A Framework for Training Students to Better Use Evidence-Based Learning Strategies
Cover photo by RDNE Stock project on PexelsBy Megan SumerackiIf you read our blog, even sporadically, you are almost certainly aware that investigations into evidence-based learning strategies have been ongoing for quite some time. In fact, as we near the end of 2025, I’m realizing that Ebbinghaus’ work on spaced practice was published 140 years…
How Do You Like Them Apples? On the Importance of Teaching in the Time...
Before my little doom machine distracted me, I was going to write this blog post about deliberate practice and expertise development. About the importance of teachers (experts) in helping learners (novices) in developing metacognitive awareness through deliberate practice (1). About how becoming an expert is about more than just knowing more. About how becoming an…
Motivation Effects and Efficiency of Retrieval Practice over Lecture
Taken together, what does this tell us? 1) We need to be paying attention to the interaction of learning strategies on motivational factors. Motivation matters both for student participation in course material but also for self-directed learning. 2) Jumping straight to practice is (maybe) ok to do. When I first read this article, I was…
Adult Learners with ADHD
by Althea Need KaminskeCover Image by Robin Higgins from PixabayAs of last October, the CDC estimates that approximately 1 in 16 adults in the United States have been diagnosed with ADHD (1). Despite the high prevalence of ADHD in adults, there are few resources for adult learners with ADHD. Many resources online are designed for…
Interleaving Is Less Effective When Taking Notes
References:(1) Taylor, K., & Rohrer, D. (2010). The effects of interleaved practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24(6), 837-848.(2) Wahlheim, C. N., Dunlosky, J., & Jacoby, L. L. (2011). Spacing enhances the learning of natural concepts: An investigation of mechanisms, metacognition, and aging. Memory & Cognition, 39(5), 750-763.(3) Kornell, N., & Bjork, R. A. (2008). Learning concepts…
Cognitive Networks: Exposure Matters
Cover photo by Gerd Altmann from PixabayBy Megan SumerackiIn my last blog, I wrote about cognitive networks and implicit bias. The gist of the post was that our systems allow us to categorize and generalize, flexibly and automatically, and that this generally helps us. For example, we have some general rules about what a chair…
Retrieval Practice in the Health Professions
Cover image by u_9p7tw4noz0 from PixabayBy Althea Need KaminskeNote: The following describes Health Professions Education within the U.S.As a learning scientist interested in how learning works, health professions education is an exciting and dynamic environment to explore best practices in the application of the principles and strategies that we study in cognitive psychology. Recently, Cindy…
Reblog: How To Convince Students To Use Effective Study Strategies?
As mentioned, the authors used a mixed-method approach. One the one hand, they asked students during the pre- and post-assessment to indicate how many minutes they had spent using successive relearning or other learning strategies, when they had started studying for the exam, their confidence in recalling specific content from the course, etc. On the…
Flipped Classrooms: Can We Skip the Lecture?
(cover image by ISDiva on Pixabay)by Cindy NebelI am proud to work in a learning environment that follows the data and uses evidence-based practices in learning. Several years ago, and before my time, St. Louis University School of Medicine adopted a flipped classroom approach. Students rarely sit in live didactic lectures, but instead watch pre-recorded…
Cognitive Networks and Implicit Bias
Images above by WOKANDAPIX, Yinan Chen, Taken, kieurope, M S, and GSLCMedia, from PixabayWe are able to categorize, and to generalize. Every time you see a chair that you have never seen before, you don’t have to learn that it is a chair and can be used for sitting. This is because you have learned some general rules…
