By Jaya Carrier
I hope you’re all having a good week so far. This week, I was interested to come across an Edutopia article that features an interview with Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor specialising in neuroscience and learning, at the University of Virginia.
Objectives: To understand the best strategies for learning based on the latest cognitive science.
Summary:
Willingham argues that with memory, counterintuitively, things that feel natural and effective may not be the best strategy. We may naturally tend to things that feel easier, even if they aren’t as effective.
He argues we need to be teaching students how to access and comprehend challenging things
He gives advice for particular things, including notetaking. For example, he argues that students should be advised to not copy what is being said verbatim when taking notes, but instead record what they are thinking. This way students will be processing and understanding, which ultimately will help them to better remember in the long run.
He also argues that focus is very important to discuss with students. In particular, he stresses that multitasking is very challenging cognitively, so studying with a phone close by should be avoided.
Willingham suggests that preparation before reading texts is likely to be helpful - generating some subheadings, and some questions including ‘what am I likely to learn from this?’ are likely to help most students with reading more complex texts.
Willingham suggests that study skills should be integrated into lessons, rather than a standalone course.
How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:
How do I use these principles in my lessons already?
How do I speak to students about different study skills currently? What could I do to further develop this part of their learning?
Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!
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