Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental Tools to Help You Master Tough Subjects

Professor of Engineering and linguist Barbara Oakley, is the instructor of Learning How to Learn (University of California-San Diego – Coursera), one of the world’s largest student massive open online course, with over two million students. In this presentation, she will show you present useful information about how you can more easily master new and difficult material.

• Learn why it’s perfectly normal to not understand something difficult the first time you encounter it. You’ll see how to your your knowledge of how your brain works to do better on tests and to help protect you against feelings of frustration and failure when something seems difficult to learn.

• See what the patterns of expertise look like in the brain, and learn how to build those patterns more quickly and with less frustration.

• Discover simple tools to tackle procrastination. (You might be surprised to learn that even just thinking about something you don’t like causes your brain to experience pain.)

• Learn the surprising advantages of having a bad memory and sometimes being a slower learner.

Dr. Oakley’s previous book, A Mind for Numbers, is a New York Times and international best-seller translated into over a dozen languages. Her most recent book is the popular Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens.