Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn

A groundbreaking new book on the science of how we learn. As Dean of Digital Learning at MIT, Sanjay Sarma has been tasked with spearheading an initiative to help educate the world. A lofty aim, but one which has never been more achievable, thanks to the current convergence of technology, neuroscience and experimentation which has fundamentally transformed the act of learning from a craft, to a science and, ultimately, to something that we engineer into ever greater outcomes for ourselves, our children, our students, our colleagues and humanity at large. In The Learning Revolution, Sarma argues that emphasising ‘learning’ over ineffectually just ‘educating’ is essential to our future. In a networked and digitised world, our ability to learn over the course of a lifetime has never been greater. But as a result, the demands for a dynamic, adaptive and enduring approach to knowledge acquisition and application have increased – we can’t just ‘do our learning in school’ and then settle in for the long haul of a narrowly defined, static work life. Through vivid storytelling and cutting-edge science, Sarma shows why the pace of learning is far more important than the kind of learning; why cramming is a really poor way to actually retain information; how we can prime curiosity to maximize information absorption and storage; and how our knowledge develops through stages of recognition, fluency and creative application. Sanjay Sarma, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, is the university’s Dean of Digital Learning, overseeing the school’s open courseware initiatives. The author of more than seventy-five professional papers, he has been awarded the MIT MacVicar Fellowship and other prestigious awards such as the Den Hartog Teaching Excellence Award and the Joseph H. Kennan Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education. Sanjay Sarma (Author) SANJAY SARMA is the head of Open Learning at MIT. A professor of mechanical engineering by training, he has worked in the fields of energy and transportation; computational geometry; computer assisted design; and has been a pioneer in RFID technology. He has advanced degrees from Carnegie Mellon and UC Berkeley. Luke Yoquinto (Author) LUKE YOQUINTO is a science writer who covers learning and education, as well as aging and demographic change in his role as a researcher at the MIT AgeLab. His work can be found in publications such as The Washington Post, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. He is a graduate of Boston University’s science journalism program.