Barbara Oakley Quotes & Sayings

Tomorrow is another day, we rather hope it will be better but better it won't be unless self-foibles are examined. — Barbara Oakley

Befuddlement is a healthy part of the learning process. When students approach a problem and don't know how to do it, they'll often decide they're no good at the subject. Brighter students, in particular, can have difficulty in this way - their breezing through high school leaves them no reason to think that being confused is normal and necessary. But the learning process is all about working your way out of confusion. Articulating your question is 80 percent of the battle. By the time you've figured out what's confusing, you're likely to have answered the question yourself!" - Kenneth R. Leopold, Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota — Barbara Oakley

Welcome to the psychiatric hotline: if you are obsessive compulsive press one repeatedly. If you are schizophrenic listen closely and a little voice will tell you which number to press. If you have borderline personality disorder hang up; you have already pushed everybody's buttons. — Barbara Oakley

Habit is an energy saver for us. It allows us to free our mind for other types of activities. — Barbara Oakley

Thiss sentence contains threee errors. — Barbara Oakley

Remember, research has shown that the more effort you put into recalling material, the deeper it embeds itself into your memory. — Barbara Oakley

Focused problem solving in math and science is often more effortful than focused-mode thinking involving language and people. — Barbara Oakley

Psychopaths know intellectually what is immoral they just don't have a feeling of immorality about it. — Barbara Oakley

Learning organic chemistry is not any more challenging than getting to know some new characters. The elements each have their own unique personalities. The more you understand those personalities, the more you will be able to read their situations and predict the outcomes of reactions." - Kathleen Nolta, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer in Chemistry — Barbara Oakley

The trick to overwriting a habit is to look for the pressure point - your reaction to a cue. The only place you need to apply willpower is to change your reaction to the cue. — Barbara Oakley

I think most clearly when I'm driving. Sometimes I'll just take a break and drive around - this helps a lot. — Barbara Oakley

Procrastination expert Rita Emmett explains: "The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself. — Barbara Oakley

Over the past decades, students who have blindly followed their passion, without rational analysis of whether their choice of career truly was wise, have been more unhappy with their job choices than those who coupled passion with rationality. — Barbara Oakley

It's normal to sit down with a few negative feelings about beginning your work. It's how you handle those feelings that matters. — Barbara Oakley

Persistence is often more important than intelligence. Approaching material with a goal of learning it on your own gives you a unique path to mastery. — Barbara Oakley

Internalizing problem-solving techniques enhances the neural activity that allows you to more easily hear the whispers of your growing intuition. When you know - really know - how to solve a problem just by looking at it, you've created a commanding chunk that sweeps like a song through your mind. — Barbara Oakley

Just focus on whatever section you are studying. You'll find that once you put the first problem or concept in your library, whatever it is, then the second concept will go in a bit more easily. And the third more easily still. Not that all of this is a snap, but it does get easier. — Barbara Oakley

You may think you really have to understand something in order to explain it. But observe what happens when you are talking to other people about what you are studying. You'll be surprised to see how often understanding arises as a consequence of attempts to explain to others and yourself, rather than the explanation arising out of your previous understanding. — Barbara Oakley

I tell my students they can procrastinate as long as they follow three rules: 1. No going onto the computer during their procrastination time. It's just too engrossing. 2. Before procrastinating, identify the easiest homework problem. (No solving is necessary at this point.) 3. Copy the equation or equations that are needed to solve the problem onto a small piece of paper and carry the paper around until they are ready to quit procrastinating and get back to work. "I have found this approach to be helpful because it allows the problem to linger in diffuse mode - students are working on it even while they are procrastinating." - Elizabeth Ploughman, Lecturer of Physics, Camosun College, Victoria, British Columbia — Barbara Oakley

Gary Noesner notes that we could all learn from the successes and failures of hostage negotiation.7 At the beginning of such situations, emotions run high. Efforts to speed matters along often lead to disaster. Staving off natural desires to react aggressively to emotional provocations allows time for the molecules of emotion to gradually dissipate. The resulting cooler heads save lives. — Barbara Oakley

Complex training environments such as action video game play may actually foster brain plasticity and learning. — Barbara Oakley

Process, Not Product If you find yourself avoiding certain tasks because they make you uncomfortable, there is a great way to reframe things: Learn to focus on process, not product — Barbara Oakley

Attempting to recall the material you are trying to learn - retrieval practice - is far more effective than simply rereading the material. — Barbara Oakley

Multitasking means that you are not able to make full, rich connections in your thinking, because the part of your brain that helps make connections is constantly being pulled away before neural connections can be firmed up. — Barbara Oakley

This approach [solving easiest problems first, during the test] works for some people, mostly because anything works for some people. — Barbara Oakley

If you protect your routine, eventually it will protect you. — Barbara Oakley

The Law of Serendipity: Lady Luck favors the one who tries — Barbara Oakley

If you'd like to see how to apply these ideas directly to memorizing formulas, try out the SkillsToolbox website for a list of easy-to-remember visuals for mathematical symbols.7 — Barbara Oakley

reading - simply reading through books or — Barbara Oakley

whatever you're learning, see whether you can make a metaphor to help yourself understand the most difficult topic - you'll be surprised at how much it can bring the key idea to life. — Barbara Oakley

You want your brain to become used to the idea that just knowing how to use a particular problem-solving technique isn't enough - you also need to know when to use it. — Barbara Oakley

Procrastination is like addiction. It offers temporary excitement and relief from boring reality. — Barbara Oakley

Focus on the process (the way you spend your time) instead of the product (what you want to accomplish). — Barbara Oakley

From your "due date" calendar, write down a weekly to-do list of twenty or fewer key items. Each night, create the next day's daily to-do list from the items on the weekly to-do list. Keep it to five to ten items. Try not to add to the daily list once you've made it unless it involves some unanticipated but important item (you don't want to start creating endless lists). Try to avoid swapping out items on your list. — Barbara Oakley

If you don't make a point of repeating what you want to remember, your "metabolic vampires" can suck away the neural pattern related to that memory before it can strengthen and solidify. — Barbara Oakley

Einstellung effect (pronounced EYE-nshtellung). In this phenomenon, an idea you already have in mind, or your simple initial thought, prevents a better idea or solution from being found. — Barbara Oakley

Remember, habits are powerful because they create neurological cravings. It helps to add a new reward if you want to overcome your previous cravings. Only once your brain starts expecting the reward will the important rewiring take place that will allow you to create new habits. — Barbara Oakley

This is precisely why one significant mistake students sometimes make in learning math and science is jumping into the water before they learn to swim. — Barbara Oakley

The biggest lie ever is that practice makes perfect. Not true - practice makes you better. — Barbara Oakley

There is a deep connection between technical, scientific, and artistic creativity. — Barbara Oakley