How to Think About Learning Efficiency

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Here’s how to think about learning efficiency.

Think about driving 100 miles.

In back roads, that might take like 5 hours. But on a highway, that only takes 2, maybe 1 and a half.

See, the distance didn’t change, but the conditions did. You can go fast when the road is paved and there aren’t tons of bumps and potholes.

And it’s the same thing with learning. The whole idea is that you don’t have to bring the destination closer – you don’t have to decrease the distance from algebra to calculus – if you just improve the learning conditions.

Make sure students know the prerequisites for each new thing you’re trying to get them to learn.

Scaffold each new thing so that they can learn it smoothly instead of constantly staring off into space, racking their brains about what the heck is going on.

That is how you get students there faster.

Further reading: Most students could learn several times faster than most schools assume. .

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