Tips for Reading Large Volumes of Work for School

The way about students report makes no sense.

That's the conclusion of Washington University in St. Louis psychologists Henry Roediger andMark McDaniel — who've spent a combined 80 years studying learning and memory, and recently distilled their findings with novelist Peter Brown in the bookBrand It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.

The bulk of students study by re-reading notes and textbooks — simply the psychologists' inquiry, both in lab experiments and of actual students in classes, shows this is a terrible way to larn material. Using active learning strategies — like flashcards, diagramming, and quizzing yourself — is much more than constructive, every bit is spacing out studying over time and mixing different topics together.

McDaniel spoke with me about the eight key tips he'd share with students and teachers from his trunk of research.

1) Don't but 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 get-to strategy.

"We know, nevertheless, from a lot of research, that this kind of repetitive recycling of information is not an particularly good way to learn or create more permanent memories.Our studies of Washington University students, for case, prove that when they re-read a textbook chapter, they accept absolutely no improvement in learning over those who but read it in one case.

"On your first reading of something, y'all excerpt a lot of understanding. But when you do the second reading, y'all read with a sense of 'I know this, I know this.' And so basically, you're not processing information technology securely, or picking more than out of information technology. Frequently, the re-reading is brief — and it'due south insidious, because this gives you the illusion that you know the material very well, when in fact at that place are gaps."

2) Enquire yourself lots of questions

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"One good technique to use instead is to read once, then quiz yourself, either using questions at the dorsum of a textbook chapter, or making up your own questions. Retrieving that information is what actually produces more robust learning and memory.

"And even when you can't call up it — when yous get the questions incorrect — it gives you an accurate diagnostic on what yous 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 virtually world history, and how aboriginal Rome and Hellenic republic were trading partners. Stop and ask yourself why they became trading partners. Why did they get shipbuilders, and learn to navigate the seas? It doesn't always accept to be why — you tin can ask how, or what.

"In asking these questions, you're trying to explain, and in doing this, you create a better agreement, which leads to ameliorate memory and learning. And then instead of but reading and skimming, terminate and ask yourself things to make yourself empathize the material."

3) Connect new information to something you already know

"Another strategy is, during a second reading,to try relating the principles in the text to something you already know near. Relate new information to prior data for better learning.

"One example is if you lot were learning about how the neuron transmits electricity. 1 of the things we know if that if yous take a fat sheath surroundings the neuron, called a myelin sheath, it helps the neuron transmit electricity more than quickly.

"And so yous could liken this, say, to water running through a hose. The h2o runs quickly through it, only if you puncture the hose, it's going to leak, and you lot won't get the same menstruum. And that's essentially what happens when we age — the myelin sheaths suspension down, and transmissions become slower."

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4) Describe out the data in a visual form

"A great strategy is making diagrams, or visual models, or flowcharts. In a start psychology grade, yous could diagram the flow of classical conditioning. Certain, y'all tin read virtually classical conditioning, but to truly understand information technology and exist able to write down and draw the different aspects of it on a test after on — condition, stimulus, and and so on — it'southward a good thought to see if you lot can put it in a flowchart.

"Annihilation that creates active learning — generating understanding on your ain — is very effective in retention. Information technology basically means the learner needs to become more involved and more engaged, and less passive."

5) Utilize flashcards

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"Flashcards are some other good way of doing this. And one key to using them is actually re-testing yourself on the ones you got right.

"A lot of students will reply the question on a flashcard, and take it out of the deck if they get it right. But it turns out this isn't a skillful idea — repeating the act of memory retrieval is important. Studies show that keeping the correct item in the deck and encountering it over again is useful. You lot might want to practice the incorrect items a little more, but repeated exposure to the ones you become right is important too.

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

6) Don't cram — space out your studying

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"A lot of students cram — they await until the last minute, and then in 1 evening, they repeat the information again and again. Only research shows this isn't adept for long term memory. It may allow you to do okay on that test the next day, just and then on the final, you won't retain as much data, and then the next year, when you demand the information for the adjacent level course, it won't be in that location.

"This frequently happens in statistics. Students come back for the adjacent year, and it seems like they've forgotten everything, considering they crammed for their tests.

"The better idea is to space repetition. Practice a little bit i day, then put your flashcards away, then take them out the adjacent twenty-four hours, then two days afterwards. Study after report shows that spacing is actually important."

vii) Teachers should infinite out and mix upwards their lessons also

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"Our volume also has information for teachers. And our educational system tends to promote massed presentation of information equally well.

"In a typical college class, you cover one topic ane day, then on the 2d day, another topic, then on the third twenty-four hours, another topic. This is massed presentation. You never go back and recycle or reconsider the material.

"Just the key, for teachers, is to put the material back in front end of a student days or weeks subsequently. At that place are several ways they can practise this. Here at Washington University, there are some instructors who give weekly quizzes, and used to simply put material from that week's classes on the quiz. Now, they're bringing dorsum more material from two to iii weeks agone. 1 psychology lecturer explicitly takes time, during each lecture, to bring back material from days or weeks beforehand.

"This tin can be done in homework too. It's typical, in statistics courses, to give homework in which all of the bug are all in the same category. After correlations are taught, astudent'due south homework, say, is problem subsequently problem on correlation. And so the next week, T tests are taught, and all the problems are on T tests. But nosotros've found that sprinkling in questions on stuff that was covered ii or three weeks ago is really skillful for retention.

"And this can exist congenital into the content of lessons themselves. Let's say yous're taking an art history class. When I took it, I learned well-nigh Gauguin, so I saw lots of his paintings, so I moved on to Matisse, and saw lots of paintings past him. Students and instructors both recollect that this is a good way of learning the painting styles of these different artists.

"But experimental studies show that's non the case at all. It'southward better to requite students an example of 1 creative person, then motility to another, then some other, then recycle dorsum effectually. That interspersing, or mixing, produces much ameliorate learning that can exist transferred to paintings you haven't seen — letting students accurately identify the creators of paintings, say, on a exam.

"And this works for all sorts of problems. Let's get back to statistics. In upper level classes, and the real world, y'all're non going to be told what sort of statistical problem yous're encountering — you're going to have to figure out the method y'all need to employ. And you can't acquire how to exercise that unless you take experience dealing with a mix of dissimilar types of problems, and diagnosing which requires which type of approach."

viii) There'due south no such thing as a "math person"

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"There's some really interesting piece of work past Carol Dweck, at Stanford. She'south shown that students tend to have one of two mindsets about learning.

"One is a fixed learning model. It says, 'I take a certain amount of talent for this topic — say, chemical science or physics — and I'll exercise well until I striking that limit. Past that, it's too hard for me, and I'chiliad not going to do well.'The other mindset is a growth mindset. Information technology says that learning involves using effective strategies, putting bated time to do the work, and engaging in the process, all of which assist yous gradually increase your capacity for a topic.

"It turns out that the mindsets predict how well students cease upwardly 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 fixed mindset tend not to.

"So for teachers, the lesson is that if you tin talk to students and propose that a growth mindset actually is the more authentic model — and it is — then students tend to be more than open to trying new strategies, and sticking with the form, and working in ways that are going to promote learning. Ability, intelligence, and learning take to exercise with how you approach it — working smarter, we like to say."

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Tips for Reading Large Volumes of Work for School

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

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