This book was fascinating, especially how students can be identified as needing assistance with reading without ever having read before due to neuroimaging. I also thought the idea of flip classrooms was interesting. This book should be required reading for all educators and I will be recommending it to my principal.

A book that arrives at a seemingly prescient time — of mass education in the US turned on its head because of COVID-19 —<i>Grasp</i> presents a deeply researched and well-reasoned argument about how we might transform the way we learn. Sanjay Sarma aims to critique our current educational system, emphasizing a dire need to reform current methods that serve to winnow out valuable students from an opportunity to maximize their minds’ potential.

An approach that melds both inside-out and outside-in approaches, Sarma aims to look deeply at how neuroscience and psychology can simultaneously inform our ideas about memory and learning. He dives into numerous studies, both historically overturned and up-and-coming theories, to provide readers with a body of knowledge about the past, present, and future of educational research.

<i>Grasp</i> ultimately feels like a niche read. With a framing story about a well-known MIT course on designing robots and STEM-centric examples of experimental learning setups, this can necessarily narrow the audience. Information-dense passages can sometimes feel dry, lightened by some anecdotes. Having a background in science assists in comprehending some of the more technical engineering or social science terms; this book is definitely geared toward academia. However, I ultimately more than appreciated the grounding of claims in science, addressing central, historical tenets of education theorists like Thorndike, Dewey, Skinner, and Piaget alongside new studies that clarify or elucidate new understanding of learning and memory.

This is a time for educators to pay close attention to a book such as this—one that demands we ameliorate the deficiencies of our traditional educational systems. Now, when students and teachers are like never before adjusting to online or hybrid platforms, a book such as <i>Grasp</i> emerges as essential reading. For those interesting about learning about learning, thinking about thinking, this one is a must-read.

The topic is very interesting but the writing is hard to get into as the book starts slow. I need a quick strong illustration to get me into where the book is headed.