[This review is intended solely for my personal learning]

Paper Info

DOI: 10.1177/1529100612453266
Title: Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology
Authors: John Dunlosky, Katherine A. Rawson, Elizabeth J. Marsh, Mitchell J. Nathan, and Daniel T. Willingham

Prior Knowledge

Cognitive and educational psychology have long studied how students learn and retain knowledge, but there remains a gap between research-backed learning strategies and students’ actual study habits. Many students rely on techniques such as highlighting and rereading, despite evidence showing their limited effectiveness. This paper seeks to bridge this gap by evaluating ten commonly used learning techniques in terms of their generalizability and efficacy.

Goal

The study aims to assess the effectiveness of ten learning techniques across different learning conditions, student characteristics, and educational contexts. The goal is to provide educators and students with empirically supported recommendations for improving academic performance.

Methodology

The authors systematically review ten learning techniques by evaluating:

  1. General description: What the technique is and why it should work.
  2. Generalizability: How well the technique works across different contexts, materials, and student populations.
  3. Empirical evidence: Findings from cognitive and educational psychology research.
  4. Overall assessment: Utility ratings categorized as high, moderate, or low based on effectiveness.

Results

The study categorizes the techniques into high, moderate, and low utility based on empirical evidence.

High Utility Techniques

These techniques have robust empirical support and generalize across various conditions, student abilities, and educational settings.

  1. Practice Testing: Self-testing or taking practice tests enhances long-term retention and comprehension.
    • Encourages retrieval practice, strengthening memory.
    • Benefits seen across different age groups and academic tasks.
    • More effective when spaced over time.
  2. Distributed Practice: Spacing study sessions over time leads to better retention than massed (crammed) studying.
    • Works across various subjects and student populations.
    • More effective than rereading or highlighting.

Moderate Utility Techniques

These techniques have potential benefits but may not generalize as widely or require additional training for effective use.

  1. Elaborative Interrogation: Generating explanations for why a fact is true.

    • Works best for students with prior knowledge.
    • Enhances integration of new information with existing knowledge.

  2. Self-Explanation: Explaining how new information is related to known information.

    • Helps with problem-solving and comprehension.
    • Requires guidance to be effective.

  3. Interleaved Practice: Mixing different types of problems or material within a single study session.

    • Beneficial for subjects like math and science.
    • Less researched for verbal learning.

Low Utility Techniques

These techniques are commonly used but have limited empirical support.

  1. Summarization: Writing summaries of learning material.

    • Effective only when students receive training on how to summarize effectively.
    • Not consistently beneficial across different tasks.

  2. Highlighting/Underlining: Marking important text while reading.

    • One of the most frequently used techniques but has little impact on retention.
    • Can be detrimental if students focus on isolated facts rather than understanding concepts.

  3. Keyword Mnemonic: Associating words with mental imagery.

    • Works well for short-term recall but has limited long-term benefits.
    • Difficult to implement for complex material.

  4. Imagery for Text Learning: Forming mental images while reading.

    • Works best with concrete concepts but is less effective for abstract ideas.
    • Shows inconsistent effects on comprehension.

  5. Rereading: Repeatedly reading text material.

    • Common but minimally effective compared to active retrieval-based methods.
    • Benefits are short-lived and do not support deep understanding.

Conclusion

The study emphasizes the importance of retrieval-based and spaced learning techniques (practice testing and distributed practice) for student success. While some popular methods like highlighting and rereading remain widely used, they offer little benefit and should be replaced with more effective strategies. Educators should prioritize evidence-based techniques and teach students how to study effectively.

Reference