For Teachers

By Megan SumerackiCover image by 정수 이 from PixabayIn a previous blog post about retrieval practice, Cindy asked, is asking questions in class enough? She covered an experiment by Magdalena Abel and Henry Roediger (1) in which students studied Swahili vocabulary in a few different conditions. In one of those conditions, students graded another student’s…

References:(1) Council of the European Union, Analysis and Research Team. ChatGPT in the Public Sector – overhyped or overlooked? (2023). In Council of the European Union. Retrieved October 5, 2023, from https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/63818/art-paper-chatgpt-in-the-public-sector-overhyped-or-overlooked-24-april-2023_ext.pdf (2) Deng, J., & Lin, Y. (2023). The Benefits and Challenges of ChatGPT: An Overview. Frontiers in Computing and Intelligent Systems, 2(2), 81–83. https://doi.org/10.54097/fcis.v2i2.4465 (3) Tate, T., Doroudi,…

By Althea Need Kaminskecover image by StockSnap by PixabaySelf-regulated learning describes a cyclical process of forethought, performance, and self-reflection that enables a learner to regulate, and thereby improve, their learning (1). Previously, I’ve reviewed research on the relationship between self-regulated learning and personality, Carolina provided a digest on fostering self-regulated learning in students, and she…

References:(1) Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (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.(2) Paas, F., van Gog, T., & Sweller, J. (2010). Cognitive load theory: New conceptualizations, specifications, and integrated…

Participants spent less time doing their practice tests when they were multiple choice than when they were short answer, and because performance was about the same, multiple choice self-testing was shown to be the better choice when participant-controlled. But again, participants didn’t score as high when they dropped items after getting them right. On average,…

References:(1) Syharat, C. M, Hain, A., Zaghi, A. E., Gabriel, R., & Berdanier, C.G.P. (2023). Experiences of neurodivergent students in graduate STEM programs. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1149068 (2) Pesonen, H. V., Nieminen, J. H., Vincent, J., Waltz, M., Lahdelma, M., Syurina, E. V., & Fabri, M. (2020). A socio-political approach on autistic students’ sense…

If you need another reason to love spaced practice, Ouhao Chen and colleagues (1) provide yet another one. They conducted two experiments to investigate the relationship between spaced practice and working memory depletion. First, I’ll provide a primer on working memory and resource depletion, and then I’ll describe the experiments and results.Working memory is the…

By Carolina Kuepper-TetzelWe have discussed the learning styles myth in different blog posts and you can find all of our posts in this topic here. Briefly, the idea of learning styles is that if you assess the learning styles in students and then match instruction accordingly to their self-reported learning style, their performance will be…

References:(1) Taylor, K., & Rohrer, D. (2010). The effect of interleaving practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24, 837-848. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1598(2) Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. F., & Burgess, K. (2014). The benefit of interleaved mathematics practice is not limited to superficially similar kinds of problems. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 1323-1330. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0588-3(3) Kornell, N., & Bjork, R. A.…

By Carolina Kuepper-TetzelOur memory capabilities are fascinating and with some tricks we can expand our memory performance quite significantly. These tricks are called mnemonic devices. Mnemonic devices let us organize, elaborate, and visualize information so that we can retrieve that information easier in the future. Mnemonic devices are best applied to learning lists of concepts…