Invisible Learning: The magic behind Dan Levy's legendary Harvard statistics course

Kudos to David Franklin and to Dan Levy. I've taught statistics to business undergrads for 5 years, and recently began teaching MBAs, and learning how Dan improves his course semester by semester with in the moment data collection and constant reflection and asking for input from teachers, graduate assistants, and students, is an eye opener on the amount of work it takes to be the best.And by that, I mean, ANYONE can learn to be the best. You don't have to be born with some special super-teacher gene. He also still has things he's working on, that he's been working on for years, and by gum, that not only gives me hope it gives me despair. There are going to be things that we can never get fully right, there will be students we can't reach, there will be people who don't click with our style, and you can do the best you can do and still fall short of perfection. But the important thing is to keep trying to make the course relevant, approachable, meaningful, student-focused, and with as many ah-hah moments as possible.Which was this book all the way through. 12/10 would recommend to any higher ed or adult learner teacher, any subject.

Franklin's book has allowed me to experience what it means to be a student at Professor Dan Levy's course, one of the most challenging courses at the Harvard Kennedy School taught by one of the most prestigious and best-ranked Professors.As a former teacher, this book has been a huge inspiration and motivation to keep learning how to become a better teacher and leader in the classroom. I don't remember the last time an author made me feel so deeply connected to the true meaning of teaching and building a safe environment within the classroom.I would definitely recommend this book to all those people who are passionate about education and believe that there is a way to make students fall in love with any course, no matter if it is as difficult as statistics.

Full disclosure: I am one of the students from Dan Levy's class which this book draws examples from, and I am friends with David.How is it that every year Dav Levy is among the highest rated professors at Harvard Kennedy School, an institution that counts charismatic figures such as Ron Heifetz and Samantha Power among its faculty, while teaching a required course called "Advanced Quantitative Methods"? How is it that Dan is able to create a classroom environment that deftly conveys difficult concepts like reasoning based on updating conditional probabilities while also making each person in a class of 80 students feel individually loved and appreciated? In this book David Franklin reveals the answers to these questions with insights into how Dan creates invisible bonds between himself and his students while revealing the invisible progress in mastering a subject through a process of continual feedback collection and improvement. David does this by interweaving vignettes of Dan's classes with explanations of the underlying principles of why Dan plans lessons and teaches the way he does. This book is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the magic of Dan's pedagogy while also learning a bit about the meaning and interpretation of statistics.

This book narrates a beautiful story about a passionate teacher and the magic of learning. This is definitely a fun read for anyone interested in exploring how to have a lasting impact on others through teaching or, more generally, interested in understanding how passionate dedication can lead to excellence.

The author is a great communicator and storyteller: you will feel you are being transported right to the middle of the lectures he analyzes. Also, there's a strong emphasis all over the book on the importance of using statistics well in the real world, which I find quite honest and compelling. Most importantly, it takes as a given that teaching is not the same as learning, explains why and gives some useful tips on how the gap can be closed in the classroom.

Three things I loved about this book:- Whether you are a complete newcomer or already know a lot about statistics you will enjoy and learn from this book. I couldn't put the book down, which may sound weird when talking about a book on statistics, but I am sure it won't once you've read it- Concepts are not presented just as concepts but more importantly the practicality of using them with real data. Many people may have heard "correlation doesn't imply causation" and whilst that may help avoid some mistakes, it isn't particularly helpful in providing a path forwards. The book explores this and other concepts from a practical standpoint - what you can glean from statistical information that allows you to make solid decisions whilst incorporating factors other than the pure statistics- It is a brilliant expose of a fantastic teacher - throughout the book you will feel like as if you are in the classroom and watching first hand the learnable tactics and strategies that Dan Levy uses to teach his class

This is, as far as I know, the only book to take a single course of study as a detailed case study in this way. The pedagogic insights aren't completely novel, but it is written in such a compelling and relatable manner that you want to take that inspiration straight into your next class. Recommended.

Insightful, well written and interesting - this book made me rethink my own teaching. I will certainly be nicking a few ideas!

This is a great read - thoroughly recommend. I didn't even realise I was interested in leadership before reading this book, but the author so expertly connects the dots between statistics, pedagogy and leadership in such a compelling way that it has changed the way I see learning and teaching.