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.

Dunlosky's Study (2013)

10 Learning Techniques

Do they Work?

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

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

• Practice testing
• Distributed practice
• Interleaved practice

Often used by students

Criteria

Ratings

Different Types of Learning Material

Different Learning Conditions

= positive

= qualified

= negative

= insufficient

Different Students

Different Criterion Tasks

THE RESULTS

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

HILIGHTING

Keyword Mneumonic

Self-Explanation

Elaborative Interrogation

SUMMARIZATION

Distributive Practice

Rereading

Interleaved Practice

IMAGERY

Practice Testing

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

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

#1 Distributive Practice aka Spacing

• 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

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

#2 Practice Testing AKA Retrieval 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).

REFERENCES

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

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

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

Self-explanation

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

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Distributative Practice

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

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Interleaved Practice

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

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Highlighting

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

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Imagery

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

Results of Dunlosky's Study

ReReading

Restudying text material again after an initial reading

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

Summarization

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

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Practice Testing

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

Results of Dunlosky's Study

Keyword Mnemonic

Using keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal materials

Results of Dunlosky's Study