In the paper, published in Nature Reviews Psychology, the researchers highlight two straightforward, research-based methods from cognitive psychology that can help students structure their learning: spacing, and active retrieval.
The spacing effect
One of the most well-known methods used to learn for an exam is cramming. This is where students work intensively with the course material just a few days before final assessment. Though widely practised in the student population for years, this strategy has been repeatedly shown to be an ineffective use of time. The spacing effect refers to the finding that spreading out learning—returning to the same material a number of times during a course—is much more effective than spending the same amount of time intensively cramming at the end. For example, in one study, the regular homework tasks for three undergraduate physics topics were simply shuffled, meaning that students had a few questions on all three topics on three consecutive weeks rather than answering all the questions on one topic one week, followed by all the questions on the next topic the following week, etc. This led to significantly higher performance on a surprise test, with the gains being attributed to the spacing effect. The article summarizes over a century of research on the spacing effect that has been carried out in a wide range of learning situations. The latest advice here is that to achieve maximum gains, at least 24 hours should pass between each learning event.
The active retrieval effect
A second learning strategy recommended by the authors is active retrieval.
Although we often think of remembering as something that occurs after learning, research suggests that systematically using memory retrieval as a part of the learning process can lead to improved results. For example, instead of simply reading and rereading material, we can read it once and then try to recall as much as possible before reading again. This active retrieval approach has been shown to have a large and long-lasting effect on learning. Retrieval practice takes a wide range of forms depending on the discipline and can include completing practice tests, attempting old examination questions, using flashcards or open-ended writing to see what can be remembered, etc. The problem here is that most students only use these techniques to assess how much they have learned instead of incorporating them into the actual learning process. The key, then is to actively process information in some way throughout the learning event instead of passively reading and rereading.
Combining spacing and active retrieval
The two approaches—spacing and retrieval—can be combined to lead to even higher learning gains. Retrieving information over spaced time intervals produces better results than simply reviewing information over the same intervals. Here, repeated retrieval of information over longer spacing intervals has been shown to be more effective than shorter spacing.
False beliefs about learning
The article points out that students usually do not intuitively know when their learning has been more or less effective. For example, after having to use the spacing and active retrieval strategies in a course, students still believe that the two techniques were less effective than other learning strategies, even though their test results show otherwise. In general, it seems that it is the amount of effort involved in learning that influences students’ beliefs about how effective a particular strategy will be. Students tend to gravitate towards strategies that minimize effort, but still give a feeling of achievement. Strategies that involve more effort and the risk of making mistakes are judged as less efficient. For example, rereading and highlighting gives students a feeling of “getting through the material” without the possibility of making mistakes and is therefore judged to be better for learning.
Comment: I started this piece by asking readers what advice they would give to a student who asked how to prepare for an exam. The research article gives two very concrete answers. However there are other strategies that could be considered that are not discussed in the article. Personally, the advice I would give would be “Don’t do it alone. Form a study group with other students!” Collaborative learning is an approach that has been shown to have benefits for all involved parties (see for example Johnson & Johnson, 1987 and Laal & Ghodsi, 2012). Thus, I would recommend meeting in study groups as a complement to the techniques discussed in the article. For those of you who are interested in learning more about the topic of research-based autonomous learning, there is a short (30 minute) course available online in Swedish | CeUL Evidensbaserade studietekniker, en kurs om effektivt lärande. This might be something to recommend to your students. They can either create a user or they can enter as a guest. Both work and the course is free.
Note
One of the authors of the review article—Steven Pan—recently presented his work on learning strategies as part of our SAMTAL@SU seminar series here in Stockholm. A video-recording of his presentation can be found here.
References
Laal, M., & Ghodsi, S. M. (2012). Benefits of collaborative learning. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 31, 486-490.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1987). Learning together and alone: Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Text: John Airey, Department of Teaching and Learning
Keywords: psychology of learning, autonomous learning, memory retrieval, self-regulation, metacognition, spacing, collaborative learning
