Hello! This is a time of year that many students are working towards assessments of various kinds, so I thought it would be useful to discuss study skills.
First, it’s worth saying that students are often poor at making decisions about how to study.
A lot of this comes down to their biases and metacognition; subjective impressions of how well or fast they are learning leads to poor decision making. It appears that learners prefer to focus where progress feels fast rather than on their weakest areas (Kornell & Metcalfe, 2005).
This is one of the reasons that developing metacognition is so valuable. The better our learners understand learning, the more they will be equipped to make good decisions during self-regulated study.
Using Techniques Well
Good study skills will certainly include selecting evidence-based techniques such as spacing and retrieval practice. However, other techniques will be part of the mix as well.
I have mentioned before that some of the ideas identified by Dunlosky et al (2013) as less impactful could be improved if they were done in the right way. There is a lot of nuance to techniques such as summarising and even highlighting.
You can check out my suggestions below:
Overall, it’s not just what you do, but how you do it!
The same could be said of strategies such as flashcards and dual coding, too – it’s possible to use these badly! InnerDrive shared a useful graphic of ‘dual coding mistakes’, such as focusing on images you like rather than ones that meaningfully connect to the target concept.
And Pooja Agarwal shared 3 tips for using flashcards more effectively here.
I feel that training students in the effective use of study skills in the classroom is a key part of metacognition. They need to learn the strategies, including the nuances of how to apply them well.
Note Taking
What about taking and using notes effectively? Again, we can prepare students for this during class.
Note-taking is an important study technique at all stages of academia. As soon as children can write, they start noting things down to help with remembering. Later, they must take in large amounts of information from lectures or books.
The research evidence on note-taking is quite limited compared to other areas, but one study by Luo et al. (2016) found three very useful principles:
Actively revising from lecture notes is more effective than just copying them. That is to say, it’s better for students to interpret and improve their notes than to repeat verbatim.
It can be helpful to provide pauses during a lesson for students to take notes in silence. Doing so seems to be better than having them take notes later in the day (by which time, forgetting will have kicked in).
Pairing learners up to review notes can be helpful, as a partner can add information that the note-taker missed first time around.
You can read this study via the link below:
Luo et al. (2016). Revising lecture notes: how revision, pauses, and partners affect note taking and achievement. Instructional Science, 44, 45–67.
I hope that helps. Motivation is a key facet of studying too, and I’ll say more about that issue next time.
In the meantime, have a great week!
Jonathan
Last week: Exploring Cognitive Science in 2024
Instead of sharing my latest book again, I thought I’d mention another one: ‘Teaching Hacks: Fixing Everyday Classroom Issues with Metacognition’, edited by Nathan Burns. I wrote one of the chapters (on applying metacognition to classroom writing), and the other contributors look great. The UK Amazon link is here, with a code of UKAUTHR25 (if I get other codes I’ll share them). And more info on the SAGE site here.
Please note that my slides and similar materials are used under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. This means you can use or adapt them with attribution for non-commercial purposes. If you wish to use my materials for other purposes, feel free to get in touch.