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I summarize my 10 principles of learning. These principles respect the way God designed the brain to learn. That framework moves from questions that pique our curiosity and motivate exploration of the concrete. This exploration is a search for patterns which the brain constructs as a web of interconnected concepts (which are abstractions). Through this conceptual web we process new experiences and modify the web as we learn more.

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The myth of learning styles is a hindrance to deep and durable learning. It plays right into the myth of learning as mere retrieval. While we have individual preferences about the sensory channels we like information to be delivered over, the nature of the thing to be learned determines how it is best learned.

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The cognitive power tools of the well-taught beginner create increasingly useful knowledge as the learner's skill level increases through practice that challenges plateaus. This episode makes the case that learning should always be embedded in a way of thinking; thinking like a biologist, a historian, an economist, a mathematician, etc. Learners should engage with authentic problems in a scaled-down junior version of every subject. Pedagogy in the early years of learning that privileges the creation of concepts over the collection of information will pay substantial dividends as the student grows.

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"Drill and kill," the mindless and seemingly endless repetition of facts, kills motivation to learn. "Repetition aids learning" is only true with carefully crafted variety in the repetition. "Extended practice" is a better way to approach the need for the brain to wrestle with ideas in an intriguing journey to understanding.

This episode will help parents operationalize effective homework that embeds their kids in a stimulating exploration of ideas and their consequences. And, oh yes, the facts their school expects come along as a bonus.

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How can you help your child move from being absorbed with taking in information in the classroom to a fixation on understanding ideas? This is key to durable learning that is extensible; learning that you can build on and apply to solving real world problems. This episode operationalizes the creation of robust networks of powerful ideas.

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Many parents and children view their inability to memorize as their greatest educational weakness. Learning is more than remembering, but it is not less. Today's episode centers on the reality that durable memory is the byproduct of thinking about ideas. Using mnemonics and other gimmicks to bypass the need for thinking is doomed to fail and is boring to boot.

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Most schools design curriculum around a fact forward approach. Facts are always in the foreground while ideas lurk in the background and generally make only cameo appearances. This is exactly wrong.

The role of facts is to support ideas. Facts are organized by ideas and not the reverse. It is ideas that have consequences. While there may be "inconvenient facts," they are inconvenient only to ideas that fail to take them into account. Critical thinking seeks to give structure and meaning to facts and harness them for much greater ends than mere retrieval.

This episode seeks to put facts in their rightful place and empower parents to help their children focus on ideas even when the education establishment does not.

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Children are all born learners—at least until they go to school. Many children and their parents are frustrated and mystified by the setbacks that are experienced at school and it doesn't need to be this way!

This is the first episode of an entire season dealing with why your child may not like school and what to do about it. The season is structured around Daniel Willingham's book, Why Don’t Students Like School? Willingham articulates 10 principles of learning and I interact with his first principle in this episode. Contrary to Willingham, I emphasize the reality that children are born looking for patterns, but they are not good at finding the flaws in those patterns. By asking questions, you as a parent can help correct and solidify their mental categories and help them to thrive in any educational environment.

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Worldview is the key grid through which we filter and formulate ideas, yet it is not systematically developed in most educational programs. This is particularly likely on the university level. Make no mistake—a worldview is being developed anyway, but likely full of flaws and non sequiturs.

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No one wants to kill the joy of learning in a young child, but that's likely with the majority of preschool and elementary pedagogies. This podcast helps you sort through the educational philosophy underlying some major options.

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Attempting to read the Bible through each year is a source of frustration and guilt to many as they repeatedly fall behind their reading schedule. Is this yearly ritual a spiritual discipline that advances discipleship or does it substitute a false sense of breadth for real depth?

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The church is not immune to polarity that all too often leads to contention and division—the opposite of biblical unity. This study in Ephesians aims to transform your understanding of the nature of biblical unity and its priority in the life of each Christian.

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Transformational discipleship is redundant. Discipleship is intrinsically transformation into increasing Christlikeness. This is a case study of Ephesians that speaks with biblical authority to the current polarization within the church.

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Discipleship is more than a targeted learning process, but it is not less. Deep and durable learning of scripture results in personal transformation, but most churches follow a flawed process. Join me as I consider the discipleship gap and how to close it.

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What does wisdom say about beverage alcohol consumption? I cut through the cultural cachet of alcohol and look objectively at its documented effects on the human body.

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Daniel L. Smith, Professor of Nutrition Sciences, is a self-professed skeptic about nutritional science. He takes us on a journey through how science works and helps differentiate healthy skepticism (aka critical thinking) from corrupting cynicism.

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The elusive teachable moment is not endangered. In this episode we talk about how to orchestrate and leverage teachable moments to catalyze deep and durable learning

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Young learners are motivated by curiosity and wonder. This generates "why" questions that are answered by looking for patterns in the particulars  they encounter. Would this were true for adult learning!

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Many people feel stuck in their careers. At the root this is because they lack clarity about who they are and what they were made to do. Clarity emerges on the heels of questioning your erroneous assumptions about vocation.

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Vocation should not be chosen pragmatically based merely on opportunity. Vocation is literally a calling to use your unique giftedness for the glory of God. Dr. Scott Whitmore, a researcher in retinal diseases, shares his wrestling to discern God's call.

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Ideals are commendable but how we implement ideals can corrupt our true identity. Susanna Hindman shares her story of life in a disadvantaged community in West Baltimore, Maryland.

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Healthcare is better at treating disease than at creating and maintaining health. Dr. Daniel Hindman of the Johns Hopkins hospital system argues that medical professionals fail to grapple with the real determinants of patient health. Healthcare presumptuously treats even foreseeable physical dysfunction or limitation within a human lifespan as a problem it is working to solve.

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Dr. Valerie Coffman shares her personal struggles with infertility and loss and reflects on the opportunities for growth through profound disppointment.

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Cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Nathan Smith, as a college sophomore experienced the liberation that comes with transformational learning. In this podcast he explains how a focus on understanding and deep learning informs his Christian faith as well as his life as a surgeon.

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Pediatrician & internal medicine practioner, teacher of medical residents, and homeschool mom, Dr. Joy Smith reflects on an early experience of transformative learning and distills from it timeless principles of lasting learning.