Practice retrieval
Diane and Dana (authors of your book) have been college professors for many decades. Diane recalls one student who complained that when she read any textbook, the information went in one eye and out the other. So, the student decided to use a highlighter to add bright color to information she thought might be important. Sadly, this did not work well. Diane opened the student’s textbook and almost got a sunburn from the bright light being reflected from the many highlighted items. Diane then asked the student a few questions about what she read, and not surprisingly, the student did not answer very well. Highlighting text is a relatively passive activity. What this student and the rest of us need is a more active way to process what we read. If you own your book and can write in it, we suggest that you read through a section, cover the text, and next to the part you just read, summarize in your own words what you read. Then, check what you wrote for accuracy. If you cannot do this after just reading it, you won’t be able to remember it later—whether on a test or when the information is needed in your daily life. If you cannot write directly on your book, then summarize what you read on a separate notebook, noting carefully the page number where you read it.
When it comes time to review some material, look over the headers in your book, change them into a question, then answer that question. For example, look at the header in chapter 1, “Metacognitive monitoring.” Ask yourself, “what is metacognitive monitoring?” Can you answer this question? Do you know why it is an important concept? If not, go over the material again, summarize it, and try again.
When you study this way, you do not have to reread everything all over again, but instead check your comprehension and memory by answering questions. This is what we mean by “practice at retrieval.” You are practicing retrieving information from memory and every time you do this, you are strengthening the memory trace, the probability that you will remember this information in the future (Dunlosky & Rawson, 2015). This technique works just as well when reviewing your notes from class. Briefly summarize what you wrote and then check it for accuracy.
Do you like studying with a buddy or a group? Great—first everyone needs to do the individual work of reading and summarizing in their own words what they read. Then you can ask each other questions about the material. In chapter 3, we talk about reciprocal peer questioning. The questions in Table 3.1 are a great guide for asking questions about what you read and what you learned in class.
We really want you to try this learning technique because there is a massive amount of evidence that it works. Do you have a friend who is learning a new system at their job or maybe trying to understand how their new car engine works—share this technique with them. You may just become a learning hero.
Space out your practice
Yes, we know this is in your textbook, but we really want to make the case for why you should do this. Remember, you are learning for a lifetime, not just the next exam, and one of the best ways to do this is by spacing out your learning sessions. So, suppose you have a history test on Friday on over 100 pages of text. Cramming, that is trying to study it all the night before, is not a good way to make the learning stick in your memory. Instead, divide the text into manageable units—maybe 25 pages at a time—the actual number will depend on how dense the material is (number of facts per page), your background in this subject matter, and so on. So, make it 25 pages for Sunday through Wednesday, with Thursday night left for review by asking yourself questions based on the various headers in the text (e.g., “What were the main causes of World War 1?”) and then checking the text for accuracy.
Spaced practice is a powerful learning technique. For example, in a study of surgical residents, half were assigned to learn a surgical procedure in one day, the other half learned the same procedure spaced out over several days. Total learning time was the same for each group. The residents then performed that surgical procedure on live rats. The group that learned with spaced practice performed better on a variety of measures including retention of the procedure and expert measures of surgical competency (Moulton et al., 2006). There is a very large and old research literature that shows that well, cramming (massed practice—the opposite of spaced practice) stinks. Learning across time is a much more effective way to recall what you need to know.
Teach for better learning
There is a large research literature showing that when students act as teachers for other students, the student teachers show impressive gains in learning. The gains are not just in memory for the material they taught, but also in the depth of their comprehension. Dana recalls that he realized he never really understood a lot of statistical tests and procedures for doing data analysis completely until he taught his first research methods class—the experience was eye—and mind—opening. After all, if you have to explain something to someone else, you need to be prepared to explain the material in way that someone else can learn it. The effect is so strong that as long as you prepare to teach someone else, but don’t actually do it, the student teachers still show large learning gains (Guerro & Wiley, 2021). It seems that we vary how we learn depending on what we expect to do with the learning. Most students report that they study differently if they are expecting a multiple-choice test than if they are expecting an essay test.
You can use this knowledge several ways. For example, you can plan reciprocal teaching with other students or just prepare as though you were going to teach something to someone else or even an imagined group of people. Alternatively, try teaching something you are learning to a family member or friend. You may be surprised how well you know what you are sharing with them.
Create desirable difficulties
We all want the easy way to learn or do things. It is easier to read your textbook and then reread it than it is to summarize sections in your own words and to then test yourself on what you know. The problem is that easy is not best when it comes to learning. Consider learning statistics. Most textbooks teach one statistical technique in each chapter and have problems for students to solve at the end of the chapter that rely on the statistical technique that was just learned. It is far easier to do a bunch of problems using t-tests when you just learned about t-tests. Similarly, in the next chapter, you might learn about ANOVAs (another type of statistical technique—you don’t have to know what these techniques are to understand where we are going with this example). A better way to learn is to mix up problems in every chapter so that some need to be solved with t-tests and others need other statistical methods. This mixing of problem types makes the learning more difficult, but it also leads to better learning (Bjork & Bjork, 2011). After all, in real life, problems don’t come labeled with the technique you need to use to solve them. You need to consider the context or situation or application in order to make the right choice before solving them.
Here's another example. Some teachers follow the same sequence of topics that is presented in the textbook. Others use different organizations to present the same material. Learning is easier when the topics are presented in the same order as in the textbook, but learning is better (lasts longer, better comprehension) when the order is mixed up. Guess which of these two organizations most students prefer? The easy one—right again. But this is not the better method to produce long-lasting, higher-level learning.
What do students say on their evaluations of teaching effectiveness? They tend to praise the teacher who used the easier method, and they do not realize that learning is enhanced when students have to impose their own organization on the course material as they learn it. Students often believe that they learned more in the easy learning classroom, but tests show the opposite finding. We are often not very good at judging how well we learned something. We can learn better with practice and feedback—real measures of what was learned—but few people know this intuitively.
Put these high impact learning techniques together
These four techniques work at every stage in life, from early learners into old age. And, you want your learning of thinking skills to last a lifetime. If you are a college student or perhaps someone who is 25 years old today, you can expect to live to age 80 or beyond. So, learn like you will be using these skills until the year 2078 or beyond. It is time well-spent.
References
Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. Psychology and the real world: Essays illustrating fundamental contributions to society, 2(59-68)
Dunlosky, J., & Rawson, K. A. (2015). Practice tests, spaced practice, and successive relearning: Tips for classroom use and for guiding students’ learning. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 1, 72–78.
Guerro, T. A., & Wiley, J. (2021). Expecting to teach affects learning during study of expository texts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 113, 1281-1303. Doi: 10.1037/edu0000657.
Moulton, C-A. E., Dubrowski, A., MacRae, H., Graham, B., Grober, E., & Reznick, R. (2006, September) Teaching surgical skills: What kid of practice makes perfect? Annals of Surgery, 244, 400-409. doi: 10.1097/01.sla.0000234808.85789.6a