Learning Scientists Posts

As with most things, the state vs trait debate is nuanced. I don’t think any personality psychologist would claim that personality is entirely state-based or entirely-trait-based. Instead, it’s somewhere in between. You may have general tendencies, but find yourself thinking, feeling, and behaving differently depending on the context. While you may tend to be shy…

By Carolina Kuepper-TetzelI have recently published a paper (with co-author Paul Gardner) on the effects of temporary mark withholding on academic performance and feedback views in university students (1). Temporary mark withholding is a feedback strategy whereby on assignments students are provided with the feedback first without their marks – then, a few days later,…

What is SQ3R?SQ3R stands for survey, question (or query), read, recite, review. It is a method designed in the 1940s to improve reading comprehension. Here is the brief overview of each step:Survey: First, go through and get a lay of the land. Look at headings and subheadings, graphics, highlighted words, maybe summary paragraphs. Get an…

In celebration of our 500th post (wow!) and 5 years as the Learning Scientists, we decided to reminisce on some of our blog highlights. Cindy went through all of our old blogs and, in true data nerd fashion, created a spreadsheet listing the number of times each blog post has been shared. From that, she…

By Althea Need KaminskeIt’s January 2021! A new year and a fresh start. Given the general stress last year between the on-going COVID-19 pandemic and the switch online learning in order to avoid exposure to COVID-19, I think it’s safe to assume that most of us were feeling pretty burned out by the end of…

Happy (American) Thanksgiving! This is Cindy writing, and as an American I’m devoting this post to you and how thankful we are to have you as an engaged member of our community.This has been a very unusual, difficult year for so many of us (Learning Scientists included). This year has included so much stress, so…

While concept mapping is popular, some research has shown that creating concept maps, when students have the material in front of them, is not as effective as retrieval practice (1). Other scholars have noted that it takes time to teach students to make concept maps in order for their use to be effective at enhancing…

For further reading on note taking, check out some of our previous posts:How Should Students Take Notes?Factors of Effective Note-Taking: Application of Cognitive Load TheoryIf you would like to read some of the research that was mentioned in the video, then check out these articles:Jansen, R. S., Lakens, D., & IJsselsteijn, W. A. (2017). An…

Note, APA now has two separate title page formats: one for students and one for professionals. These templates reflect the format for students. For professional papers, a running head needs to be added (though the first page does not need to say “Running head” anymore… thank goodness!) as well as an author note.When creating the…

The other interesting thing they did was changing up the conditions of retrieval practice. Some students took an open-book test, where they literally had the text sitting in front of them while they answered the questions. Some took a closed-book test (no text available), but some were in a closed/open switch task. Essentially, students could…