For Faculty

Helping Students Learn How to Learn: Six Strategies for Effective Learning - Part 2

By William Bukowski, Instructional Designer

If you've taught a class full of students who seem interested and yet are not successful learning the course material, you're not alone. A group of cognitive psychology scientists, the Learning Scientists, have focused their research on students who don't know how to study or never really learned how to learn.

The Learning Scientists created resources based on research from cognitive psychology to help guide learning and studying, including six strategies for effective learning. In the first part of this two-part article, we reviewed three of their six strategies: Spaced Practice, Interleaving, and Concrete Examples. In this second part, we present the other three strategies: Retrieval Practice, Dual Coding, and Elaboration.

Retrieval Practice

If you can remember (or imagine) a time before smart phones, the internet and personal computers, most schoolwork was done on lined notebook paper. In just about any subject, a common assignment was to copy a list of vocabulary words and their definitions. If you spaced your word list and definitions correctly, you could fold over the paper to see only the words and quiz yourself over the definitions. (Later, you could fold the paper the other way and reverse the quiz direction.) Doing this was an example of retrieval practice.

Introduce and Apply the Retrieval Practice Learning Strategy

Retrieval practice is simply this: "test yourself."

• Introduce the retrieval practice learning strategy to your students with this short Retrieval Practice video.
• If possible, provide opportunities for practice or low-stakes tests. If you have question banks that students can use to study, practice quizzes can easily be set up in Blackboard.
• Encourage your students to spend their study time engaged in some form of self-testing, rather than passively rereading the course material. And if they are rereading, suggest that they try writing their own possible test questions.
• Used properly, flashcards can also be effective.
• Another option is this old standby: take a blank sheet of paper and write (or draw) everything you know about a subject.

To learn more about retrieval practice, refer to the Learning Scientists' blog Learning to Study Using Retrieval Practice. For more information, research, and free downloadable materials, go to Retrieval Practice.

Dual Coding

If you've ever studied a second (or third) language, you've surely encountered some type of curricular material like this: a picture of an idealized red apple with the word for apple below it in your target language. Textbooks, flash cards, and visual dictionaries all use this technique. This is dual coding.

Introduce and Apply the Dual Coding Learning Strategy

Dual coding is combining words and visuals to give yourself additional "hooks" to remember and understand course material.

• Introduce the dual coding learning strategy to your students with this short Dual Coding video.
• Modern textbooks often already provide graphic representations of subject matter, so encourage your students to personalize these by recreating them in a different form.
• Help students explore the many ways that visuals can be incorporated: not just pictures but also timelines, graphic organizers, and even cartoon strips.
• On that note: as with any mnemonic device, imagery which is detailed and/or humorous will be memorable. Avoid boring.

To learn more about dual coding, refer to the Learning Scientists' blog Learning to Study Using Dual Coding. For more information, research, and free downloadable materials, go to Dual Coding.

Elaboration

Marginalia: if you're the type of reader who writes notes in the margins while reading, you've probably practiced elaboration. In the context of learning strategies, elaboration encompasses several activities: asking questions; making connections to other subject material; and connecting to personal experience. These active reading techniques also serve as effective learning strategies.

Introduce and Apply the Elaboration Learning Strategy

Broadly, elaboration is about generating additional details when studying.

• Introduce the elaboration learning strategy to your students with this short Elaboration video.
• Provide opportunities for students to connect new course material to what they've learned previously (in this class or in other classes).
• If possible, model your reading process to demonstrate the questions that you ask when actively reading discipline-specific material.
• Encourage students to share their elaborations with you. When students make connections, these connections aren't always valid, so it's useful to review these.

To learn more about elaboration, refer to the Learning Scientists' blog Learning to Study Using Elaboration. For more information, research, and free downloadable materials, go to Elaboration.

The Six Strategies and Blackboard

These six strategies for effective learning can be applied to any subject area, and the tools in Blackboard can be used to encourage and support your students. If you would like help incorporating any of these strategies into your courses, visit our Instructional Design Website or send us an email, and we will be happy to assist you.