LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

A covering of:

•Key techniques proven by research to help students learn most efficiently:

• Practice testing• Distributed practice

•Sleeping benefits

•Chunking

FINAL COURSERA© COURSE PROJECT

1.1 Key techniques: Practice testing

• WRONG VIEW ABOUT TESTS, EXAMS AND QUIZZES

It is thought to be the last thing to do after a long period of studying

MISCONCEPTION

• RESEARCH HAS PROVEN1,2,3,4,5:

Tests enhance later retention more than additional study of the material, even when tests are given without feedback.

It is even more effective if students test themselves until they recall something correctly unless one time 6

1.1 Key techniques: Practice testing

Applying this to education

Teachers should encourage students to detect the main ideas while they are studying -- enphasising that those are object of examination

Applying this to recalling

Repeating a process leads to enhance the things we learn and reduce what we forget 7

1.1 Key techniques: Practice testing

Learning and forgetting curves.

Notice how our brain tends increase “units of memory” forgotten over the time whilst it tends to decrease “units of memory” learned.

Adapted from Mohamad Y. Jaber, (1997) 7

1.2 Key techniques: Distributed practice

Imagine the task of remember word pairs in two languages.

*Massed practice would be: -write one pair repeatedly several times and then do the same with another pair.

*Distributed practice would be:-write each pair alternatively several times

MASSED VS DISTRIBUTED PRACTISE

• Massed practice works if students are tested the day after. However, the results are highly different if they are tested after one week.

• Therefore, we can see less forgetting in the usage of distributed practice.

Taken from: http://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/summer-2002/ask-cognitive-scientist

1.2 Key techniques: Distributed practice

Washing away harmful waste proteins that build up between brain cells during waking hours 8

2. Sleeping benefits

The flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain increases dramatically

One of the waste products removed from the brain during sleep is beta amyloid, the substance that forms sticky plaques (highly related with Alzheimer disease.

2. Sleeping benefits

Taken from reference 9

• An activity is tested among two groups: – Awake less performance of a task given– Sleep more performance of the task given

3. Chunking

CHUNKS: Pieces of information

Created and fixed as neural patterns in our brain by:

FOCUS – PRACTICE - REPETITION

UNDERSTANDING comes when we are able to bound together different chunks!!

I will exemplify it with my own experience….

• I am biologist, and as you can imagine, Biology covers a wide range of science fields.

• At the beginning, I couldn´t understand why on Earth did I have to study subjects as Physics, Maths, Geology, Statistics…

• But in my fourth year, everything made sense for me, It was as if all the different subjects were one… you will see why…

3. Chunking

3. Chunking

The cell is full of different “chunks” (parts). Each of them has a function and all of them work together!!

Check this: http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/

My mind was full of chunks…

It was wonderful the day that I grasped the concept of cell and environment…

Although it seems to be completely different things both of them work as a SYSTEM

3. Chunking

The ecosystem (and the social system too) are also full of different “chunks” (parts). Each of them has a function and all of them work together!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWPj2IkeklI

REFERENCES1. Tulving, E. (1967). The effects of presentation and recall of material in

free-recall learning. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 6(2), 175-184.

2. Bower, G. H., Clark, M. C., Lesgold, A. M., & Winzenz, D. (1969). Hierarchical retrieval schemes in recall of categorized word lists. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 8(3), 323-343.

3. Tulving, E. (1966). Subjective organization and effects of repetition in multi-trial free-recall learning. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5(2), 193-197.

4. Gurung, R. A. (2005). How do students really study (and does it matter)?. Education, 39, 323-340.

5. The Power of Testing Memory: Basic Research and Implications for Educational Practice Perspectives on Psychological Science September 2006 1: 181-210

6. John Dunlosky, "Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning," American Educator, Fall, 2013.

7. A comparative study of learning curves with forgetting. Mohamad Y. Jaber, Maurice Bonney. Appl. Math. Modelling, 1997, Vol. 21, August

8. Xie, L., Kang, H., Xu, Q., Chen, M. J., Liao, Y., Thiyagarajan, M., ... & Nedergaard, M. (2013). Sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain.Science, 342(6156), 373-377.

9. Ellenbogen, J. M. (2005). Cognitive benefits of sleep and their loss due to sleep deprivation. Neurology, 64(7), E25-E27

I hope you have enjoyed my presentation. I do apologise if I have committed spelling or grammar mistakes so as to I am not an English native speaker.

Thank you for your attention!