DESIRABLE DIFFICULTY

The struggle is not the sign you are failing. It may be the sign you are learning.

Rereading, highlighting, and cramming feel productive, and they fade within days. Forgetting, guessing wrong, and working to remember feel like failure, and they are what make knowledge last. Psychologists call these desirable difficulties.

Dr. Gene A Constant left school in the eighth grade and went on to earn a doctorate. In plain language, he explains the science of learning that sticks and how to use it: pull it out of your memory instead of rereading, spread practice over days, mix problem types, guess before you are taught, and ask yourself how sure you really are. One chapter is honest about when it is hard and just hard and what to do then.

You will meet learners like Rosa in her first evening class, Erin with her color-coded textbook, a coach who shuffles his pitches, and a mother helping her son with a spelling list, and see the same habits work at a job and at the kitchen table.

Inside you will find 12 chapters,

• The Six Rooms,
• a one-page guide to the four habits,
• a 30-day practice plan,
• 7 research cases with citations,
• a 30-word dictionary,
• a free Grade Level Check, and
• 27 free ways to learn to read.

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