Coaching practices for Make it Stick the Science of Learning During a Big Change

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Make it Stick the Science of Learning During a Big Change, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I cram it all into one marathon session and ace it that night, then a week later it’s basically gone
  • I can hold a change together when things are calm, but the moment real stress hits, this voice says "who am I kidding, I’ll never actually change," and one slip becomes proof
  • I’ve got a pile of memorized facts floating around with nothing holding them together, and the second I try to explain any of it in my own words or use it somewhere new, it falls apart
  • I jump straight to the worked answer to save time, and it always looks obvious in hindsight
  • I read it over and over until it feels familiar, then the moment someone asks me to actually say it back I draw a total blank

Practices that may help

  1. Make It Stick: The Science of Learning
    "Make It Stick", by Peter Brown with psychologists Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel, distills decades of cognitive science into a few high-leverage practices: retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and elaboration. Its central counterintuitive claim — that the most effective learning feels harder and slower than rereading — is backed by strong experimental evidence.
  2. Spaced practice
    Spread study over time instead of cramming it into one session.
    Make It Stick: The Science of Learning
  3. Cultivate genuine belief that change is possible
    Habits stick permanently only when the person believes they can change — especially under stress.
    The Habit Loop, Made Practical
  4. Elaboration
    Explain new material in your own words and connect it to what you already know.
    Make It Stick: The Science of Learning
  5. Generation: attempt before you are taught
    Try to solve or answer first, even if you get it wrong, before seeing the solution.
    Make It Stick: The Science of Learning
  6. Retrieval practice (testing to learn)
    Quiz yourself to learn, not just to check what you already know.
    Make It Stick: The Science of Learning
  7. Space retrieval attempts across increasing intervals
    Test yourself on a topic after a delay, then again after a longer delay — the effort of retrieval at the edge of forgetting makes the memory strongest.
    The Testing Effect: Why Retrieval Practice Beats Restudying
  8. Use spaced repetition of core ideas in teaching and coaching
    Revisiting key concepts across sessions builds fluent understanding — mere exposure amplifies spaced practice.
    The Mere Exposure Effect, Made Practical
  9. Use belief and community to make change stick
    A supportive group and a belief that change is possible help new habits survive stress.
    The Power of Habit, Made Practical
  10. Beware illusions of knowing
    Don’t trust the feeling of fluency — it routinely overstates what you actually know.
    Make It Stick: The Science of Learning

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