Okay Can You Read It Over Again

The way virtually students written report makes no sense.

That's the decision of Washington University in St. Louis psychologists Henry Roediger andMarker McDaniel — who've spent a combined eighty years studying learning and memory, and recently distilled their findings with novelist Peter Brown in the bookMake It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.

The majority of students study by re-reading notes and textbooks — but the psychologists' enquiry, both in lab experiments and of bodily students in classes, shows this is a terrible style to larn textile. Using active learning strategies — like flashcards, diagramming, and quizzing yourself — is much more constructive, as is spacing out studying over time and mixing unlike topics together.

McDaniel spoke with me virtually the viii key tips he'd share with students and teachers from his body of research.

1) Don't just re-read your notes and readings

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"We know from surveys that a majority of students, when they report, they typically re-read assignments and notes. Most students say this is their number one go-to strategy.

"Nosotros know, even so, from a lot of research, that this kind of repetitive recycling of information is not an peculiarly adept manner to learn or create more permanent memories.Our studies of Washington University students, for instance, show that when they re-read a textbook chapter, they have absolutely no improvement in learning over those who only read information technology once.

"On your starting time reading of something, you lot extract a lot of understanding. But when you do the 2d reading, you read with a sense of 'I know this, I know this.' And so basically, you're not processing it securely, or picking more out of information technology. Ofttimes, the re-reading is brief — and it's insidious, because this gives yous the illusion that y'all know the textile very well, when in fact in that location are gaps."

2) Ask yourself lots of questions

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"1 good technique to employ instead is to read one time, so quiz yourself, either using questions at the dorsum of a textbook chapter, or making up your own questions. Retrieving that data is what really produces more robust learning and retentivity.

"And even when you lot tin can't retrieve information technology — when you get the questions wrong — it gives you an accurate diagnostic on what you lot don't know, and this tells you what you should go back and study. This helps guide your studying more effectively.

"Asking questions also helps you sympathise more deeply.Say you're learning most globe history, and how ancient Rome and Greece were trading partners. Stop and ask yourself why they became trading partners. Why did they get shipbuilders, and larn to navigate the seas? Information technology doesn't e'er have to exist why — y'all tin enquire how, or what.

"In asking these questions, you're trying to explain, and in doing this, you lot create a better understanding, which leads to better memory and learning. So instead of just reading and skimming, stop and ask yourself things to brand yourself empathise the material."

3) Connect new data to something you already know

"Some other strategy is, during a second reading,to try relating the principles in the text to something you lot already know about. Relate new information to prior information for better learning.

"One case is if you were learning almost how the neuron transmits electricity. Ane of the things we know if that if you have a fatty sheath environs the neuron, called a myelin sheath, it helps the neuron transmit electricity more rapidly.

"So you could liken this, say, to water running through a hose. The water runs quickly through information technology, but if you puncture the hose, information technology's going to leak, and you won't get the same menstruum. And that'due south substantially what happens when we age — the myelin sheaths pause downwards, and transmissions get slower."

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four) Describe out the information in a visual grade

"A great strategy is making diagrams, or visual models, or flowcharts. In a showtime psychology grade, you could diagram the flow of classical conditioning. Sure, you can read about classical conditioning, only to truly understand information technology and be able to write down and describe the different aspects of it on a test afterwards on — condition, stimulus, and then on — it's a good thought to see if you tin can put it in a flowchart.

"Anything that creates agile learning — generating understanding on your own — is very effective in retentivity. Information technology basically means the learner needs to become more involved and more engaged, and less passive."

5) Use flashcards

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"Flashcards are another good way of doing this. And one central to using them is actually re-testing yourself on the ones y'all got correct.

"A lot of students will respond the question on a flashcard, and take it out of the deck if they get it correct. Simply information technology turns out this isn't a good thought — repeating the act of memory retrieval is important. Studies prove that keeping the correct item in the deck and encountering it again is useful. You lot might want to do the incorrect items a footling more, simply repeated exposure to the ones you go right is important as well.

"It'south not that repetition as a whole is bad. Information technology'due south that mindless repetition is bad."

half dozen) Don't cram — space out your studying

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"A lot of students cram — they look until the last minute, then in 1 evening, they repeat the information over again and over again. But research shows this isn't adept for long term retentivity. Information technology may allow y'all to do okay on that test the next solar day, only so on the last, you won't retain as much information, and then the next year, when you need the information for the next level course, it won't be there.

"This often happens in statistics. Students come back for the next yr, and it seems like they've forgotten everything, because they crammed for their tests.

"The improve idea is to space repetition. Practice a piddling bit ane solar day, then put your flashcards abroad, so accept them out the next day, and so ii days later. Study afterward study shows that spacing is really important."

7) Teachers should space out and mix up their lessons besides

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"Our book too has information for teachers. And our educational organisation tends to promote massed presentation of information besides.

"In a typical higher class, you comprehend i topic 1 twenty-four hour period, and then on the second solar day, another topic, then on the third day, another topic. This is massed presentation. You never go back and recycle or reconsider the cloth.

"Simply the key, for teachers, is to put the material back in front end of a student days or weeks later. There are several ways they can exercise this. Here at Washington Academy, there are some instructors who give weekly quizzes, and used to just put cloth from that week'due south classes on the quiz. At present, they're bringing back more fabric from two to three weeks ago. 1 psychology lecturer explicitly takes time, during each lecture, to bring back material from days or weeks beforehand.

"This can exist done in homework besides. Information technology's typical, in statistics courses, to requite homework in which all of the problems are all in the same category. After correlations are taught, aeducatee's homework, say, is problem later trouble on correlation. Then the next calendar week, T tests are taught, and all the bug are on T tests. But we've found that sprinkling in questions on stuff that was covered 2 or iii weeks ago is really good for retention.

"And this can be congenital into the content of lessons themselves. Permit'due south say you're taking an fine art history class. When I took information technology, I learned most Gauguin, then I saw lots of his paintings, then I moved on to Matisse, and saw lots of paintings by him. Students and instructors both think that this is a skillful way of learning the painting styles of these different artists.

"But experimental studies show that's not the case at all. It's better to give students an example of one artist, then motility to another, and then another, then recycle back around. That interspersing, or mixing, produces much better learning that can be transferred to paintings yous haven't seen — letting students accurately place the creators of paintings, say, on a test.

"And this works for all sorts of problems. Let's go back to statistics. In upper level classes, and the real world, y'all're not going to exist told what sort of statistical problem you're encountering — you're going to have to figure out the method you need to use. And you can't learn how to do that unless you have experience dealing with a mix of unlike types of problems, and diagnosing which requires which blazon of approach."

eight) There's no such thing as a "math person"

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"There'southward some really interesting work by Carol Dweck, at Stanford. She's shown that students tend to accept one of two mindsets about learning.

"1 is a stock-still learning model. It says, 'I have a certain amount of talent for this topic — say, chemistry or physics — and I'll exercise well until I hitting that limit. Past that, it's also hard for me, and I'1000 not going to exercise well.'The other mindset is a growth mindset. It says that learning involves using effective strategies, putting aside fourth dimension to exercise the work, and engaging in the procedure, all of which help you gradually increase your capacity for a topic.

"Information technology turns out that the mindsets predict how well students end up doing. Students with growth mindsets tend to stick with it, tend to persevere in the face of difficulty, and tend to be successful in challenging classes. Students with the stock-still mindset tend non to.

"So for teachers, the lesson is that if you can talk to students and suggest that a growth mindset really is the more authentic model — and it is — then students tend to be more open to trying new strategies, and sticking with the grade, and working in ways that are going to promote learning. Ability, intelligence, and learning have to practice with how yous approach it — working smarter, we like to say."

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Source: https://www.vox.com/2014/6/24/5824192/study-smarter-learn-better-8-tips-from-memory-researchers

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