I Have to Read Over and Over Again to Learn

The fashion nigh students written report makes no sense.

That's the determination of Washington University in St. Louis psychologists Henry Roediger andMarking McDaniel — who've spent a combined fourscore years studying learning and memory, and recently distilled their findings with novelist Peter Brownish in the volumeMake Information technology Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.

The bulk of students study past re-reading notes and textbooks — but the psychologists' research, both in lab experiments and of actual students in classes, shows this is a terrible way to acquire textile. Using active learning strategies — like flashcards, diagramming, and quizzing yourself — is much more effective, as is spacing out studying over time and mixing unlike topics together.

McDaniel spoke with me well-nigh the eight key tips he'd share with students and teachers from his body of research.

1) Don't just re-read your notes and readings

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"We know from surveys that a bulk of students, when they report, they typically re-read assignments and notes. Most students say this is their number one get-to strategy.

"We know, however, from a lot of research, that this kind of repetitive recycling of information is not an especially adept way to acquire or create more permanent memories.Our studies of Washington University students, for instance, prove that when they re-read a textbook chapter, they have absolutely no improvement in learning over those who just read it once.

"On your first reading of something, y'all extract a lot of understanding. But when you do the second reading, you read with a sense of 'I know this, I know this.' So basically, you're not processing it deeply, or picking more than out of it. Ofttimes, the re-reading is cursory — and it's insidious, because this gives you the illusion that yous know the material very well, when in fact in that location are gaps."

2) Ask yourself lots of questions

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"One skilful technique to use instead is to read once, so quiz yourself, either using questions at the back of a textbook chapter, or making up your own questions. Retrieving that information is what really produces more robust learning and memory.

"And even when you can't call back it — when you become the questions wrong — information technology gives you an accurate diagnostic on what you don't know, and this tells you lot what you should go back and study. This helps guide your studying more finer.

"Asking questions as well helps you understand more than deeply.Say yous're learning about world history, and how ancient Rome and Greece were trading partners. Stop and ask yourself why they became trading partners. Why did they become shipbuilders, and larn to navigate the seas? It doesn't ever have to be why — you can enquire how, or what.

"In asking these questions, you lot're trying to explain, and in doing this, you create a better agreement, which leads to better memory and learning. And then instead of just reading and skimming, finish and enquire yourself things to brand yourself empathise the material."

3) Connect new information to something you already know

"Another strategy is, during a second reading,to try relating the principles in the text to something you lot already know about. Relate new information to prior data for meliorate learning.

"1 instance is if you lot were learning about how the neuron transmits electricity. One of the things we know if that if you have a fatty sheath environs the neuron, called a myelin sheath, it helps the neuron transmit electricity more quickly.

"So you could liken this, say, to h2o running through a hose. The water runs chop-chop through it, merely if y'all puncture the hose, information technology'due south going to leak, and you won't go the same period. And that's essentially what happens when we age — the myelin sheaths interruption down, and transmissions become slower."

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4) Depict out the information in a visual form

"A great strategy is making diagrams, or visual models, or flowcharts. In a beginning psychology grade, you could diagram the flow of classical conditioning. Sure, y'all tin can read about classical conditioning, but to truly understand it and exist able to write downwards and depict the dissimilar aspects of it on a test afterwards — status, stimulus, and so on — information technology'southward a good idea to meet if you tin put it in a flowchart.

"Anything that creates active learning — generating agreement on your own — is very effective in retentiveness. It basically ways the learner needs to become more involved and more engaged, and less passive."

5) Use flashcards

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"Flashcards are another proficient style of doing this. And one central to using them is really re-testing yourself on the ones you got correct.

"A lot of students volition answer the question on a flashcard, and take information technology out of the deck if they get it right. But it turns out this isn't a adept thought — repeating the act of retentivity retrieval is important. Studies show that keeping the right detail in the deck and encountering it again is useful. You might desire to practice the incorrect items a piffling more, but repeated exposure to the ones you get right is of import too.

"It's non that repetition as a whole is bad. Information technology's that mindless repetition is bad."

6) Don't cram — space out your studying

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"A lot of students cram — they look until the last minute, then in one evening, they repeat the information again and again. Merely research shows this isn't good for long term retentivity. It may allow yous to practice okay on that exam the side by side twenty-four hour period, but then on the final, yous won't retain as much information, so the adjacent year, when y'all demand the information for the next level course, it won't exist there.

"This often happens in statistics. Students come up back for the side by side year, and it seems like they've forgotten everything, because they crammed for their tests.

"The better idea is to infinite repetition. Practice a trivial bit one day, then put your flashcards away, then take them out the adjacent mean solar day, and so two days later. Report later study shows that spacing is actually important."

vii) Teachers should space out and mix up their lessons besides

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"Our book too has data for teachers. And our educational system tends to promote massed presentation of data also.

"In a typical higher course, you comprehend one topic one 24-hour interval, and so on the second day, another topic, then on the tertiary day, another topic. This is massed presentation. Yous never go back and recycle or reconsider the fabric.

"But the primal, for teachers, is to put the textile back in front of a student days or weeks afterward. There are several ways they can practise this. Here at Washington University, there are some instructors who requite weekly quizzes, and used to just put fabric from that week's classes on the quiz. At present, they're bringing back more fabric from two to three weeks ago. One psychology lecturer explicitly takes time, during each lecture, to bring dorsum material from days or weeks beforehand.

"This can be done in homework too. It's typical, in statistics courses, to give homework in which all of the issues are all in the same category. After correlations are taught, apupil's homework, say, is problem later on problem on correlation. Then the next calendar week, T tests are taught, and all the problems are on T tests. Just nosotros've found that sprinkling in questions on stuff that was covered ii or three weeks ago is really adept for retention.

"And this can be built into the content of lessons themselves. Permit's say you're taking an art history class. When I took it, I learned most Gauguin, so I saw lots of his paintings, and so I moved on to Matisse, and saw lots of paintings by him. Students and instructors both recollect that this is a good manner of learning the painting styles of these different artists.

"But experimental studies show that's not the case at all. It's better to give students an example of one artist, then motility to another, then another, and so recycle back around. That interspersing, or mixing, produces much amend learning that can be transferred to paintings you oasis't seen — letting students accurately identify the creators of paintings, say, on a test.

"And this works for all sorts of problems. Permit's go back to statistics. In upper level classes, and the real earth, y'all're not going to be told what sort of statistical problem yous're encountering — you lot're going to take to figure out the method you need to use. And you can't larn how to do that unless you have experience dealing with a mix of different types of problems, and diagnosing which requires which type of approach."

8) In that location's no such thing as a "math person"

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"There's some really interesting work past Carol Dweck, at Stanford. She'due south shown that students tend to have one of two mindsets about learning.

"One is a fixed learning model. It says, 'I have a sure corporeality of talent for this topic — say, chemistry or physics — and I'll do well until I hitting that limit. Past that, information technology's likewise hard for me, and I'm not going to practice well.'The other mindset is a growth mindset. It says that learning involves using effective strategies, putting aside time to do the work, and engaging in the procedure, all of which help you gradually increase your capacity for a topic.

"It turns out that the mindsets predict how well students end upwards doing. Students with growth mindsets tend to stick with it, tend to persevere in the face of difficulty, and tend to be successful in challenging classes. Students with the fixed mindset tend not to.

"So for teachers, the lesson is that if you can talk to students and advise that a growth mindset really is the more than authentic model — and it is — and so students tend to be more open to trying new strategies, and sticking with the course, and working in ways that are going to promote learning. Ability, intelligence, and learning have to do with how you arroyo it — working smarter, we like to say."

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Source: https://www.vox.com/2014/6/24/5824192/study-smarter-learn-better-8-tips-from-memory-researchers

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