LEARNING TO LEARN
knowledge from memory and were not allowed to check their notes to ensure long-term learning was promoted . Feedback was provided via discussion with students and a correct answer being displayed on the board to increase the learning benefit . Students were encouraged to note down additional information that should have been added to their answer by writing in a different coloured pen . Overall , this took ~ 10 minutes at the start of every lesson . Control group students continued with ‘ business as normal ’.
Post-intervention , both the intervention and control classes sat an assessment to ascertain if there was any value-added using retrieval . Additionally , a postintervention focus group was undertaken . Results were compared to pre-intervention answers to ascertain whether students were more pre-disposed to use retrieval-based strategies after the intervention .
Research results
The pre-intervention focus group found a wide variety of revision methods were used ( shown in figure 2 ). The most common strategy was re-reading notes , with other strategies including writing out flashcards , but not using them for quizzing , so it must be questioned whether quizzing is being used effectively . Whilst the sample size is small and a larger study would be needed to see how representative these results are , from these results students generally use study strategies that are known to be less effective . All respondents state that they have previously crammed for a test but , as shown in figure 3 , 67 % recognise that it is not an effective study strategy . This is interesting that they know that they are not necessarily using the best techniques but persist with their use as they are unaware of better strategies . 75 % of students were not aware of retrieval practice as a strategy . Those who had a basic understanding stated it was “ Trying to remember things while learning to help you remember ” and “ Practising questions so you have to remember stuff ”.
a Re-reading notes b Read the textbook c Peer / parent quizzing d Self quizzing e Mind mapping f Highlighting notes g Find online videos / resources h Write out flashcards ( but not use them for quizzing ) |
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How would you revise in Geography ? |
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Label diagrams |
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Practise questions |
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k Quizlet flashcards |
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Figure 2 : Strategies focus group students use for revision pre-intervention .
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Have you ever crammed for a test ?
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Yes No Ineffective Effective
Figure 3 : Pre-intervention focus group students ’ views on cramming as a revision strategy .
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