The value of learning to learn

How do we learn?

It’s not an academic question, according to Dr. Barbara Oakley, 2023 awardee of the McGraw Prize in Education for Lifelong Learning.

“Learning about learning tells you what are the important ideas, how can you get them more easily accessible within your brain, so that you can use them more easily. All of these things can really enhance the time you do spend learning so it’s much more effective,” Oakley recently told the Coursera podcast. 

Oakley, a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Oakland University, has made learning easier for millions of people from all walks of life by revealing how insights from neuroscience can improve our understanding of challenging concepts in math and engineering — and countless other fields. More than 5 million people worldwide have taken her free massive open online courses.

On the Coursera podcast, she takes on myths about how we learn through life and discusses how you can cultivate a lifelong learning mindset. Listen to the full episode here.