How Learning Works: Eight Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching

An amazing survey of how learning works
The second edition is better than the first, with more up to date information, lessons learned and more. An indispensable reference and survey of how to think about how learning works and how to deliver effective instruction.And yes, the print is too small.

Print is waaayyy too small!!!
Although the 2nd edition of this book is very informative, many of the faculty members with whom I work complained about the SMALL size of the font! I noticed it immediately, upon opening it to read it. The font size for the first book was MUCH larger!

Large words, small print, too much leveraging–It gets better
The concept is good: the authors read and digest a ton of research on teaching and learning, and then distill it to a form that a practitioner can read and put to practical use without needing to spend a year reviewing the research literature.The execution has a few flaws.The font is microscopically tiny. I can read it, but my eyes tire quickly. After a few pages, I need a break.The authors are enamored of employing polysyllabic verbiage. Someone else might say that they “like using big words,” but that would be too readable. They use the word “leverage” multiple times a page. We don’t use an example in class; we must leverage the example, while we leverage diversity and everything else. For a while I was amused at every new sighting of “leverage,” but I’ve reached the point where it is annoying.I have a PhD and two MS degrees. I can read academic language. I can read this and understand it, but that does not mean I like it. If my college were not trying to leverage this book by getting the entire faculty to read it, I would have given up before now. As it is, I have some hope of making it to the end of Chapter 1 before Fall Semester starts.The ideas may be good. I’m going to stick with it and try to find out, because I like my dean and she wants us to read this. As I said, the concept is good. If they would say the same things in less pretentious language, and then use the space savings to enlarge the font size, I might even like it.Edited to add:The leveraging stopped at the end of Chapter 1. After that, the writing got better (or I got used to it). The font is still too small. The ideas are good. There’s not a lot here that I didn’t already know, but it is always good to be reminded. If I didn’t have decades of teaching experience, I wouldn’t know all of this stuff. This book would probably be very useful to someone who is newer at teaching undergraduates. Just warn them about the tiny font, and promise them that the leveraging does not continue through the entire book. It gets better.