Effective Learning Strategies

J .E. Ormrod Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall

Updated on J ul 20, 2010
Much of our discussion thus far has focused on knowledge of and beliefs about thinking
and learning. But metacognition also involves controlling thinking and learning to some
degree. Thanks, in part, to maturational changes in the brain, children and adolescents
gradually become more capable of controlling and directing their cognitive processes in
their efforts to learn something new (Eigsti et al., 2006; Kuhn & Franklin, 2006). When
learners intentionally use a certain approach to learning and remembering something, they
are using a learning strategy.
We identified several long-term memory storage processes: rehearsal, meaningful
learning, organization, elaboration, and visual imagery. As children grow older, they
increasingly discover the benefits of these processes and use them more frequently (see
Table 6.3). Children gradually acquire additional strategies as well. For example, consider
the simple idea that when you dont learn something the first time you try, you need to
study it again. This is a strategy that 8-year-olds use but 6-year-olds do not (Masur,
McIntyre, & Flavell, 1973). With age and experience, children also become more aware of
which strategies are effective in different situations (Lovett & Flavell, 1990; Schneider &
Lockl, 2002; Short et al., 1993).
Even so, many students of all ages (college students included!) seem relatively
uninformed about effective learning strategies (Barnett, 2001; Pintrich & De Groot, 1990;
Prawat, 1989; Schommer, 1994a).
As we discovered, rehearsal is usually not the best way to learn and remember new
information. Truly effective learning and studying require thinking actively about and
elaborating on classroom material. Researchers have identified a number of effective
strategies that well examine now.
Identifying Important Information
Because the human memory system isnt set up to remembereverything presented in
class or a textbook, students must be selective when studying classroom material. The
things they choose to studywhether main ideas and critical pieces of information or,
instead, isolated facts and trivial detailsinevitably affect their learning and school
achievement (Dee-Lucas & Larkin, 1991; Dole et al., 1991; R. E. Reynolds & Shirey,
1988).
Students often have trouble identifying the most important information in a lesson or
reading assignment. Many are apt to zero in on superficial characteristics, such as what a
teacher writes on the chalkboard or what a textbook author puts in italics orboldface (Dee-
Lucas & Larkin, 1991; Dole et al., 1991; Reynolds & Shirey, 1988). In the following
excerpts from interviews conducted by students in my own educational psychology
classes, Annie (a fifth grader) and Damon (an eighth grader) reveal their naivet about
how best to identify important ideas:
Adult: When you read, how do you know what the important things are?
Annie: Most of my books have words that are written darker than all of the other words.
Most of the time the vocab words are important. In my science books there are questions

on the side of the page. You can tell that stuff is important because it is written twice.
(Courtesy of a student who wishes to be anonymous)
Adult: What do you think are the important things to remember when your teacher is
talking?
Damon: The beginning sentences of their speech or if theres a formula or definition.
(Courtesy of Jenny Bressler)
As teachers, we can help students learn more effectively by letting them know what we
think are the most important ideas to be gained from lectures and reading materials. We
can, of course, simply tell them exactly what to study. But we can also get the same
message across through more subtle means:
Provide a list of objectives for a lesson.
Write key concepts and relationships on the chalkboard.
Ask questions that focus students attention on important ideas.
Students, especially low-achieving ones, are more likely to learn the important points of a
lesson when such prompts are provided for them (Kiewra, 1989; R. E. Reynolds & Shirey,
1988; Schraw, Wade, & Kardash, 1993). As students become better able to distinguish
important from unimportant information on their own, we can gradually phase out our
guidance.
Retrieving Relevant Prior Knowledge
As noted, students can engage in meaningful learning only when they have previous
knowledge to which they can relate new information and when they are aware of the
potential relationship. Although we can certainly remind students of prior knowledge thats
relevant to a topic theyre studying, we must also encourage them to retrieve relevant
knowledge on their own as they study. One approach is to model this strategy for students.
For example, we might read aloud a portion of a textbook, stopping occasionally to tie an
idea in the text to something previously studied in class or to something in our own
personal experience. We can then encourage students to do likewise, giving suggestions
and guiding their efforts as they proceed (Spires & Donley, 1998). Especially when
working with students in the elementary grades, we might also want to provide specific
questions that remind students to reflect on their existing knowledge and beliefs as they
read and study:
What do you already know about your topic?
What do you hope to learn about your topic?
Do you think what you learn by reading your books will change what you already know
about your topic? (H. Thompson & Carr, 1995, p. 9)
With time and practice, students should eventually get in the habit of retrieving relevant
prior knowledge with little or no assistance from us (Spires & Donley, 1998).
Taking Notes
By the time students reach the upper elementary or middle school grades, note-taking
skills begin to play a role in their classroom achievement. In general, students who take
more notes learn and remember classroom subject matter better (Kiewra, 1989). However,
the quality of the notes is equally important. Useful notes typically reflect the main ideas of
a lesson or reading assignment (A. L. Brown, Campione, & Day, 1981; Kiewra, 1985;

Peverly, Brobst, Graham, & Shaw, 2003). Good notes seem to be especially important for
students who have little prior knowledge about the subject matter they are studying
(Shrager & Mayer, 1989).
Despite the advantages of note taking, many young adolescents take few or no class
notes unless specifically instructed to take them (recall the infrequent note taking in Ms.
Gaunts ninth-grade math class). And the notes they do take differ considerably in quality,
as the following exercise reveals.
Especially when students are first learning how to take notes in class, we should scaffold
their efforts by giving them an idea about which things are most important to include
(Pressley, Yokoi, van Meter, Van Etten, & Freebern, 1997; Yokoi, 1997). One approach is
to provide a specific structure to use, much as Barbara Dee does in her unit on Greek
mythology. The two students whose notes are depicted here dont follow the structure
completely (one neglects to address the setting and the conflict, and neither addresses the
solution), but they at least have some guidance about the things they should be thinking
about as they listen in class. Another strategy to consider, especially if students are novice
note takers, is to occasionally check their notebooks for accuracy and appropriate
emphasis and then give constructive feedback.
Organizing Information
Students learn more effectively when they engage in activities that help them organize
what theyre studying. One useful strategy isoutlining the material, which may be
especially helpful for low-achieving students (L. Baker, 1989; M. A. McDaniel & Einstein,
1989; Wade, 1992). Another approach is to make a concept map, a diagram that depicts
the concepts of a unit and their interrelationships (Mintzes, Wandersee, & Novak, 1997;
Novak, 1998).
Students derive numerous benefits from constructing their own concept maps for
classroom material. By focusing on how key concepts relate to one another, students
organize material better. They are also more likely to notice how new concepts are related
to concepts they already know; thus, they are more likely to learn the material
meaningfully. Furthermore, when students construct a concept map from verbal material
(e.g., from a lecture or a textbook), they can encode the material visually as well as
verbally. And the very process of concept mapping may promote a more sophisticated
perspective of what learning is (Holley & Dansereau, 1984; Mintzes et al., 1997; Novak,
1998). Specifically, students may begin to realize that learning is not just a process of
absorbing information but instead involves actively making connections among ideas.
(Such awareness is an example of anepistemological belief, a concept well consider
shortly.)
Not only do concept maps help students, but they can also help teachers. When we
ourselves develop a concept map for a lesson, the organizational structure of the material
becomes clearer, giving us a better idea about how to sequence the presentation of ideas.
And when we examine the concept maps our students have constructed, their
understanding of a topic becomes readily apparent, as do their misconceptions about it
(Novak, 1998; Novak & Gowin, 1984; Novak & Musonda, 1991).
Intentionally Elaborating on Information
As a strategy that children intentionally use to help them learn and make sense of new
information, elaboration appears relatively late in development (usually around puberty)
and gradually increases throughout the teenage years (Schneider & Pressley, 1989). Yet

even in the high school grades, only high-achieving students regularly elaborate as they
read and study (Barnett, 2001; Pressley, 1982; E. Wood, Motz, & Willoughby, 1997). Low-
achieving high school students often depend on relatively thoughtless, superficial
strategies (such as rehearsal) in their attempts to remember what they are studying.
There are a variety of things we can do to teach studentseven those in the elementary
gradesto elaborate on classroom topics. For one thing, when we model retrieval of
relevant prior knowledge, we can model elaboration as well. For example, we can identify
our own examples of a new concept, consider the implications of a new principle, and so
on. We can also give students questions such as the following to consider as they listen to
a lecture or read a textbook:
Explain why . . .
How would you use . . . to . . . ?
What is a new example of . . . ?
What do you think would happen if . . . ?
What is the difference between . . . and . . . ? (A. King, 1992, p. 309)
Another approach is to have students work in pairs or small groups to formulate and
answer their own elaborative questions. Different researchers call such group questioning
eitherelaborative interrogation or guided peer questioning (Kahl & Woloshyn, 1994; A.
King, 1994, 1999; Rosenshine, Meister, & Chapman, 1996; E. Wood et al., 1999).
Creating Summaries
Another effective learning strategy is summarizing the material being studied (Hidi &
Anderson, 1986; A. King, 1992; Spivey, 1997; Wade-Stein & Kintsch, 2004). Creating a
good summary is a fairly complex process, however. At a minimum it includes
distinguishing between important and unimportant information, synthesizing details into
more general ideas, and identifying important relationships among the ideas. Its not
surprising, then, that even many high school students have difficulty developing good
summaries (V. Anderson & Hidi, 1988/1989).
Probably the best way to help students acquire this strategy is to ask them on a regular
basis to summarize what they hear and read. For example, we might occasionally give
homework assignments asking students to write a summary of a textbook chapter. Or we
might ask them to work in cooperative groups to develop a brief oral presentation that
condenses information theyve learned about a topic. At first we should restrict
summarizing assignments to short, simple, and well-organized passages involving material
with which students are familiar; we can assign more challenging material as students
become more proficient summarizers (V. Anderson & Hidi, 1988/1989). Computer software
is also available to scaffold the summarizing process (e.g., Wade-Stein & Kintsch, 2004).
Monitoring Comprehension
One especially powerful learning strategy is comprehension monitoring, a process of
periodically checking oneself for recall and understanding. How well do you monitor your
comprehension?

Successful learners continually monitor their comprehension bothwhile they study
something and at some point after theyve studied it (Dunlosky, Rawson, & McDonald,
2002; Hacker, Bol, Horgan, & Rakow, 2000; Weaver & Kelemen, 1997). Furthermore,
when they realize they dont understand, they take steps to correct the situation, perhaps
by rereading a section of a textbook or asking a question in class. In contrast, low
achievers rarely check themselves or take appropriate action when they dont comprehend
something. Poor readers, for instance, seldom reread paragraphs they havent completely
understood the first time around (L. Baker & Brown, 1984; Haller, Child, & Walberg, 1988;
Stone, 2000).
As you read a textbook, when is the information in working memory? in long-term
memory? With your answers in mind, explain why students should monitor their
comprehension both as they read and also at a later time.
Many children and adolescents engage in little, if any, comprehension monitoring (Dole et
al., 1991; Markman, 1979; J. W. Thomas, 1993a). When they dont monitor their learning
and comprehension, they dont know what they know and what they dont know;
consequently, they may think they have mastered something when they really havent.
Although this illusion of knowing is especially common in young children, it is seen in
learners at all levels, even college students (L. Baker, 1989; Hacker, 1998; Schneider &
Lockl, 2002). When paper-and-pencil exams become common at upper grade levels, an
illusion of knowing can lead students to overestimate how well they will perform on these
assessments (e.g., Hacker et al., 2000). My own students occasionally come to me
expressing frustration with low test scores. I knew the material so well! they tell me. But
when we sit down and begin to talk about the exam material, it usually becomes clear that
in fact they have only a vague understanding of some ideas and an incorrect
understanding of others.
Comprehension monitoring doesnt have to be a solitary activity, of course. If students
work in small study groups, they can easily test one another on material they are studying
and may detect gaps or misconceptions in one anothers understandings (Dunning et al.,
2004; Hacker, 1998). Yet to be truly effective learners, students must ultimately learn how
to test themselves as well. One effective strategy is self-explanation, in which students
frequently stop to explain to themselves what they have learned (deLeeuw & Chi, 2003).
Another, similar approach is self-questioning, in which students periodically stop to ask
themselves questionsessentially internalizing the mutual question-asking process they
have learned from small-group study sessions (Dunning et al., 2004; Wong, 1985). Their
self-questions should, of course, include not only simple, fact-based questions but also the
elaborative questions described earlier.
Some of the strategies just described, such as taking notes and making outlines, are
behaviors we can actually see. Others, such as retrieving relevant prior knowledge and
monitoring comprehension, are internal mental processes that we oftencannot see. It is
probably the latter set of strategiesinternal mental processesthat ultimately affect
students learning (Kardash & Amlund, 1991). As we help students develop learning and
study strategies, then, we must remember that behavioral strategies (e.g., taking notes)
will be useful only to the extent that they promote more effective cognitive processing.