EDT 8110 - Week #1
Smart Learning Objectives
Specific - Measurable - Attainable - Results-focused - Time-focused
After completing this unit students will be able to the following:
1. List three methods college students most often use to study.
2. List two reasons that students typically use less productive strategies for studying.
3. Name three types of memory and the time periods over which information can be retrieved.
4. Describe two methods for increasing the difficulty of practice retrieval exercises.
5. List three study activities which can enhance learning and delay forgetting.
Content Summary:
The material in this web page is derived from two sources, the first two chapters of the book, "Make it Stick" by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014) and a Youtube video of a presentation by Henry Roediger (Roediger, 2014).
Chapter 1
How do we Learn?
What are the best methods for learning? Probably not what you think. Recent surveys of college students identified the most common methods for learning are rereading the course material, highlighting their notes or text book, and reviewing or rereading their class notes. (Brown, Roediger and McDaniel, 2014) While these methods have been used for decades (if not for millennia) studies in cognitive science compiled in previous decades suggest 75% of what is "learned" by these methods is lost (forgotten) within several weeks. However, new insights into how the learning process works and how that process can be enhanced also are derived from these studies.
Here is what we now know about learning.
The following sections will describe how changing the way we teach in the classroom (for instructors) and the way we study what we want to learn (for students) will improve retention of material and enlarge students’ usable fund of knowledge.
The material in this web page is derived from two sources, the first two chapters of the book, "Make it Stick" by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014) and a Youtube video of a presentation by Henry Roediger (Roediger, 2014).
Chapter 1
How do we Learn?
What are the best methods for learning? Probably not what you think. Recent surveys of college students identified the most common methods for learning are rereading the course material, highlighting their notes or text book, and reviewing or rereading their class notes. (Brown, Roediger and McDaniel, 2014) While these methods have been used for decades (if not for millennia) studies in cognitive science compiled in previous decades suggest 75% of what is "learned" by these methods is lost (forgotten) within several weeks. However, new insights into how the learning process works and how that process can be enhanced also are derived from these studies.
Here is what we now know about learning.
- We are poor judges of our own learning
- We learn all our lives (i.e. our brains are not hard-wired)
- Functional learning is a two step process; storage (memory) and retrieval
- Learning is an acquired skill
The following sections will describe how changing the way we teach in the classroom (for instructors) and the way we study what we want to learn (for students) will improve retention of material and enlarge students’ usable fund of knowledge.
Current Practice
Typically classroom learning proceeds through a study-test paradigm (Brown et al., 2014). Students hear lectures, read text books, and maybe view videos or use computer programs to assimilate new material. Then, sometime later, they are given a test to evaluate what they have learned. After the test, the material may not be discussed or tested again during the class until perhaps when the final exam is given at the end of the course. Thus while great effort is made to store information in the students’ brains, the retrieval of this information is not practiced.
The problem with this paradigm is that as soon as the classroom lectures and study activities are completed, the forgetting begins (Brown et al., 2014, Roediger, 2014). When an examination is near, students often are told to go over assigned materials to aid their studying for the examination. Thus, to combat their forgetting process, before a scheduled examination students try to “relearn” by repetition what they have already been exposed to in the classroom. This may include watching videos of class lectures, rereading assigned materials, or reviewing their class notes. For many this approach does improve their recall of class material for a long enough time that they can perform well on an exam they will take in the next day or so. Thus it feels like this is a good strategy for learning. However while this approach may improve the storage of new material, it does not improve students’ ability to retrieve the information at a later time.
Typically classroom learning proceeds through a study-test paradigm (Brown et al., 2014). Students hear lectures, read text books, and maybe view videos or use computer programs to assimilate new material. Then, sometime later, they are given a test to evaluate what they have learned. After the test, the material may not be discussed or tested again during the class until perhaps when the final exam is given at the end of the course. Thus while great effort is made to store information in the students’ brains, the retrieval of this information is not practiced.
The problem with this paradigm is that as soon as the classroom lectures and study activities are completed, the forgetting begins (Brown et al., 2014, Roediger, 2014). When an examination is near, students often are told to go over assigned materials to aid their studying for the examination. Thus, to combat their forgetting process, before a scheduled examination students try to “relearn” by repetition what they have already been exposed to in the classroom. This may include watching videos of class lectures, rereading assigned materials, or reviewing their class notes. For many this approach does improve their recall of class material for a long enough time that they can perform well on an exam they will take in the next day or so. Thus it feels like this is a good strategy for learning. However while this approach may improve the storage of new material, it does not improve students’ ability to retrieve the information at a later time.
Chapter 2
A Different Approach to Learning
The learning process. Research has demonstrated that functional learning is a two step process. First the new information must be stored in memory. Psychologists and neuroscientists describe memory with various models. In one of these, human memory processes are distinguished by amount of time the information persists and can be recalled; sensory memory (<1 sec), short-term memory (several minutes to hours), and long term memory (lifetime). Our sensory experiences are passed from one system to the next to create the lifetime, long term memory. Thus, it is the last of these we are concerned with in this unit.
Once the information is stored in our memory, to be useful to us at a later time, it must be retrieved. Studies performed over the past several decades have demonstrated that practicing retrieval of information stored in memory improves students’ ability to retrieve the material later on. Thus, retrieving newly learned information consolidates the memory and increases retention of the material. Practice testing has the additional advantage of demonstrating what you don’t know.
While this concept of practice retrieval can be easily shown in somewhat artificial laboratory exercises with simple concepts such as memorizing a list of words, it also has been shown to hold for complex concepts in the laboratory and for learning real course material by real students in a real classroom (Roediger, 2014).
A Different Approach to Learning
The learning process. Research has demonstrated that functional learning is a two step process. First the new information must be stored in memory. Psychologists and neuroscientists describe memory with various models. In one of these, human memory processes are distinguished by amount of time the information persists and can be recalled; sensory memory (<1 sec), short-term memory (several minutes to hours), and long term memory (lifetime). Our sensory experiences are passed from one system to the next to create the lifetime, long term memory. Thus, it is the last of these we are concerned with in this unit.
Once the information is stored in our memory, to be useful to us at a later time, it must be retrieved. Studies performed over the past several decades have demonstrated that practicing retrieval of information stored in memory improves students’ ability to retrieve the material later on. Thus, retrieving newly learned information consolidates the memory and increases retention of the material. Practice testing has the additional advantage of demonstrating what you don’t know.
While this concept of practice retrieval can be easily shown in somewhat artificial laboratory exercises with simple concepts such as memorizing a list of words, it also has been shown to hold for complex concepts in the laboratory and for learning real course material by real students in a real classroom (Roediger, 2014).
Practice retrieval. Frequent testing that requires the learner to recall and use the learned material solidifies the memory and enhances retention (Brown et al., Roediger, 2014). This practice can be done in the classroom – pop quizzes, Socratic teaching, etc. It also can be done by the student during their study time – working practice problems which require using learned information, using flash cards, etc.
Student retrieval practice can be done mentally as well (Brown et al., 2014). Simply thinking through a problem and practice retrieving the information without writing it down (or typing it in) will aid retrieval. Examples of this are numerous. Many who watch Winter Olympic athletes have seen them close their eyes while they visualize their run down the slalom course or the luge track. By recalling in their mind what they will soon experience, they reinforce their memory of the nuances of the turns and straight-aways.
Student retrieval practice can be done mentally as well (Brown et al., 2014). Simply thinking through a problem and practice retrieving the information without writing it down (or typing it in) will aid retrieval. Examples of this are numerous. Many who watch Winter Olympic athletes have seen them close their eyes while they visualize their run down the slalom course or the luge track. By recalling in their mind what they will soon experience, they reinforce their memory of the nuances of the turns and straight-aways.
I’m not an Olympic athlete, but I have used this visualization method as a student aircraft pilot. The instructor would ask me to perform a certain maneuver such as a power-on stall in which the aircraft is made to climb so steeply that the airspeed falls below that necessary to maintain lift. As a result, the plane suddenly begins to fall from the sky. Clearly you would want know what to do when this happens and get the situation corrected very quickly. When the command to perform the stall came from the instructor, I would spend a few seconds to go over in my mind what I will be seeing, how it will feel, and what my response will be (I keep my eyes open, however). Not only did this training help me get it right when the instructor was with me, but also during times when an unexpected stall occurred.
Make it hard. Two additional nuances added to the practice retrieval testing will further improve retention and recall (Brown et al., 2014). Each of these is designed to make the practice recall more difficult to perform. First, allow some forgetting to occur before the testing takes place. That is, after studying the material let some time pass before taking a test. Alternatively, study some different material – intersperse different subjects during the study time. Then when the test is given, it will be more difficult to recall the correct information. If feedback for wrong answers is provided during testing, a second strategy that improves retention is to delay the feedback correction. While the reasons for this are not clear, it has been shown that immediate feedback correction is less able to improve retention than if the correct answer and reasoning for the correct choice is provided later.
Connection to the Field and/or Discipline:
Several of these concepts are already evident in newer medical education practices. For example, in addition to the bedside experience mentored by physician educators, emergency physicians in training often participate in simulated patient exercises where both knowledge and quick retrieval processes are practiced. These are often carried out in stressful and difficult situations such as extrication of simulated injured individuals from automobiles in the field and simulated acute heart attack or stroke victims in the simulation lab. Similarly, medical students are asked recall information they read in text books and medical literature and apply that information to the diagnosis and treatment options for actual patients. This retrieval practice occurs in much the same context they will be using it when they graduate from the training programs.
This has been studied with medical students during the emergency medicine rotation (Ten Eyck, Tews, and Ballester, 2009). Students learn about emergency conditions in classroom lectures and in hospital emergency departments. While their level of training does not allow them to provide care for the most seriously ill individuals, students participate in the laboratory with simulated critically ill patients. In one investigation, students were randomized to receive simulation training in one of two critical conditions. Another other group of students were assigned to simulation training on the other critical condition. All received the same classroom training in each condition. At the end of the rotation, their test scores on the questions relating to these two conditions were compared. Students did marginally better on the subjects for which they received simulation training. It appeared that the practice of retrieving information in a stressful environment enhanced their learning.
These practices also are included in the design of the "reversed classroom" as it is employed in several courses at Wright State University. In these courses, students prepare for class time by reading material or using online tutorials. Then the instructor spends the time with the assembled students by asking questions. Typically these are multiple choice-type questions of the same form they will be expected to answer when they take board exams. This exercise directs the students to the most salient points of the material as well as gives them practice retrieving the information. Applying the information to new problems not discussed in the preparation material will enhance their learning as it will be a more difficult task to perform. Instructors also include material from previous sessions since repeated testing further increases retention.
Finally, as a private pilot, I am required to maintain proficiency by frequent flights under the same conditions I will be flying with passengers. With each flight, the processes of preflight checks, in-flight procedures, and landing techniques are rehearsed and practiced. In addition, every 24 months private pilots are required to complete ground school evaluation of knowledge and practical evaluation of flying skills in normal and emergency conditions. The most successful pilots review the relevant material before hand, but the information is consolidated during the evaluation with the flight instructor.
Several of these concepts are already evident in newer medical education practices. For example, in addition to the bedside experience mentored by physician educators, emergency physicians in training often participate in simulated patient exercises where both knowledge and quick retrieval processes are practiced. These are often carried out in stressful and difficult situations such as extrication of simulated injured individuals from automobiles in the field and simulated acute heart attack or stroke victims in the simulation lab. Similarly, medical students are asked recall information they read in text books and medical literature and apply that information to the diagnosis and treatment options for actual patients. This retrieval practice occurs in much the same context they will be using it when they graduate from the training programs.
This has been studied with medical students during the emergency medicine rotation (Ten Eyck, Tews, and Ballester, 2009). Students learn about emergency conditions in classroom lectures and in hospital emergency departments. While their level of training does not allow them to provide care for the most seriously ill individuals, students participate in the laboratory with simulated critically ill patients. In one investigation, students were randomized to receive simulation training in one of two critical conditions. Another other group of students were assigned to simulation training on the other critical condition. All received the same classroom training in each condition. At the end of the rotation, their test scores on the questions relating to these two conditions were compared. Students did marginally better on the subjects for which they received simulation training. It appeared that the practice of retrieving information in a stressful environment enhanced their learning.
These practices also are included in the design of the "reversed classroom" as it is employed in several courses at Wright State University. In these courses, students prepare for class time by reading material or using online tutorials. Then the instructor spends the time with the assembled students by asking questions. Typically these are multiple choice-type questions of the same form they will be expected to answer when they take board exams. This exercise directs the students to the most salient points of the material as well as gives them practice retrieving the information. Applying the information to new problems not discussed in the preparation material will enhance their learning as it will be a more difficult task to perform. Instructors also include material from previous sessions since repeated testing further increases retention.
Finally, as a private pilot, I am required to maintain proficiency by frequent flights under the same conditions I will be flying with passengers. With each flight, the processes of preflight checks, in-flight procedures, and landing techniques are rehearsed and practiced. In addition, every 24 months private pilots are required to complete ground school evaluation of knowledge and practical evaluation of flying skills in normal and emergency conditions. The most successful pilots review the relevant material before hand, but the information is consolidated during the evaluation with the flight instructor.
Suggestions for Implementation:
Several of these concepts are already evident in newer medical education practices. For example, in addition to the bedside experience mentored by physician educators, emergency physicians in training often participate in simulated patient exercises where both knowledge and quick retrieval processes are practiced. Similarly, medical students are asked recall information they read in text books and medical literature and apply that information to the diagnosis and treatment options for actual patients. This will force them to retrieve the information in the same context they will be using it when they graduate.
These practices are included in the design of the "reversed classroom" as it is employed in several courses at Wright State University. In these courses, students prepare for class time by reading material or using online tutorials. Then the instructor spends the time with the assembled students by presenting questions. Typically these are multiple choice questions of the same form they will be expected to answer when they take their board exams. Students answer questions through "clickers", remote answering devices. This exercise directs the students to the most salient points of the material as well as gives them practice retrieving the information. Applying the information to new problems not discussed in the preparation material will enhance their learning as it will be a more difficult task to perform. However, the instructor should be careful to always include material from previous sessions since repeated testing further increases retention.
Several of these concepts are already evident in newer medical education practices. For example, in addition to the bedside experience mentored by physician educators, emergency physicians in training often participate in simulated patient exercises where both knowledge and quick retrieval processes are practiced. Similarly, medical students are asked recall information they read in text books and medical literature and apply that information to the diagnosis and treatment options for actual patients. This will force them to retrieve the information in the same context they will be using it when they graduate.
These practices are included in the design of the "reversed classroom" as it is employed in several courses at Wright State University. In these courses, students prepare for class time by reading material or using online tutorials. Then the instructor spends the time with the assembled students by presenting questions. Typically these are multiple choice questions of the same form they will be expected to answer when they take their board exams. Students answer questions through "clickers", remote answering devices. This exercise directs the students to the most salient points of the material as well as gives them practice retrieving the information. Applying the information to new problems not discussed in the preparation material will enhance their learning as it will be a more difficult task to perform. However, the instructor should be careful to always include material from previous sessions since repeated testing further increases retention.
Formative Assessment.
The quiz below consists of a set of six flash cards which will test your knowledge of the material you have just read.
The quiz below consists of a set of six flash cards which will test your knowledge of the material you have just read.
References and Additional Reading
Brown, P. C., Roediger III, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press.
McDaniel, M.A. (2014) How people learn. Cognitive enhancement of education: from lab to the classroom. (Video file) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tz8ghVPHhFE
Ten Eyck, R. P., Tews, M., & Ballester, J. M. (2009). Improved medical student satisfaction and test performance with a simulation-based emergency medicine curriculum: a randomized controlled trial. Ann Emerg Med, 54(5), 684-691.
Brown, P. C., Roediger III, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press.
McDaniel, M.A. (2014) How people learn. Cognitive enhancement of education: from lab to the classroom. (Video file) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tz8ghVPHhFE
Ten Eyck, R. P., Tews, M., & Ballester, J. M. (2009). Improved medical student satisfaction and test performance with a simulation-based emergency medicine curriculum: a randomized controlled trial. Ann Emerg Med, 54(5), 684-691.