Teaching Students How to Learn in Your Classes
Teachers often support student learning by providing study guides or guidelines for exams, assignments and projects. These typically focus on content, concepts and skills students should learn in the course. They may also include examples of exam questions, along with tips and suggestions about how to study and do well in the course. Guidelines may apply to the entire course or specific course requirements, e.g., exams, writing assignments, projects, lab reports, etc.
Study guides can be valuable resources to help students focus their attention on relevant course content and navigate unfamiliar course assignments. But abundant research has shown that college students also need explicit help and direction with how to learn the content and skills in their courses (Hartwig & Dunlosky, 2012; Kornell & Bjork, 2007; McCabe, 2011). To address the problem of teaching students to learn, I advocate the use of learning guides and guidelines that are closely attuned to the academic expectations, subject matter, and learning problems associated with courses.
A learning guide is a user manual about effective ways to learn the subject matter and skills in a course. Key features:
- Based on research in the learning sciences. Empirical research evidence informs the guide’s strategies and suggestions about how to learn in the course.
- Targets skills students need in specific course contexts. Guides address general learning skills, such as practice testing, that apply broadly within and across disciplines. In addition they focus on subject-specific skills. For example, key skills for learning organic chemistry may be different from those in accountancy or philosophy, etc.
- Promote metacognition and self-regulated learning. Learning guides support students’ metacognition—awareness and knowledge of their learning, and ability to regulate their learning more effectively. The guide helps students recognize when, where and why specific strategies can improve their learning. A learning guide can contribute to the development of students’ learning expertise.
- Incorporates change strategies. Learning guides are intended to change students’ understanding and practice of learning. Even if students understand the benefits of using different learning strategies, they may not be able to use them appropriately. Students need clear instructions about how to use strategies, and may also need help giving up old habits (ineffective strategies) and developing new ones (effective strategies). Instructors may need to use change strategies to help students adopt and maintain unfamiliar learning techniques.
Learning Guide Standard Content
Despite important differences across instructors, courses, subject matter, and course learning goals, learning guides include the following standard contents.
- descriptions of learning strategies relevant to the course
- explanations about how and when to use the strategies for academic tasks in the class, e.g., preparing for exams, reading assignments, working on projects and assignments, in class activities.
- explanations about why strategies support or do not support learning
- directions about how to establish and follow a study plan that combines and coordinates strategies
- descriptions of techniques and heuristics specific to learning the course subject matter and skills, e.g., special techniques for learning organic chemistry vs. reading poetry
- ongoing opportunities for students to learn how to learn and to regulate their learning more effectively.
Incorporate learning strategies in your course
One way to support student learning is to incorporate learning strategies in your courses. Extensive research has identified a number of effective learning strategies, including those listed below. The section below provides guidelines to help teachers and students use strategies effectively.
- Retrieval practice involves trying to recall material one has read or studied without looking back at the material. In a course, retrieval practice can be implemented as low stakes practice tests and quizzes, text-embedded questions, flashcard practice, clicker questions in class, and students’ self-testing.
- Spaced practice (aka distributed practice) refers to a study schedule in which students distribute their study time over several periods instead of massing their study in one long session. For example, a student studies a total of five hours for an exam, in five one-hour time blocks spaced apart by 1-2 days between each, instead of cramming five hours the night before the exam. To implement spaced practice, instructors can hold practice test review sessions at specific intervals throughout a course.
- Self-explanation involves articulating the meaning of a concept, idea, solution or other type of subject matter to oneself or another person. Instructors can prompt students to self-explain through a variety of means, e.g., clicker questions and think-pair-share in large classes; small group exercises. Students can also use self-explanation as an independent learning strategy.
- Learning by teaching involves students in three broad cognitive activities — studying material in order to teach it to others (preparation), presenting and explaining the material (teaching), and clarifying and answering questions about the material (interacting). Instructors can assign students to teaching roles in a number of ways, e.g., small group activities, class presentations, review sessions, and preparing lecture materials for large classes.
- Interleaved practice is a study schedule in which students work on a variety of problem types during a study session. This contrasts with blocked practice where students practice one type of problem extensively before moving on to a different type of problem. Interleaving is particularly effective in helping students identify similarities and differences between closely related concepts and ideas.
- Worked examples are specially prepared problems that include the problem statement and a detailed explanation of the solution. The solution describes the thinking behind solving the problem and exposes students to the decisions and choices involved in solving new problems. When students are first learning a new topic they learn better by studying worked examples than by solving multiple examples of the problem.
The table below provides guidelines and background information for both instructors and students. The student tip sheets and guidelines are intended to be templates. You can use or modify these as handouts or incorporate them in your course to best suit your students.
| Instructor Guidelines, Background Information | Student Guidelines, Tip Sheets, Resources |
| Retrieval Practice, Practice Testing, Practice Quizzes | Self-Testing Tip Sheet |
| Spaced Practice | Spaced Practice Tip Sheet |
| Explanation and Elaboration | Self-explanation Tip Sheet |
| Worked Examples | |
| Learn by Teaching | Learn by Teaching Tip Sheet |
| Interleaved Practice | |
| How to Learn More Effectively from Notetaking | |
| How to Learn More from Reading | How to Learn More from Reading |
| Learn by Drawing | Drawing Tip Sheet (forthcoming) |
| Learn by Visualizing – Concept Maps and Matrices | Visualization Tip Sheet (forthcoming) |
Guidelines for learning more effectively from routine course activities
Another way to support student learning is by helping students learn more effectively through the routine teaching and learning activities in your courses. Below are guidelines for instructors and students about how to learn more effectively from common types of course activities such as lectures, review sessions, and study groups.
Instructors should feel free to adapt these to fit your courses, students, subject matter, teaching approach, and learning goals. For example, the guidelines describe a specific approach to reading, which research has shown to be more effective than rereading. However, the approach may be best suited to new students who experience difficulty with college level reading assignments. Students doing well in their courses may not benefit by switching from their current reading approach to a new one.
Guidelines for learning more effectively from . . .
Notetaking
Student version
Reading
Student version
Lectures
Instructor version
Student version
Discussions
Instructor version
Student version
Study Groups
Student version
Review Sessions
Instructor version
References
- Hartwig, M.K., Dunlosky, J. (2012). Study strategies of college students: Are self-testing and scheduling related to achievement?. Psychonomic Bulletin Review 19, 126–134. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0181-y
- Kornell, N., & Bjork, R. A. (2007). The promise and perils of self-regulated study. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 219–224.
- McCabe, J. (2011). Metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates. Memory & Cognition, 39, 462–476. doi: 10.3758/s13421-010-0035-2