Teaching Students to Work Harder and Enjoy It

Practice Makes Permanent

By (author) John Jensen

Not available to order

Publication date:

22 February 2012

Length of book:

168 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

ISBN-13: 9781610487344

Teaching Students to Work Harder and Enjoy It: Practice Makes Permanent points out a single, fundamental, and easily-corrected flaw that has held back American education for nearly a century—the design of instruction to achieve familiarization instead of mastery. This book explains the psychological dynamics and methods involved in mastery, and how to apply them easily in K-12 learning. A basic insight is that once students have a correct answer to any question, a straight road to its mastery is entirely comprised of practice. Practice continues to “make perfect” in all skill areas including the accumulation of a body of knowledge. Outlined here are the forms of it that enable students to master academic learning perfectly and permanently, as well as become competent with social/emotional skills and alter their behavior. A combination of methods especially valuable for students falling behind can turn classrooms around quickly.
What US education has not faced is that it has designed a system that hour by hour undermines its own goals. John Jensen has called out the core elements that he terms "the Learn and Lose System," and explains a simple and direct route to turning it around rapidly. Teachers need first to intend long-term instead of temporary learning, and the Practice Makes Permanent series explains how. You'll find here ideas you've always known but never quite figured out how to apply.