OSLER Strategies

The previous page holds a quote from make it stick, a seminal book presenting evidence on how we learn. Robert Bjork of UCLA best sums up the book: “The authors present research findings that have truly important—and unintuitive—implications for how we can all become more effective learners, teachers, and coaches, and they provide examples and stories that bring that research out of the lab and into the real world.” OSLER supports a data-driven and evidenced-based approach to learning. We therefore highly recommend that you peruse this book to find strategies that you might want to try as you begin or continue your medical education. We have listed below the seven highlights of the book:

• —Practice retrieving new learning from memory.
• —Space out your practice.
• —Interleave the study of different types of problems.
• —Elaborate – relate new material to what you already know.
• —Generate – answer questions before being given the solution.
• —Reflect – what went well? What could have gone better?
• —Calibrate – avoid the “illusion of knowing.”

OSLER is available to discuss or practice any of these learning strategies.