Elaboration as Self-explanation
Self-explanation has been shown to be related to better understanding of concepts (2). In a correlational study, where the researchers identified which students used self-explanation naturally and compared this to performance on a concept test, Chi and colleagues showed that those who self-explained performed better. Chi and his research team wanted to know whether engaging…
Learning “Useless” Things in School is (Usually) NOT Useless
The challenge facing teachers is to prepare a diverse set of students for later situations that are not only varied, but likely different from ones we can even imagine in our current time. As technology rapidly changes our world, our instructors are set with the task of attempting to make students ready for whatever that…
Teaching Effectiveness vs. Teaching Evaluations
Header note, this quote appears at the top of the cited article by Kornell and Hausman (1)By Megan SumerackiFor most of us who teach in higher education, the end of the semester means administering teaching evaluations and can be a bit stressful for some. However, the beginning of each semester means reading those evaluations. In…
How to Choose the Right Way to Study for You: Advice for Students
On the other hand, something that does not offer any challenge at all is also not worth your time. If you practice a study technique and find that you are 100% accurate 100% of the time then you should start to get suspicious. You may need to increase the difficulty level, add in new material,…
Six Strategies for Effective Learning: A Summary for Teachers
By Megan Sumeracki If you read our blog often, you are familiar with the six strategies for effective learning. We have a number of resources already, but this guide provides a brief explanation of each strategy and compiles a set of links on the website all in one place. So, if you’re wanting a single…
Engagement and Interest
Another aspect of engagement seems to be interest and attention. If we focus on this aspect of engagement the definition is closer to ‘participating in activities that capture interest and attention in a subject matter’. In this view interest and attention are, in and of themselves, effective processes that promote understanding and learning, or they…
Making Tests (More) Fun Through Hints Increases Student Uptake Of Self-Testing
As you can see: Students picked the 4-letter option more often than any of the other options. Furthermore, students reported that the 4-letter option was “the most fun” with 71% agreement for that option compared to only 11% agreement for the 6-letter option. Interestingly, the 0-letter option received an agreement score of 0% (the 2-letter…
Mistakes or Opportunities? Learning from Errors
While errors can be beneficial for learning, true guesses are not terribly useful. As the confidence in an error increases, learning from the error also increases (called the hypercorrection effect). There is quite a bit of research to support the idea that participants have heightened attention or perhaps surprise when they believe an answer is…
Research in Practice!
By Megan Sumeracki The Learning Agency has created videos of researchers and teachers working together to impliment the science of learning into the classroom. These videos are brand new today!! You can check out Learning Agency Videos here. As a researcher deeply interested in student learning, it is extremely exciting for me to see decades…
Retrieval Practice in the Classroom: Is Asking Questions Enough?
So, what does this mean for educators? It is not enough to ask questions during lecture because students are unlikely to engage in covert retrieval unless they are pushed to do so. Instead, try having students write down an answer and then possibly share that answer with a partner or the class, but they need…
