What Are The Best Learning Techniques For Students With Add?

learning-scientists

Interview with Megan Smith and Yana Weinstein ( transcript):

What does the word "study" mean to you?

Have you e'er told your students to report for a test?Have you ever actually taught them how to study?

It turns out studying can exist taught. And t wo cognitive psychological scientists, Yana Weinstein and Megan Smith (whose name has changed since this postal service to Sumeracki), have made information technology their mission to teach people how to report improve. On their new website, The Learning Scientists, they utilise infographics and videos to share strategies and other insights virtually how we learn.

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Here we will explore six inquiry-based learning strategies that Weinstein and Smith teach on their site. If we can work these methods into our didactics, and teach students how to use them on their own, our students stand a much better risk of actually remembering our cloth.

Ane final note before nosotros dig in: Although performance assessments and project-based learning let students to show what they know with more depth and authenticity, most content areas notwithstanding need to measure some learning with tests. When you are teaching that kind of content, these half dozen strategies volition help your students perform better on the test AND retain that information long after the examination is over.

ane. Spaced Practice

Infinite out your studying over fourth dimension.

Far too many students wait until the nighttime earlier a test to study for it. Similarly, teachers often wait until the solar day earlier a test to review. When enough students score well on the test, it appears they have learned the material. But a few weeks afterwards, almost of that information has vanished from students' minds. For more than durable learning, the studying has to take place in smaller chunks over time.

"Every fourth dimension you leave a little space, you forget a bit of the information, and then you kind of relearn it," Weinstein explains. "That forgetting actually helps yous to strengthen the retentivity. Information technology'due south kind of counterintuitive, but you need to forget a little flake in order to then assist yourself learn it by remembering once again."

Teachers tin can assist students apply this strategy by helping them create a studying calendar to program out how they volition review chunks of content, and past etching out small chunks of class time every day for review. In both cases, program to include current concepts AND previously learned material: Many teachers know this as "spiraling."

2. Retrieval Practise

Practise bringing information to mind without the aid of materials.

Many people retrieve of "studying" as merely re-reading notes, textbooks, or other materials. Only having the information correct in front end of united states of america doesn't strength the states to retrieve it from memory; instead, it allows u.s. to flim-flam ourselves into thinking nosotros know something. Recalling information without supporting materials helps us learn information technology much more effectively.

"Put your form materials away, and and so write out or maybe sketch or speak everything you know and try to exist every bit thorough every bit possible, and then bank check your materials for accuracy," Smith advises. "You're bringing information to mind nigh like yous're testing yourself; though it can exist a practice test, information technology doesn't have to be. You can just sort of go through and explicate what you know, or teach a friend or a pet or even an inanimate object everything that you lot learned in school. By bringing that information to listen, you lot're changing the way that data is stored so that it'south easier for yous to get to later on."

Teach students how to practice retrieval do in class: Take them turn off their devices, put all their notes and books abroad, then enquire them to write everything they know about a detail term or topic, or share their thoughts in a think-pair-share. When the do is done, accept students check their agreement by revisiting their materials and discussing misconceptions every bit a form. Once they learn how to do this in school, they can then apply it at abode.

iii. Elaboration

Explicate and describe ideas with many details.

This method asks students to get across simple recall of data and start making connections within the content. Students should inquire themselves open-ended questions well-nigh the material, reply in as much particular as possible, then bank check the materials to make sure their understanding is correct.

Here'due south how Smith and Weinstein explicate elaboration:

Teachers can apply this strategy past having brief course discussions where these kinds of questions are explored and request students to work elaboration into their ain study plans.

4. Interleaving

Switch between ideas while you lot written report.

Mutual noesis tells united states that to learn a skill, we should practice it over and over again. While repetition is vital, inquiry says we will really larn that skill more finer if we mix our practice of information technology with other skills. This is known every bit interleaving.

"Allow'southward say you're doing a bunch of math issues," Weinstein says. "What's fairly typical is … v of the same problem, or x of the same trouble. Instead of doing that, endeavour different bug in different orders." So if students are learning to calculate the surface area of a triangle, instead of having them practice 20 bug with triangles, have them do one of a triangle, then 1 of a circumvolve, then a triangle, then a foursquare.

"The matter most that," Weinstein notes, "is that it'due south actually harder. So they'll be getting more wrong, they'll be making more errors, only they'll also be learning something very important, which is how to choose a particular strategy for each problem, as opposed to just repeatedly doing the same thing."

When planning exercises for students, resist the temptation to have them repeat the exact same procedure multiple times in a row. Instead, have them exercise a few of the new process, then weave in other skills, then that the repetitive behavior is interrupted and students are forced to think more critically. Explain this strategy to students so they tin apply interleaving to their own studying.

5. Concrete Examples

Employ specific examples to sympathize abstract ideas.

Virtually teachers already employ this strategy in their own teaching; it's a natural office of explaining a new concept. Just what we don't necessarily do is help students extend their understanding by coming up with examples of their own. Here's how Weinstein and Smith explain this broader employ of concrete examples every bit a written report do:

Teachers can apply this strategy by using concrete examples when teaching abstract concepts, so asking students to come up with their own, correcting any examples (or parts of examples) that aren't quite right, and looking for more. Encourage students to continue this exercise when they study.

6. Dual Coding

Combine words and visuals.

When information is presented to us, it is ofttimes accompanied by some kind of visual: An image, a nautical chart or graph, or a graphic organizer. When students are studying, they should go far a habit to pay attention to those visuals and link them to the text by explaining what they mean in their own words. And then, students can create their ain visuals of the concepts they are learning. This procedure reinforces the concepts in the brain through 2 different paths, making it easier to retrieve later.

"And when we say visuals," Smith explains, "we don't necessarily hateful anything specific, so it depends on the types of materials. You could take an infographic, a cartoon strip, a diagram, a graphic organizer, timeline, anything that makes sense to y'all then long every bit you're sort of depicting the information both in a manner with words and a way with pictures."

"This isn't but for students who are practiced at drawing," Weinstein adds. "It'southward not about the quality of the drawing. It really just needs to be a visual representation as y'all can draw it."

In class, regularly turn students' attending to the visuals used in textbooks, on websites, and even in your own slideshow presentations. Have students describe the visuals to each other and make connections with what you're learning. So have students create their own visuals of the content to further reinforce it. Remind students to include diagramming, sketching, and creating graphic organizers when they written report at home.

Making the Most of the Strategies

Two more pieces of communication on how to maximize these strategies for learning:

Combine them. These strategies don't necessarily work in isolation. You can space out your retrieval practise, and when doing retrieval exercise, try to recall physical examples, elaborate, or sketch out a concept. When doing retrieval practice, y'all can interleave between different concepts.

Make them part of your class vocabulary. If you just utilize these strategies in your educational activity, you lot'll come across improvement. Merely if you actually explicate the enquiry to students, teach them the terminology, and utilize that terminology when teaching—"Okay, we're going to spend a few minutes on retrieval do"—students will not only have a clearer understanding of why you're doing what you exercise, but they may be more likely to carry those skills with them into future classes.

Learn More

The Learning Scientists site is full of useful data about how people acquire, and more is beingness added every week. To acquire more than, visit learningscientists.org, and to download this free nautical chart and other materials about the strategies, click the paradigm below.

overview

Other resources mentioned on the podcast:

Learning Scientists on Twitter: @acethattest

Learning Scientists on Facebook: facebook.com/acethattest

Make it Stick, The Scientific discipline of Successful Learning, by Brown, Roediger & McDaniel

Pedagogy How2s

videomaker.simpleshow.com

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