The lesson you never got taught in school: How to learn!
The report is quite a heavy document so I’ve summarised the techniques below based on the conclusions of the report regarding effectiveness of each technique. Be aware that everyone has their own style of learning, the evidence suggests that just because a technique works or does not work for other people does not necessarily mean it will or won’t work well for you. If you want to know how to revise or learn most effectively you will still want to experiment on yourself a little with each technique before writing any of them off.
Elaborative Interrogation (Rating = moderate)
A method involving creating explanations for why stated facts are true. The method involves concentrating on why questions rather than whatquestions and creating questions for yourself as you are working through a task. To do this yourself, after reading a few paragraphs of text ask yourself to explain “why does x = y?” and use your answers to form your notes. This is a good method because it is simple, so anyone can apply it easily. It does however require enough prior knowledge to enable you to generate good questions for yourself, so this method may be best for learners with experience in a subject. The technique is particularly efficient with regard to time, one study found that elaborative learning took 32 mins as opposed to 28 mins simply reading.
An example of elaborative interrogation for the above paragraph could be:
Elaborative learning is useful for proficient learners because it allows them to apply their prior knowledge effectively to process new information. It is rated as effective because it is time efficient and relatively easy to perform.
“The current evidence base for elaborative learning is positive but lacking"
Self Explanation (Rating = moderate)
A technique that is useful for abstract learning. The technique involves explaining and recording how one solves or understands problems as they work and giving reasons for choices that are made. This was found to be more effective if done while learning as opposed to after learning. Self explanation has been found to be effective with learners ranging from children in kindergarten to older students working on algebraic formulas and geometric theorems. Like elaborative explanation, self explanation benefits from its simplicity. Unlike elaborative learning, self explanation was found to double the amount of time spent on a task in comparison to a reading control group.
“The core component of self-explanation involves having students explain some aspect of their processing during learning”
Summarisation (Rating = low)
An old staple, tested by having participants summarise every page of text in to a few short lines. Summarising and note taking were found to be beneficial for preparing for written exams but less useful for types of tests that do not require students to generate information – such as multiple choice tests. Summarising was rated as being likely less beneficial than other methods available but more useful than the most common methods students use – highlighting, underlining and rereading.
“It can be an effective learning strategy for learners who are already skilled at summarizing”
Highlighting and underlining (Rating = low)
The runaway favourite technique of students was found to perform spectacularly poorly when done on its own under controlled conditions. It seems pretty intuitive that highlighting alone is ineffective for the same reasons it is so popular – it requires no training, it takes practically no additional time and crucially, it involves very little thought above the effort taken to simply read a piece of text.
It’s worth remembering that this study only assessed research examining highlighting/underlining as a stand-alone technique. I’d be interested to discover how effective highlighting is when paired with other techniques.
The keyword mnemonic (Rating = low)
A technique for memorising information involving linking words to meanings through associations based on how a word sounds and creating imagery for specific words. Much research has found that mnemonics are useful for memorising information in the short term in a range of situations including learning foreign language, learning people’s names and occupations, learning scientific terms etc. However, it seems the keyword mnemonic is only effective in instances where keywords are important and the material includes keywords which are inherently easy to memorise. The review cites one study for example that required students to use mnemonics to memorise English definitions that were not well suited to keyword generation – the study found that the control group outperformed the group using mnemonics. More worrying – it seems that though the keyword mnemonic has been found effective for aiding short term recall, it has been demonstrated to actually have a negative effect when compared to rote learning in the long term. So, the mnemonic might be useful for remembering definitions the week before an exam but it doesn’t seem to be much use when used in any scale as a long term memory aid.
Imagery for Text Learning (Rating = low)
Experiments asking students to simply imagine clear visual images as they are reading texts have found advantages when memorising sentences, but these advantages seem much less pronounced when longer pieces of text are involved. Interestingly, visualisation was found to be more effective when students listened to a text than when they read text themselves, implying the act of reading may make it harder to focus on visualising. A major problem with imagery research is that most researchers instructed one group to visualise but did not follow up to see if they actually did. One experiment that checked afterwards found that some participants instructed to imagine did not, while some participants in the control group reported using visualisation on their own accord. It is therefore likely that imagery could be a more useful technique than this evaluation currently demonstrates – it is certainly an easy technique to use, so there is little harm in trying. Perhaps more interestingly, imagery research has found that drawing does not seem to improve comprehension and may indeed actually reverse the benefits of imagery. Finally, though imagery is reported to be more versatile than the keyword mnemonic, it has also been found useful only for certain situations. For example, imagery was not been found to be effective to help students answer questions that required inferences to be made from the text, nor was it been found useful for answering questions about a passage on the human heart.
Rereading (Rating = low)
Overall, rereading is found to be much less effective than other techniques – however the research has drawn some interesting conclusions. Massed rereading – rereading immediately after reading - has been found more effective than outlining and summarising for the same amount of time. It does seem however, that rereading spaced over a longer amount of time has a much stronger effect than massed rereading.
Practice Testing (Rating = High)
This is where things get interesting; testing is often seen as a necessary evil of education. Traditionally, testing consists of rare but massively important ‘high stakes’ assessments. There is however, an extensive literature demonstrating the benefits of testing for learning – but importantly, it does not seem necessary that testing is in the format of ‘high stakes’ assessments. All testing including ‘low stakes’ practice testing seems to result in benefits. Unlike many of the other techniques mentioned, the benefits of practice testing are not modest – studies have found that a practice test can double free recall!
Research has found that though multiple choice testing is indeed effective, practice tests that require more detailed answers to be generated are more effective. Importantly, practice testing is effective when you create the questions yourself.
So how can you apply this research? Students can create flash cards (or even use free software to do this). Alternatively students can use a system such as the Cornell note-taking system (Example PDF) which involves noting questions in a column next to their notes as they learn. This finding looks like wonderful news for MOOCS which typically use intensive practice testing as a primary method of teaching. The finding is also great news for students – as practice testing actually takes up much less time than other methods such as rereading, which practice testing far outperforms!
Try it yourself: Can you name and explain two methods of self-testing?
Distributed Practice (Rating = High)
Have you ever wondered whether it is best to do your studying in large chunks or divide your studying over a period of time? Research has found that the optimal level of distribution of sessions for learning is 10-20% of the length of time that something needs to be remembered. So if you want to remember something for a year you should study at least every month, if you want to remember something for five years you should space your learning every six to twelve months. If you want to remember something for a week you should space your learning 12-24 hours apart. It does seem however that the distributed-practice effect may work best when processing information deeply – so for best results you might want to try a distributed practice and self-testing combo.
There is however a major catch - do you ever find that the amount of studying you do massively increases before an exam? Most students fall in to the “procrastination scallop” – we are all guilty at one point of cramming all the knowledge in right before an exam, but the evidence is pretty conclusive that this is the worst way to study, certainly when it comes to remembering for the long term. What is unclear is whether cramming is so popular because students don’t understand the benefits of distributed practice or whether testing practices are to blame - probably a combination of both. One thing is for sure, if you take it upon yourself to space your learning over time you are pretty much guaranteed to see improvements.
Interleaved Practice (Rating = Moderate)
Have you ever wondered whether you are best off studying topics in blocks or “interleaving” topics – studying problems of different types in a slightly more haphazard fashion? Unlike the other methods discussed above, there is far less evidence to go on. The research that has so far been conducted seems to suggest that interleaving is useful for motor learning (learning involving physical movement) and cognitive tasks (such as maths problems) – where benefits of up to 43% have been reported. It also seems that like distributed practice; interleaved practice seems to benefit longer term retention:
“Accuracy during practice was greater during block trials but accuracy a day later was far higher for students who had received inter-leaved problems.”
So why do we use the wrong techniques and which should we use?
The review looked at a range of educational psychology textbooks and found that despite the wealth of research evidence, none of the textbooks that were reviewed covered all of the methods described above – and in those that covered one or more, the coverage was minimal. So if you happen to be an educational psychologist looking to write a textbook, you’re not in a bad position. We are all expected to be able to learn but currently we don’t ever really get taught how to learn. So next time you have something to learn why not take a second to create a schedule to distribute your practice, while you're reading – instead (or as well as) taking extensive notes why not write yourself some practice questions with a special focus on why questions; and when you are learning a new skill why not write a detailed explanation of how you answer the questions. This doesn’t mean you should rush out and bin all the highlighters, but maybe try to gradually incorporate a new technique every time you study and see which techniques work best for you!
Reference:
Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K., Marsh, E., Nathan, M., & Willingham, D. (2013). Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14 (1), 4-58 DOI: 10.1177/1529100612453266 [PDF]
The Worst
Highlighting
and underlining led the authors’ list of ineffective learning strategies.
Although they are common practices, studies show they offer no benefit beyond
simply reading the text. Some research even indicates that highlighting can get
in the way of learning; because it draws attention to individual facts, it may
hamper the process of making connections and drawing inferences. Nearly as bad
is the practice of rereading, a common exercise that is much less effective
than some of the better techniques you can use. Lastly, summarizing, or writing
down the main points contained in a text, can be helpful for those who are
skilled at it, but again, there are far better ways to spend your study time.
Highlighting, underlining, rereading and summarizing were all rated by the
authors as being of “low utility.”
The Best
In
contrast to familiar practices like highlighting and rereading, the learning
strategies with the most evidence to support them aren’t well known outside the
psych lab. Take distributed practice, for example. This tactic involves
spreading out your study sessions, rather than engaging in one marathon.
Cramming information at the last minute may allow you to get through that test
or meeting, but the material will quickly disappear from memory. It’s much more
effective to dip into the material at intervals over time. And the longer you
want to remember the information, whether it’s two weeks or two years, the
longer the intervals should be.
The second learning strategy that is highly
recommended by the report’s authors is practice testing. Yes, more tests — but
these are not for a grade. Research shows that the mere act of calling
information to mind strengthens that knowledge and aids in future retrieval.
While practice testing is not a common strategy — despite the robust evidence
supporting it — there is one familiar approach that captures its benefits:
using flash cards. And now flash cards can be presented in digital form, via
apps like Quizlet, StudyBlue and FlashCardMachine. Both spaced-out
learning, or distributed practice, and practice tests were rated as having
“high utility” by the authors.
The Rest
The
remainder of the techniques evaluated by Dunlosky and his colleagues fell into
the middle ground — not useless, but not especially effective either. These
include mental imagery, or coming up with pictures that help you remember text
(which is time-consuming and only works with text that lends itself to images);
elaborative interrogation, or asking yourself “why” as you read (which is kind
of annoying, like having a 4-year-old tugging at your sleeve);
self-explanation, or forcing yourself to explain the text in detail instead of
passively reading it over (its effectiveness depends on how complete and
accurate your explanations are); interleaved practice, or mixing up different
types of problems (there is not much evidence to show that this is helpful,
outside of learning motor tasks); and lastly the keyword mnemonic, or
associating new vocabulary words, usually in a foreign language, with an
English word that sounds similar — so, for example, learning the French word
for key, la clef, by imagining a key on top of a cliff (which is a lot
of work to remember a single word).
All these techniques were rated of “moderate” to “low”
utility by Dunlosky et al because either there isn’t enough evidence yet to be
able to recommend them or they’re just not a very good use of your time. Much
better, say the authors, to spread out your learning, ditch your highlighter
and get busy with your flash cards.
