LEARNING


Megan A. Smith, Ph.D. Rhode Island College and Yana Weinstein, Ph.D. University of Massachusetts Lowell


Scientific strategies to create the best way for students to learn


Well-researched methods can be welcome tools in the armoury of ever-pressurised teachers By Megan Smith and Yana Weinstein


Teachers have a ton of information to teach, and limited time. There isn’t time to waste on strategies that don’t work, or aren’t eficient. Many learning strategies that seem


effective to students actually don’t produce much learning. Instead, they trick the learner into thinking they have learned more than they really have. Instead of relying on erroneous judgements to determine what works, we should rely on controlled research. Here are six strategies with moderate to strong research support, organised into three important steps: Planning, Understanding and Solidifying.


1 PLANNING


We can provide two guiding principles when planning out learning. First, space out learning of each


topic over time as this will make the other learning strategies presented in this piece more eficient. Research shows that spacing learning


over time (sometimes called distributed practice) is more effective than cramming the same amount of learning into one study session (Benjamin & Tullis). Teachers can promote spacing by


revisiting older topics during class, or assigning homework covering previous topics. Older students can be encouraged to implement spacing on their own (see the link, facing page, to a video that students may find useful). Second, interleaving involves


switching between different topics during a learning session, instead of blocking a lot of practice on one topic together. This strategy works best with subjects that involve problem solving.


6 SPRING 2017 • INTUITION RESEARCH


For example, if learning fractions, students will learn more if they interleave their practice of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, rather than the common practice of solving each type of problem many times in a row (Patel, Liu and Koedinger). Too much interleaving could possibly


lead to confusion rather than more learning. We need more research to understand the boundaries of interleaving as a learning strategy.


2 UNDERSTANDING


To help students understand the material being taught, the research recommends three strategies: elaborative interrogation, concrete examples and dual coding. Elaborative interrogation involves asking questions about how and why things work (McDaniel and Donnelly). (Follow the link, facing page, to a blog with examples of elaborative interrogation.) When teaching abstract ideas, coming up with concrete examples can help students learn and remember the information. Research demonstrates that we remember concrete information better than abstract ideas (Paivio, Walsh and Bons). Finally, you can use dual coding – combining words and visuals – to help students understand. Ask students to compare text and visuals depicting the same information. Next, have them put away the text and describe visuals in their own words. Then, have them draw their own visual depictions of the material. Learning styles theories are not really


relevant here, and are not backed by science (Pashler et al). Instead, most students learn more from multiple


modes of presentation (Meyer and Anderson). Dual coding can improve learning, but it has its limitations (follow the link, facing page, to a blog on dual coding).


3 SOLIDIFYING


Research dating back to 1917 (Gates) supports retrieval’s effectiveness at improving learning. Recent research has shown that retrieval helps students apply learned information in new situations in addition to remembering facts (Smith, Roediger and Karpicke). Importantly, retrieval practice helps


many different types of students learn (follow the link, facing page, to a blog on retrieval practice). Retrieval involves bringing information


to mind (Smith et al). It occurs during a test or a quiz – so frequent, low-stakes testing actually promotes learning. Testing has become somewhat politically charged. However, a formal test is not necessary for retrieval to occur; there are a lot of ways to integrate retrieval into classroom activities. The key is to make sure students are not accessing their class materials during the activity. For example, students could practise drawing a concept map from memory to convey relationships between different ideas they are learning, or they could draw a diagram from memory to represent a system of some kind (follow the link, facing page, to a blog on concept maps). Even asking students informal


questions promotes retrieval practice. Then, after they have practised retrieval, have them look at their class materials or trade papers with a peer to seek information that was missed and correct misconceptions.


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