videos are included to summarize these. The focus of the book is to help students learn how to be effective learners, rather than to teach about the science of learning per se. There are 5-8 activities included in each LEARN module to guide students through the strategies relative to each one, including one or two short self-quizzes. Some of the activities in the Elaborate chapter got tedious, as the focus was on Bloom's taxonomy and students would be bored with the redundancy across activities. The inclusion of YouTube videos to further explain neuroscience of memory and memory storage were helpful, as well as a linked article on effective learning strategies. More detail should be included on distributed practice and interleaving, as these are the most beneficial learning strategies. There is no index or glossary.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The material presented in each module is accurate. Some terms are referred to as important learning strategies but are never defined nor described, e.g., interleaving and distributed practice. And there was an agism bias in the Retrieval section. As a way of forming stronger associations, students were encouraged to explain a concept to "grandpa using simple words and ideas. And who knows, grandpa may add to the conversation or at least ask questions." This needs to be revised to explain a concept to a friend or roommate, without reference to age.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The links to YouTube videos are very helpful and current. The descriptions of the neuroscience of memory is up-to-date and clearly presented though some students may need more clarification as it presumes that they understand basic structure of neurons, synaptic transmission, and organization, etc. Many of the pictures depicting strategies or metaphors, however, are on the youngish side, e.g., the spotlight picture of a school mascot in the Listen module, and others are ambiguous and confusing, e.g., the mountain photo. Each of the activities is relevant to the particular LEARN strategy in that modules.

Clarity rating: 4

The writing is clear and accessible to readers, as are the examples. Some of the information in the YouTube videos could be elaborated on in the text in order to clarify and reinforce its importance. Section 9 in the Listen module on "what you need to know about memory" is dense and could be further elaborated on, rather than making it a link that students may skip.

Consistency rating: 5

Each chapter in the text is consistent in terms of its terminology and framework, making it easy to follow.

Modularity rating: 5

The entire book is structured in 5 modules, with short introductory information, followed by self-quizzes to engage the student, then more short information about the learning strategy featured in that module. The activities themselves provide the sub-headings in each module, and the text information itself is relatively short. Given that the modules are organized such that the information and strategies build on earlier information, it would not be easy to reorganize them. Instructors, however, could easily utilize one or more modules and/or their activities within an introductory psychology course unit on learning or memory without needing to assign the entire textbook.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The textbook is well organized and each module follows the same structure: a brief definition of that particular learning strategy, a self-quiz activity, followed by short descriptions of strategies and more activities, including other self-quizzes. The modules are logically organized in a sequential manner, starting with how to learn to focus attention on learning information and ending with why good sleep practices are important for memory consolidation.

Interface rating: 4

There are several links within the online text that led to "oops, page is not available" responses. I read the online version of the book, and in order to read each module and its activities I had to return to the top of the page, click again on the Content tab, scroll down to the next module or activity within a module and select it. Having a "next' tab at the bottom of the page would make reading and completing each module and their activities less awkward. Some of the activities have errors in them; for ex., the "spotlight" activity to find a school mascot doesn't have a way to select where you find it, nor an arrow next to it to check if you're correct in finding it. The first mnemonic activity, that asks the student to select mnemonic devices that they recognize, marked as incorrect the ones that I selected as ones that I recognized. And the Retrieval activity 4 incorrectly organizes internal vs. external motivation for healthy eating. These are the only interface errors that I found.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There are no grammatical errors, and the prose is straightforward and appropriate for students.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The text is not culturally insensitive, other than the one example of agism that I referred to earlier. There are few examples of people; the majority of pictures are of cartoon-like characters that bear no relationship to actual people of any ethnicity or cultural background.

Comments

While going through the book I kept wondering if the target audience was high school or first year college students. I think it would be a useful text in a class for pre-college students, and in a class for college students who are accepted but are academically weak and need support in how to be successful learners, how to develop time-management skills, develop better sleep behaviors, etc. Further, different modules would be useful to use as workshops for students throughout a semester, or by instructors who want to engage students in interactive activities when teaching about learning and memory.