Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation

I just wanted to write a note here about Dr. Saundra McGuire's book, "Teach Students How to Learn." I don't even know where to start when it comes to how I want to talk about this book. First and foremost, I am not an educator or a professor. This book was written with the intent that it's primary target audience would be professors and those in roles of teaching positions. I, myself, am a college undergraduate student majoring in psychology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. After Dr. McGuire came and spoke at my school about the metacognitive learning strategies she studies and teaches, I knew I wanted to explore her work further. For a long time in my academic career I have sort of "winged it" when it came to how I would study and consume information, inside of the class and out. Up until most recently, I have done fairly well in my work, maintaining an average GPA of around 3.4, but I knew I was capable of more. I knew that there just had to be a way to better myself and the way I went about my academic studies.After about 15 minutes into "Teach Students How to Learn," I knew I had something special in my hands. Dr. McGuire has spent her life learning, understanding, and developing ways not only to teach students how to excel in their academic studies but also how to increase their own opinion of their abilities and self worth. I have watched and read countless videos and books that talk about "learning skills" and typically forgot what I learned almost immediately. Dr. McGuire presents her metacognitive learning strategies and techniques in a way that are very clear, practical, and applicable. From breaking down the complexities of Bloom's Taxonomy, to presenting what is referred to as "the learning cycle," to a handful of other strategies and techniques, Dr. McGuire challenges her readers to expand their breadth and depth of understanding and knowledge of the learning process in a way that can be understood by professors and students alike. Again, this book is written to be primarily consumed by professors, but is just as valuable for students.To say that this book will change your life, as a professor, or as a student, is a complete understatement. This book will change everything. This book was designed to clearly articulate the steps necessary to take to ascend through the higher learning levels and begin to transform the way we think about thinking. I will be giving this book to many friends and professors. If you are a teacher, professor, or student, do yourself an invaluable favor and get this book. You will thank yourself for the rest of your life.

I love talking, reading and thinking about teaching, and I have a LOT of books about teaching. This is the one that I recommend to everybody.It is a concise, actionable summary of the research about how learning works. It explains how to convince students to the things that research shows will help them be successful; it clearly explains what, exactly, they should be doing; and why those things work.I wish someone had told me these things when I was a student! (For example, I thought I knew how to read until I read this book, which explains a much better way to read for understanding.) As a student, I used trial and error and eventually stumbled across study strategies that were good enough that I excelled academically, but these evidence-based strategies would have helped me do a lot better in much less time (because I would have wasted much less time doing things that didn't work). I'm excited to be able to give my own students the tools to be successful not just in my classes, but all their classes and beyond.

The best part about this book is its simplicity. As I read through the principles, I kept asking, "why haven't I thought of these before?" Within just a few weeks of reading the book, I began to employ the tips that it recommended, and saw positive results with my students from their first to second exams. Enjoy!

This book was written for college instructors, but it can also apply to high school teachers. She gives 10 metacognitive strategies and talks about the importance of teaching Bloom's Taxonomy to students. She talks about the Growth vs. Fixed Mindsets, based off of Carol Dweck book, "Mindsets". She gives four strategies for changing a student's mindset. What can faculty do to boost motivation, positive emotions, and learning? Twenty-one strategies are given. What can students do to boost motivation, positive emotions, and learning? Five strategies are given. How do you teach unprepared students? Six strategies are given. There are links to her on video teaching learning strategies to students, powerpoints, etc. This is very much a researched-based book that is easy to read. There are also many student feedbacks published stating how these strategies have helped them. I teach high school math and I found this book to be very helpful.

Excellent excellent book. I teach adults. Recently, I realized that when I say, "Go home and study," some of them don't know what that means. That was why I started looking for a book like this.I no longer say that. Now, I tell them how to study. I tell them why a certain way of studying works. I have changed the way I do things in class. I am a much better teacher because of this book.I recommend this to anyone who teaches adults.

Purchased for a college class. It was a pretty quick and easy read and not as boring as most books that are assigned in school. The real-life stories were interesting and it had some good tips on how to retain material being studied.

Very well written, practical approach for college instructors as well as secondary teachers, focused on teaching students how and when to take notes a certain way, how to study, and the rationale behind it. The focus is metacognition and what we hope all high school students learn in many do not, affirmed by the research and statistics. I've already recommended it to three colleagues.

I am still in the process of reading this book, but I absolutely love it. Thank you so much, Dr. McGuire for outlining your experience with this process in so much detail in this book. I feel like I'm on the journey with you. I appreciate you, your work and this book so much! Thank you.