Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology
Synopsis
Arguing that too many pupils are being left behind by the American education system, this research paper suggests that part of the solution to improving educational outcomes involves helping pupils to better evaluate their learning through the use of effective learning techniques. Drawing on developments in cognitive and educational psychology around easy-to-use learning techniques, the authors focus on 10 techniques in detail and offer recommendations for their use.
These techniques include elaborative interrogation, which involves generating an explanation for why a stated fact or concept is true; self-explanation, explaining how new information is related to known information, or explaining steps taken during problem solving; summarization of learnt texts; highlighting/underlining, helping pupils to mark potentially important portions of to-be-learnt materials while reading; and keyword mnemonic, using keywords and mental imagery to associate materials.
As well as training pupils to use these techniques, the authors suggest teachers could also incorporate some of them into their lesson plans.
Methodology
CPD Opportunities
Providing a guide to helping pupils develop effective learning techniques, this research paper will be useful to teachers of all age groups.