Ellen Weinstein

Overview | What makes a student a good learner? What study habits are truly effective? In this lesson, students examine research that debunks myths about effective study habits and participate in one or more experiments to test proven strategies. They then create “dos and don’ts” brochures with studying tips and/or implement personal study strategy plans.

Materials | Student journals, computers with Internet access (optional), course content and assessment tools for the experiments described in the Activity section below

Warm-up | Invite students to imagine they are advice columnists who have just received the following letter from a student:

I’m determined to be a better student and bring up my grades. Do you have tips for good study habits that will help me succeed?

Have students work in pairs or trios to brainstorm a list of advice to give the student, using these prompts to stimulate thinking:

What study practices have been suggested – or required – over the years by your parents and teachers?

Have any advice or strategies not worked for you? If so, what was it, and why didn’t it work? What did you do instead?

What habits do you practice? What works for you? What doesn’t?

After a few minutes, have the groups share their ideas. Are there any common themes? Do any habits seem to work for everyone, or do individuals have specific strategies that work for them?

Invite students to post their responses as comments on our Student Opinion question “Is Everything You’ve Been Taught About Study Habits Wrong?”.

Related | In “Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits,” Benedict Carey reviews cognitive research about study habits and learning styles:

Every September, millions of parents try a kind of psychological witchcraft, to transform their summer-glazed campers into fall students, their video-bugs into bookworms. Advice is cheap and all too familiar: Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies). And check out the classroom. Does Junior’s learning style match the new teacher’s approach? Or the school’s philosophy? Maybe the child isn’t “a good fit” for the school. Such theories have developed in part because of sketchy education research that doesn’t offer clear guidance. Student traits and teaching styles surely interact; so do personalities and at-home rules. The trouble is, no one can predict how. Yet there are effective approaches to learning, at least for those who are motivated. In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying. The findings can help anyone, from a fourth grader doing long division to a retiree taking on a new language. But they directly contradict much of the common wisdom about good study habits, and they have not caught on.

Read the entire article with your class, using the questions below.

Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:

What are some common prescriptions for good study habits that have been debunked by recent research? What, according to recent research, are some simple study habits that can improve how much a student recalls when studying? What are the advantages of studying different kinds of material in one sitting versus studying one kind of subject? What analogy does the author of this article use to describe the brain’s learning and recall processes? Why? Why is testing considered a powerful tool of learning? Is this surprising?

Activity | Here are ideas for testing the four main learning strategies highlighted in the article. After each activity, work as a group to assess and reflect on the process.

1. Alternating Study Settings

Strategy: Studying material in different environments instead of a single location.

Experiment: Divide students into two groups, a test group and a control group. Provide each group with a list of information to learn, such as vocabulary words and definitions, key U.S. history facts or other material related to your curriculum.

Have the control group stay in the classroom and study the information for 20 minutes, with a five-minute break. Have the test group spend ten minutes in the classroom and ten minutes in a different environment, such as the library, the cafeteria or the outdoors. Afterwards, administer a quiz to all students and evaluate performance. Which group performed better?

2. Mixing Content

Strategy: “Varying the type of material studied in a single sitting” instead of focusing on just one skill or piece of content at a time.

Experiment: Below are some ways to test this strategy in different areas of study, working again with a test group and control group; after the activity, assess student retention, recall and comprehension of the material.

Math: Teach a new concept. Have the control group work on a problem set for that specific concept, while the test group works on a problem set that includes other skills and concepts. For example, if you are teaching how to solve basic proportions, you might provide students with worksheet that also includes basic equations, word problems and FOIL method multiplication.

World Languages: Provide a list of basic words in the target language that anyone traveling to a country where the language is spoken should know. Have the control group study the list silently, while the test group studies the same words by using them in spoken conversation, writing (in context), and reading.

American History: Present a timeline of key dates surrounding a historical event. Have the test group study this list in the traditional method by reading and memorizing it. Have the control group read the list, then read a prose passage about that same historical event and write a short essay about it, as well as examining a related photograph or illustration.

Language Arts: Introduce the control group of students to a poem or monologue by having them read it aloud a few times over an assigned block of time. Have the test group approach the same poem in the following ways: first, reading it silently, then reading it aloud and then writing it out in their journals.

Fine Arts: As described in the article, give the control group three sets of 12 works, each set by a different painter. Give the control group a mixed collection of works by various artists, including two or three paintings by the three artists assigned to the control group. Allow students ample time to examine and study the works. Then administer a quiz on the painting style of the three artists whose works they all examined, or play a “memory” game to test recall and identification.

3. Spacing Out Studying

Strategy: Studying material over time – say, an hour at a time on different days – as opposed to “cramming.”

Experiment: Teach a new concept or skill. Then divide the class into two groups. Have one group study the same material over time — such as one hour that night, another hour over the weekend, and then a third hour a few days later. Have the other group cram (or study intensively on one night). Give a quiz on the material, and then a second quiz on the same material a week later. Then assess: Who performed better on each quiz? Who was better able to recall the information immediately after the study sessions? Who retained the material better after a few days’ time?

4. Rehearsing Recall

Strategy: Taking practice tests and quizzes.

Experiment: As in the other experiments above, give the entire class a set of information to learn or memorize, such as vocabulary words, functions or facts, and assign the class to study the material for homework.

Assign a short “pretest” to only the test group (or have students develop their own), to be taken as part of their study session, and merely tell the control group to study the material. The next day, test the entire class on the material.

Going further | Students create and illustrate a “Dos and Don’ts” brochure with tips for effective study habits, and make them available in the school library, learning center or study hall, or on the school Web site. (You might introduce students to Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits for Highly Effective Teens,” then have them write their brochures as “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Studiers.”)

Alternatively or additionally, students choose one or more strategies from the article to implement into their own study practice. They keep a journal over the course of a unit or semester, chronicling their use of the habit(s) and the results in the form of quiz, test and course grades.

In a future class, you may wish to have students investigate the concept of learning styles and review the recent research, mentioned in the article, suggesting that there is “almost zero support” for the notion that students have different learning styles that require different approaches.

Standards | This lesson is correlated to McREL’s national standards as follows (it can also be aligned to the new Common Core State Standards):

Behavioral Studies

3. Understands that interactions among learning, inheritance, and physical development affect human behavior

Life Skills: Self-Regulation

1. Sets and manages goals

2. Performs self-appraisal

4. Demonstrates perseverance

Life Skills: Thinking and Reasoning

2. Understands and applies basic principles of logic and reasoning

3. Effectively uses mental processes that are based on identifying similarities and differences

4. Understands and applies basic principles of hypothesis testing and scientific inquiry

5. Applies basic trouble-shooting and problem-solving techniques

6. Applies decision-making techniques

Language Arts

1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process

5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

6. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary texts

7. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts

8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes

9. Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media