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EFFECTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES - THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING IN PRACTICE
Implementing The Science of Learning Research In Classrooms
Introduction: Learning Strategies
For years, centuries really, educators have experimented with different learning tools, techniques, curricula, and learning strategies for students. Some efforts have been more successful than others, of course. But how many of them are based on science with a robust body of research behind them?
The short answer is: not all educational approaches have had the backing of research. For example, for decades, the notion of “learning styles” has been prevalent. This is the idea that when instruction is tailored to an individual’s learning style, they learn better. But no rigorous evidence supports this view.
For the nation’s education system, though, the bigger question is: How do we best educate our children so that they learn better, and learn how to learn, in addition to learning what to learn? Additionally, and arguably just as challenging, is: How do we translate this body of research into classroom practice and appropriate learning strategies effectively?
Enter the “Science of Learning: Research Meets Practice.” The goal of the project is to get the science of learning into the hands of teaching professionals as well as to parents, school leaders, and students.
What Is The Science Of Learning?
Experimental research into how people learn first began over a century ago. In the decades following World War II, cognitive psychologists became more and more interested in how people remember incoming information, the differences between novices and experts, the course of expertise development, and the development of reasoning in children.
As researchers consolidated this knowledge in the 1980s and 90s, there was a growing interest in applying this knowledge to classroom settings. Especially since the mid-2000s, collaborations between teachers and researchers have validated many of the central ideas first explored in the 1970s and early 80s. These collaborations have also often led to fruitful teaching innovations and learning strategies.
We still have a long way to go, however. For example, many still use misguided study practices like blocked approaches to studying, where one concept is studied repeatedly before a new concept is explored. Instead, people should use interleaving — or mixed practice — which are far more effective teaching and learning strategies.
Experimental research into how people learn first began over a century ago. In the decades following World War II, cognitive psychologists became more and more interested in how people remember incoming information, the differences between novices and experts, the course of expertise development, and the development of reasoning in children.
As researchers consolidated this knowledge in the 1980s and 90s, there was a growing interest in applying this knowledge to classroom settings. Especially since the mid-2000s, collaborations between teachers and researchers have validated many of the central ideas first explored in the 1970s and early 80s. These collaborations have also often led to fruitful teaching innovations and learning strategies.
We still have a long way to go, however. For example, many still use misguided study practices like blocked approaches to studying, where one concept is studied repeatedly before a new concept is explored. Instead, people should use interleaving — or mixed practice — which are far more effective teaching and learning strategies.
The Goal Of The Project: Testing Effective Learning Strategies For Students
The goal was to bring the science of learning into the classroom and kickstart the development of easy-to-use professional development materials. We also wanted to collaborate with teachers, and learn from them what was effective, or not, when implementing science-based practices. In other words, we were interested in listening to teachers about implementing the research, rather than telling them what they “should do.”
What would happen, for instance, if learning scientists met with experienced classroom teachers, and had a conversation about how concepts in cognitive science could possibly translate into the classroom?
As learning scientist Megan Sumeracki explains,
It’s really important to have bi-directional communication...where the researchers are talking with the teachers and saying, ‘here’s what we know based on the science,’ and the teachers are saying, ‘here’s what we know based on what’s going on in the classroom.”
We selected schools with a wide range of student and teacher profiles, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Project partners included Leading Educators, Teaching Lab, and Wellington Road Productions.
Seven schools were chosen for the project, from urban Memphis, Tennessee and East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to suburban Kenner, Louisiana, Leominster, Massachusetts, and rural Medomack, Maine. With project partner Leading Educators, who helped with the selection of teachers in the Memphis and East Baton Rouge/Kenner Louisiana areas, 16 different teachers were invited to participate.
The conversation with teachers included an initial interview to learn about their teaching experiences, what they felt they knew about the science of learning concepts that they’d be working with, what they believe contributes to effective learning, as well as a meeting with their learning scientist. The teachers and researchers would then check in a few times during the duration of the project. The interaction culminated in a final filming of teachers in the classroom, and a debriefing among the teachers and learning scientists about what worked and what didn’t when trying out specific learning strategies.
Additionally, teachers were asked to tape themselves in at least one self-reflection piece and send it to our videographer. All of these elements were included in the final product: a video on the specific science of learning strategy that could be disseminated to decision-makers, classroom teachers, parents and students alike.
Seven schools were chosen for the project, from urban Memphis, Tennessee and East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to suburban Kenner, Louisiana, Leominster, Massachusetts, and rural Medomack, Maine. With project partner Leading Educators, who helped with the selection of teachers in the Memphis and East Baton Rouge/Kenner Louisiana areas, 16 different teachers were invited to participate.
The conversation with teachers included an initial interview to learn about their teaching experiences, what they felt they knew about the science of learning concepts that they’d be working with, what they believe contributes to effective learning, as well as a meeting with their learning scientist. The teachers and researchers would then check in a few times during the duration of the project. The interaction culminated in a final filming of teachers in the classroom, and a debriefing among the teachers and learning scientists about what worked and what didn’t when trying out specific learning strategies.
Additionally, teachers were asked to tape themselves in at least one self-reflection piece and send it to our videographer. All of these elements were included in the final product: a video on the specific science of learning strategy that could be disseminated to decision-makers, classroom teachers, parents and students alike.
The Learning Strategies
We focused on six different learning strategies; although they can be used in relation to one another, and often lend themselves to specific subjects and concepts, they can all be adapted to a wide variety of classroom settings, grades, and subject areas to promote effective learning.
“Retrieval practice boosts learning by pulling information out of students’ heads, rather than cramming information into students' heads,” according to cognitive scientist and author, Dr. Pooja Agarwal.
“For example, simply asking students, ‘What did we do in class yesterday?’ rather than telling them ‘Here’s what we did in class yesterday’ significantly boosts long-term learning.”
Frequent low-stakes quizzing is the signature example of retrieval practice and promotes effective learning.
“Dual coding is about combining images or visual representations with words. When used well, combining those can provide two ways of remembering information,” states learning scientist Dr. Megan Sumeracki.
But, not all graphic representations are created equal, and likewise, just creating a picture is not enough. According to researchers, visuals must be directly linked to the text without many distractions to facilitate effective learning.
Spacing is “coming back to information that was learned previously in order to refresh it,” states learning scientist, Dr. Yana Weinstein-Jones.
In short, spaced practice is the opposite of cramming, and experts like Weinstein-Jones recommend that learning is stretched out over time, optimally over the course of a number of sessions.
Teachers should intentionally bring up skills and concepts, strategically spaced, to improve how well students grasp the material.
Interleaving is studying different problem sets, “or mixing up different types of problems or...different concepts that you’re trying to learn,” according to learning scientist Dr. Megan Sumeracki. This can help students to see links and similarities between different ideas and concepts and can improve long-term learning. Sumeracki adds that when a teacher introduces interleaving into the classroom, “there might be some struggle early on, but over time the students will probably get more used to it, and then those successes will be really exciting.”
Metacognition is most often defined broadly as, “thinking about thinking.” However, what we know, via the cognitive sciences, includes a much more specific notion of metacognition. The Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University describes the value of planning, monitoring and assessing one’s own learning.
According to learning scientist Dr. Regan Gurung, “The more we can make the thinking process visible, the better we can understand how to make it more effective. That’s what metacognition is all about.”
In everyday contexts, we often use “elaborate” to mean “describe in more detail.” But psychologists mean something a little different by the word “elaboration.” In this context, elaboration is fundamentally about “making meaningful associations to a particular concept...it’s the opposite of just rote memorization,” states. Dr. Stephen Chew, learning scientist.
Chew adds, “what elaboration does is it increases the number of ways of accessing information.” For example, when teaching students about the topic of variation in statistics, asking the students to come up with an example from their lives of high variation and low variation would be a good way to encourage elaboration.
Acknowledgments: We’re grateful to the Overdeck Foundation for funding this project. We also thank Megan Sumeracki and Yana Weinstein-Jones who reviewed the document and provided feedback.
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Implementing interleaving practice learning strategies in the classroom.