Chapter 21: Learning Techniques That Really Work

Chapter 21: Learning Techniques that Really Work

Finding Techniques That Work

• John Dunlosky and his colleagues Katherine Rawson, Elizabeth Marsh, Mitch Nathan, and Dan Willingham authored this article to assist students and educators by examining the insights derived from research in cognitive psychology and educational sciences regarding the effectiveness of various study approaches, which they referred to as learning techniques.

• They recognized from the existing literature that a substantial amount of knowledge existed concerning effective learning techniques; however, this information frequently remained absent from teacher textbooks, both for pre-service and in-service educators.

Ratings

= insufficient

= qualified

= negative

= positive

Often used by students

Different Criterion Tasks

Different Learning Conditions

Different Types of Learning Material

Different Students

Criteria

• Are they effective?
• Better information retention?
• Are they generalizable?

Do they Work?

• Elaborative interrogation
• Self-explanation
• Summarisation
• Highlighting/underlining
• Keyword Mnemonics
• Imagery for text
• Rereading

• Practice testing
• Distributed practice
• Interleaved practice

10 Learning Techniques

Dunlosky's Study (2013)

CLICK TO LEARN MORE AND SEE EACH TECHNIQUE'S SUCESS RATE

SUMMARIZATION

Rereading

IMAGERY

Keyword Mneumonic

Elaborative Interrogation

HILIGHTING

Interleaved Practice

Practice Testing

Distributive Practice

Self-Explanation

THE RESULTS

THE UTILITY ASSESSMENT AND GENERALISABILITY RATINGS OF THE LEARNING TECHNIQUES (DUNLOSKY ET AL., 2013)

• For teachers:
• give small (homework) assignments that include both new and previous info
• give cumulative tests
• plan short review sessions at the start of each lesson
• implement a spiral curriculum

• For students:
• make exam schedules in which the study sessions are spread in time
• practice basic skills repeatedly but in short intervals
• take regular breaks when studying

#1 Distributive Practice aka Spacing

2 BEST PRACTICES... AND USING THEM IN YOUR PRACTICE

• For teachers:
• use techniques where your students are obliged to remember information such as quizzes, practice tests, and review questions.
• Use ungraded quizzes or exit tickets
• provide short writing exercises or reflections

• For students:
• use different forms of self-tests
• Use things like flashcards, diagnostic exercises, quizzes.
• Cornell notes (Pauk, 2001).

#2 Practice Testing AKA Retrieval Practice

2 BEST PRACTICES... AND USING THEM IN YOUR PRACTICE

Learning Strategies Center. How to study. Cornell University. Retrieved October 13, 2024, from https://lsc.cornell.edu/how-to-study/

Learning Scientists. Learning Scientists Study Videos. Retrieved October 13, 2024, from https://www.learningscientists.org

Kirschner, P. A., & Hendrick, C. (2020). Learning Techniques That Really Work Chapter 21. In P. A. Kirschner & C. Hendrick (Eds.), (pp. 207-218 ). Routledge

REFERENCES

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Explaining how new information is related to known information, or explaining steps taken during problem solving

Self-explanation

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Implementing a schedule of practice that spreads out study activities over time

Distributative Practice

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Implementing a schedule of practice that mixes different kinds of problems, or a schedule of study that mixes different kinds of material, within a single study session

Interleaved Practice

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Marking potentially important portions of to-be-learned materials while reading

Highlighting

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Attempting to form mental images of text materials while reading or listening

Imagery

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Restudying text material again after an initial reading

ReReading

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Elaborative Interrogation

Generating an explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Writing summaries (of various lengths) of to-be-learned texts

Summarization

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Self-testing or taking practice tests over to-be-learned material

Practice Testing

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Using keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal materials

Keyword Mnemonic