This week I’d like to share some study tips from Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, which were a revelation to me when I read the book during my principal licensure program back in 2011. I remember being dismayed when I discovered that the study habits I had used most of my life were practically useless for retaining information over the long term. Like many of us, I often crammed for tests by rereading texts and memorizing facts and passages immediately prior to taking them, which often produced short-term results, but not long-term learning. According to studies, acquiring information in this manner produces an “illusion of learning,” because the information is quickly forgotten. According to one study referenced in the book, people lose about 70 percent of the information that they just read or hear within a very short period of time. The key to learning, then, is to “interrupt the process of forgetting.”
I highly recommend reading Make it Stick. The information it provides willhelp your student improve their retention by interrupting the process of forgetting, which sets them on the path to become lifelong learners. In the meantime, I would also recommend that you watch the slide show that Ms. Baldwin and I narrated last year on the same topic.
Here are a few quick facts from the book:
Learning is deeper and more durable when it is effortful. In other words, the more you struggle to extract information from memory, the stronger the memory becomes in the long term.
We are poor judges of when we are learning and when we’re not.
Rereading texts and mass practice of a skill or new knowledge are the preferred methods of study, but they’re also among the least productive.
The concept of preferred learning styles (visual, auditory, etc.) is not supported by research.
Retrieval practice—recalling facts or concepts or events from memory—is a more effective learning strategy than reviewing by rereading. Flashcards and quizzing are examples. Retrieval strengthens the memory and interrupts forgetting. A single, simple quiz after reading a text or hearing a lecture produces better learning and remembering than rereading the text or reviewing lecture notes. In one study from 1978, students who read a passage of text and then took a test, recalled 50% more information on that same text a week later than those who had not been tested.
I could go on, but for the sake of brevity, I want to leave you with a concrete strategy for learning by elaborating on point No. 5 above. The best way to interrupt the process of forgetting is to practice retrieval in the form of a test. Specifically, one of the best ways to self-test is to use flashcards, either handwritten or through one of the excellent digital programs online. I set up my own account on Quizlet to learn Danish through their flashcard function, but the heavy hitter in this category is Anki, a program preferred by serious language learners and PhDs.
The concept is simple; enter your vocabulary, terms, definitions, or concepts on a flashcard, and then quiz yourself periodically. To maximize your effort, divide your cards into three piles entitled, “Not Known,” “Known,” and “Well-Known,” and practice at spaced intervals. Practice the “Not Known” cards first. When quizzing, put the cards that you answered correctly into the “Known” pile, and keep the incorrectly answered cards in the “Unknown” pile. Practice these cards periodically, but in spaced-intervals to allow some forgetting. The frequency at which you practice is inversely proportional to your familiarity with the content. In other words, practice the Unknown cards more frequently than the Known cards, and the Known cards more frequently than the Well-Known cards. If you choose to use one of the electronic resources above, they will use an algorithm to automatically space your practice according to your knowledge of the content.
Before closing, I wanted to address why Ms. Baldwin and I write about parenting and education in the first place, because I think it’s important to frame what we do from a broader perspective. In Chapter 1, Clarifying Vision, of the book, Those Who Can (Why Master Teachers Do What They Do), author Neil Bright states , “Simply put, Practice Number One of the best teachers is viewing the purpose of K-12 education as not in and of itself for students to do well in school, but for them to do well in life.”
We are a school with a specific mission and vision that guides us through our decision-making processes. But, our ultimate goal in preparing Academic, Social, and Ethical leaders is to equip students with the skills they will need in life beyond school. Everything we do, from our academic interventions to our discipline referrals, is done with a long-term view on what will best prepare our students for success as adults. The science and habits of Make it Stick will surely help your students succeed at PRA. But, more importantly, knowing how to study and to retain information into long-term memory will help them in every endeavor in their lives.
Next week we’re going to talk about testing, why it’s important, and how it will also benefit your students in life beyond school.
Have a great week.
Steve Thygesen