Study Strategies: The Appliance of Science

It’s probably fair to say students and teachers are constantly bombarded with study advice – what to do, what not to do, why you shouldn’t do what someone else has told you is absolutely essential – and it’s equally fair to say that not all of his advice is necessarily impartial or, not to put too fine a point on things, useful.

The Learning Scientists’ approach has the dual virtue of offering advice that’s free (which is nice) and backed-up by scientific evidence (the clue is in the name. Probably). Something that should be essential in this particular area but which is so often is treated as optional.

So far they’ve released 6 short (1½ – 3 minutes) videos focused on helping students develop coherent study strategies through the application of techniques that have more than just a nodding acquaintance with logic and research.

Spaced Practice: Don’t cram. It won’t work! Practical advice on how to read, review and remember.

Retrieval Practice: How to develop a successful long-term strategy for retrieving information.

Elaboration: Making connections by asking yourself questions

Interleaving: Making connections between different topics to keep information fresh in your mind and make the link between different ideas.

Concrete Examples: How to anchor abstract ideas to something more substantial

Dual Coding: Using pictures and words to learn by comparing visuals to text.