Are learning methods such as ``underlining important places'' and ``remembering words'' really effective?
In the 'study' and 'learning' that always accompany us in life, it is useful as one of the techniques to incorporate the systematic learning method created by our predecessors. Kent State University Psychology Department John Danloski and others took up 10 widely known learning methods and verified whether those methods are really effective from the perspective of cognitive and educational psychology.
Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology - John Dunlosky, Katherine A. Rawson, Elizabeth J. Marsh, Mitchell J. Nathan, Daniel T. Willingham, 2013
◆ 1: Pursue 'Why? Why?'
Humans are naturally curious creatures, and we tend to seek explanations for the conditions, actions, and events around us. In one study, subjects who were asked to memorize an example sentence such as 'A hungry man came in the car' were more likely to simply memorize the sentence than those who were asked to ask a question such as 'Why did the man do that?' It seems that the percentage of remembering example sentences was higher than the group who only read.
For this reason, it is said that in learning, it is more effective to investigate ``why is it so'' than simply remembering events. For example, when remembering the fact that ``the amount of coffee beans produced in one country is similar to that in another,'' it is easier to remember why it is so.
◆2: Self-explanation
In an experiment in which a well-known logic puzzle called the '
◆3: Summarize
Students often have to learn a lot of information and have to discern what is important and how different ideas connect. A common technique for achieving this goal is to ask students to write summaries of the texts they learn.
As an example, research results show that the group that summarizes the text has a higher content retention rate than the group that simply reads the text, but the problem is 'how to summarize?'
When creating a summary, there are various options, such as whether to create only a headline, whether to summarize by paragraph, or whether to make the content detailed enough to explain to others, but unfortunately there is no correct answer. It seems that it depends on the ability of the student and the nature of the teaching material. For this reason, Dunloski et al. evaluated that summaries are less useful.
However, as shown by the research results that ``the higher the quality of summarization, the higher the performance,'' the learning method of summarizing the learning content is likely to be effective for those who are already skilled at summarizing. Dunloski et al conclude.
◆4: Draw a line
Perhaps one of the most common learning methods is to 'draw a line in an important place'. Many people must have used a pen to mark various places such as textbooks and notebooks.
In an experiment in which students read a paper consisting of a total of about 8000 words, a control group who only read the paper, an active highlight group who could mark as much as they wanted on the sentence, and a passive group who read the sentence marked by the active highlight group The subjects are divided into the highlight group and compared. Surprisingly, there was no evidence that either highlight group outperformed the control group in this experiment.
However, a more detailed analysis of the performance of the two highlighting groups found that the active highlighting group performed better on tests in which sentences related to the sentences they marked were highlighted. In the same experiment, we also found that the active highlight group was more likely to benefit from marking than the passive highlight group.
However, the marking method often depends on the ability of the individual, and it is possible to mark irrelevant places, or to mark too much and lose sight of important places. For this reason, marking may be useful if you have the knowledge to mark effectively, or if the sentence is difficult, but it may actually reduce performance in advanced tasks that require reasoning. points out Dunloski et al.
``Marking may not be effective overall and may be problematic in that it prevents learners from adopting other, more productive strategies,'' said Danloski et al.
However, since the method of marking is one of the techniques that many children voluntarily adopt, it may continue to be done in the future, although it is not as effective. ``It may be easier to teach effective marking methods than to persuade them to stop marking,'' advised teachers.
◆ 5: Punning
A learning method that memorizes some letters by changing them to other letters or sounds, such as the typical pun that is useful for remembering elemental symbols, 'Horizontal Ribe my ship', is used in various situations. Such puns (keywords / mnemonics) are said to be particularly effective in the field of foreign language learning, but according to Mr. Danroski, their usefulness is limited.
In an experiment investigating the usefulness of keyword mnemonics, when the original phrase and the keyword mnemonic were similar, for example, the associated phrase ``dentist'' was associated with the French word ``la dent'' meaning ``tooth''. ” is similar to the original phrase, but it has been shown that in such cases it is easy to come up with the keyword. On the other hand, if the original phrase and the keyword mnemonic are not similar, it seems that the image may be difficult to establish.
Since many keyword mnemonics are often distant from the image of the original phrase, and there is no strong evidence that keyword mnemonics are suitable for long-term memory, Dunloski et al.・The usefulness of mnemonics is evaluated as low.
◆ 6: How to use images to learn sentences
By looking at images in addition to text, it may help to make the learning content more firmly established. Researchers who pursued these hypotheses conducted experiments in which subjects were shown images after reading sentences.
In this experiment, the subjects were divided into a group that read the text and a group that saw the image after reading and expanded the image. Both groups then solved the task, but this task was not a task in which the answer could be obtained directly from the text, but it was necessary to derive the answer by guessing from the text.
As a result, the person who saw the image and inflated the image had excellent results. In addition to this, many studies have shown that images are effective for learning, so Danloski et al. conclude that they can be applied to learning more widely than keyword mnemonics. However, it was added that the usefulness of this technique needs to be further substantiated, as the benefits of images are severely limited to teaching materials and tasks suitable for images.
◆ 7: Reread
The act of reading the text again after reading it once is also a learning method that many learners acquire naturally. Research that re-reading has a certain effect regardless of the content and length of the text, and that re-reading for the same amount of time is more effective than marking or summarizing regardless of intelligence level or reading comprehension ability. It seems that there is also
And perhaps more economical than any other method is also an advantage. However, it seems to be much less effective than the first 'pursue the reason' and the second 'self-explanation'.
◆8: Mock test
It is often said that 'learning is important to balance input and output', but mock tests are a representative output. Danloski et al. say that ``the time required is relatively reasonable,'' and that it is also useful to receive feedback after taking the exam. Danloski et al. evaluated this method as 'highly useful' because the effects of mock tests have been demonstrated in a very wide range.
◆ 9: Distributed learning
Findings that distributed learning, in which you learn over a long period of time by taking time off or changing methods, is more effective in consolidating long-term memory than short-term intensive learning such as ``Ichiya-zuke''. has been shown in some studies. Danloski et al. evaluated this method as having high utility and pointed out that it is effective in various age groups.
◆ 10: Interleave (simultaneous parallel) learning
Interleaved learning is a method of gradually learning another area, instead of trying to learn all of one area in one study. Dunloski et al. ranked the usefulness of this method as moderate, and evaluated it as particularly effective in learning and consolidating mathematical skills.
Related Posts:
in Posted by log1p_kr