A sensible study technique
What does Joe White recommend for retaining and retrieving content?
Over on Inclusiveteach, Joe White published a first-person description of techniques for improving retention of content that one reads. Under the headline “How I stopped wasting time studying and started actually remembering things,” Mr. White describes his ways of actively engaging with what one reads rather than reading and rereading.
Mr. White, who has been a teacher and leader for schools in the UK, explained how his mistakenly conceived of studying as reviewing printed sources for many years until he discovered “what actually works” to help himself retrieve content.
The thing that works is testing yourself. Closing your notes and trying to answer questions about what you just studied. It’s sometimes called retrieval practice, and the research behind it is pretty overwhelming at this point.
Mr. White mentioned actual research (“researchers at Purdue”; I guess he’s referring to Karpicke & Blunt, 2011) ran a study where students learned science concepts using four different methods. He also provided his personal explanations for why practice matters. Check them with your views.
The Karpicke and Blunt (2011) study showed different outcomes for different methods of studying. In their widely credited study, they examined the effects of four different study methods: rereading, elaborative concept mapping, and practicing retrieval. Their delayed posttests of different form of retention showed differences in the effects of the methods. Here’s a figure from their report that readers will likely find helpful in understanding learners’ retention of content.
Alert Dear Readers (and aren’t you all alert?) will recognize the strategies Mr. White propounds because they are similar to what Dan Willingham and other cognitive psychologists have suggested (see “Ask the Cognitive: Scientist: Practice Makes Perfect—But Only If You Practice beyond the Point of Perfection” or, for a full analysis, Dan’s excellent book,“Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make it Easy”).1
Study up! And, especially importantly, teach your students how to study effectively.
Referenece
Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772-775. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199327
Willingham, D. T. (2021). Outsmart your brain: Why learning is hard and how you can make it easy. Simon and Schuster.
Footnote
I don’t receive any compensation for linking to this (or other) books. I even paid for my own copy. (However, it may be Dan’s turn to buy the next time we go out for lunch…however, I lose track of the turns…sigh.)