Highlights / notes file: Learn Like a Pro - Barbara Oakley & Olav Schewe
Phones and task-switching cut learning: students without phones took far more notes and scored higher; switching tasks slows work and raises errors. Short, fully idle breaks help new learning consolidate.
From my highlights
- Learn Like a Pro: students not using phones wrote 62% more notes, recalled more detail and scored about 1.5 letter grades higher on a multiple-choice test.
- Task-switching raises distraction and errors, slows work and weakens learning; one Michigan study found 30–40% performance loss.
- Avoid studying where people socialise; headphones signal “do not disturb”.
- 5–10-minute breaks with complete mental rest (no phone, no reading) help new information settle.
- Uncommon Sense Teaching: the problem with memory isn’t storage, it’s getting information in and out.
Sources behind the claims (Claude, check before citing)
- The note-taking figure matches Kuznekoff & Titsworth (2013, Communication Education).
- Task-switching costs: Rubinstein, Meyer & Evans (2001) at Michigan.
- Wakeful rest: Dewar et al. (2012) on rest after learning.
Apply in my context (Claude)
- A phones-in-the-box routine during input stages, and a 2-minute silent “settle” after presenting new language before practice.
- The “in and out” framing is the best one-line case for retrieval practice to parents.
Connections
Spaced retrieval is the best-supported technique · Handwriting beats typing for encoding · Teaching is the management of attention · Phone-based childhood - what it means for teen classrooms