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?
10 8 6 4 2 0
Yes No Ineffective Effective
Figure 3: Pre-intervention focus group students’ views on cramming as a revision strategy.
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