Book of the Year: Why We Sleep

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Year

[EMBARRASSING REVELATION (added August 21, 2021):

Walker’s book, as it turns out, is riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, as described in this outstanding analysis by Alexey Guzey (himself an early student of Learning How to Learn). As Wikipedia notes: “Walker failed to disclose that numerous meta-analyses involving over 4 million adults found the lowest mortality was associated with 7 hours of sleep, and that the increased risk of death associated with sleeping more than 7 hours was significantly greater than the risk of sleeping less than 7 hours as defined by a J-shaped curve.” As Guzey concludes: “…imagine that a 20-year-old who naturally needs to sleep for 7 hours a night, reads Why We Sleep, gets scared, and decides to spend the full 8 hours in bed every day. Then, assuming that they live until 75, they will waste more than 20,000 hours or more than 2 years of their life, with uncertain long-term side-effects.”  But there’s far, far more, including evidence for misrepresentation of the institution where Walker received his doctorate (the institution Walker had claimed apparently doesn’t issue doctorates), plagiarism, and, well, just making stuff up if it supports what Walker wants to say.  (Here is Walker’s response to some of the criticism.)

And we were also sad to learn of retraction and problematic research by Dan Ariely, who has studied, of all things, honesty.  Many companies (including some online learning platforms), ask students to sign integrity statements before beginning quizzes.  This approach has often arisen due to Ariely’s research.  Unfortunately, there’s good evidence that Ariely’s data for this research was cooked.  

Now if only Jo Boaler’s problematic research involving mathematics education—which is being used as the shaky foundation that underpins reform mathematics approaches—would be held by Stanford, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and other educational organizations to the level of scrutiny and consequent opprobrium that Walker and Ariely have received.

And we were also sad to learn of retraction and problematic research by Dan Ariely, who has studied, of all things, honesty.  Many companies (including some online learning platforms), ask students to sign integrity statements before beginning quizzes.  This approach has often arisen due to Ariely’s research.  Unfortunately, there’s good evidence that Ariely’s data for this research was cooked.  

Now if only Jo Boaler’s problematic research involving mathematics education—which is being used as the shaky foundation that underpins reform mathematics approaches—would be held by Stanford, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and other educational organizations to the level of scrutiny and consequent opprobrium that Walker and Ariely have received.]

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams,  is one of the most important books we have ever read.  If you read one book to help you with your learning (and life) this year, we think it should be Why We Sleep.

It seems that every question we’ve ever wondered about related to sleep is covered by author Matthew Walker’s masterful discussion of sleep. Walker is the Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, so he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to snoozing.  Yet Walker is also a masterful writer, full of witty, insightful metaphors that give an in-depth understanding of how and why we need to sleep.  We’d always known that sleep was a vital part of learning–Walker’s book tells why sleep is so important.  Walker shares sleep-related insights by the dozen along the way, such as tips and tricks to help you fall asleep more quickly, why sleeping pills are much less innocuous than you think, and why a tiny percentage of the population needs only 4 hours or so of sleep a night–(and why you’re probably not one of those people). Do not miss this book.  [Hat tip, super-MOOCer Ronny De Winter.]

Helping students build optimal sleep habits

And this article from always insightful Judy Willis at the npj Science of Learning Community gives some great tips on building good sleep habits in young adults.   
Reading Information Aloud to Yourself Improves Memory

You might think you’re just wasting time if you take the time to read aloud whatever you are trying to learn.  Nope–this worthwhile article relates how reading aloud can help reinforce ideas in memory.

The Latest Survey on MOOC-takers from Class Central

It’s worthwhile to take a step back to try to quantify what typical MOOC users are like.  Class Central does exactly that in their latest survey: “Class Central Learner Survey (2017): MOOC Users Highly Educated, Have Experienced Career Benefits”

Making Prescription Medicines Affordable in the United States

Our friend Guruprasad Madhavan of the US National Academy of Sciences co-authored the nuanced, insightful report Making Medicines Affordable, on the challenge of creating affordable drugs. Guru notes on his blog, The Barefoot Engineer: “At a time when total medical expenditures are rapidly approaching 20 percent of the gross domestic product, our report concluded that ‘consumer access to effective and affordable medicines is an imperative for public health, social equity, and economic development; however, this imperative is not being adequately served by the biopharmaceutical sector.’”

That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

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