Learning Scientists Posts

References(1) Allen, M., LeFebvre, L., LeFebvre, L., & Bourhis, J. (2020). Is the Pencil Mightier than the Keyboard? A Meta-Analysis Comparing the Method of Notetaking Outcomes. Southern Communication Journal, 85(3), 143–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/1041794X.2020.1764613 (2) Voyer, D., Ronis, S. T., & Byers, N. (2022). The effect of notetaking method on academic performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis.…

By Althea Need KaminskeCover image by Mizuno K from PexelsRecently, Cindy talked about how the Yerkes-Dodson Law (or performance-arousal) is less of a law and more of a nice story about how stress influences performance. The performance-arousal curve is a handy explanation for a lot of different patterns and, on the surface, it seems to…

Students in the experiment read the explanations and completed their practice cases with feedback in the way outlined by their particular experimental condition (i.e., interleaved with one context, interleaved with two contexts, blocked with one context, blocked with two contexts). Measuring Learning and TransferThe students were then tested to see how much they could remember…

By Carolina Kuepper-TetzelImagine you are enrolled in a life sciences course and learning about stochastic molecular motion in biological systems (i.e., how molecules move in random ways within cells and other parts of living things). You are given the option to study the topic using either a) expository instruction which focuses on explaining the topic,…

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.…