Learning Scientists Posts

The authors note that this is distinct from the learning sciences (although the Science of Learning is often used interchangeably). The learning sciences focus specifically on “investigat[ing] teaching and learning as well as the design and development of learning environments, with the goal to improve the effectiveness of education and training.” (p. 13). Given these…

In today’s post, I present a paper from 2020 by Xiaofeng Ma and colleagues (1) investigating retrieval practice with first grade students (children ages 6-7 years). They wondered whether retrieval practice would be effective for children this young, given that children’s memory systems are less mature at this age. Children this age are much less…

I found it really interesting that both the eye-tracking and learning performance data showed a clear advantage for the learner-generated outline, but that the self-reported measure of engagement did not. We know from research on metacognition that often our feelings about our learning don’t always line up with measures of our learning. The researchers interviewed…

By Carolina Kuepper-TetzelWe have looked at the benefits of combining text and visuals for memory and learning – see dual coding – in many previous posts. A new series of experiments has investigated the effects of drawing specifically and whether drawing improves memory for the to-be-learned material compared to other strategies (1). The research is…

Medical education is divided into Undergraduate Medical Education (UME), which includes coursework, supervised clinical rotations, and specialty electives, and Graduate Medical Education (GME) which is residency and like their entry level job. So, UME is graduate-level education (post-bachelors), but called Undergraduate, for reasons I’ve yet to discover. For the purposes of this blog, I’m focused…

The researchers found that when there were low levels of cold calling in a class, men tended to participate voluntarily more than women. When cold calling was frequently used within a class, students, both men and women, volunteered to participate more often. Further, the increase was larger for the women students than the men students.…

Cover image by Dharmendra Rai from PixabayBy Althea Need KaminskeWhile we talk about the benefits of retrieval practice a lot here at the Learning Scientists, we usually talk about the benefits of retrieval practice for already learned information. However, retrieval practice has also been shown to be beneficial for learning new information. That is, retrieving…

References:(1)    Yerkes, R.M., and Dodson, J.D. (1908). The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology of Psychology, 18(5), 459-482.(2)    Diamond D.M., et al. (2007). The Temporal Dynamics Model of Emotional Memory Processing: A Synthesis on the Neurobiological Basis of Stress-Induced Amnesia, Flashbulb and Traumatic Memories, and the Yerkes-Dodson…

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…

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…