In a world as fast-changing and full of information as our own, every one of
us — from schoolchildren to college students to working adults — needs to know
how to learn well. Yet evidence suggests that most of us don’t use the learning
techniques that science has proved most effective. Worse, research finds that
learning strategies we do commonly employ, like rereading and highlighting, are
among the least effective.
The scientific literature evaluating these techniques stretches back decades
and across thousands of articles. It’s far too extensive and complex for the
average parent, teacher or employer to sift through. Fortunately, a team of five
leading psychologists have now done the job for us. In a comprehensive
report released on Jan. 9 by the Association for Psychological Science, the
authors, led by Kent State University professor John Dunlosky, closely examine
10 learning tactics and rate each from high to low utility on the basis of the
evidence they’ve amassed. Here is a quick guide to the report’s
conclusions:
The Worst
Highlighting and underlining led the authors’
list of ineffective learning strategies. Although they are common practices,
studies show they offer no benefit beyond simply reading the text. Some research
even indicates that highlighting can get in the way of learning; because it
draws attention to individual facts, it may hamper the process of making
connections and drawing inferences. Nearly as bad is the practice of rereading,
a common exercise that is much less effective than some of the better techniques
you can use. Lastly, summarizing, or writing down the main points contained in a
text, can be helpful for those who are skilled at it, but again, there are far
better ways to spend your study time. Highlighting, underlining, rereading and
summarizing were all rated by the authors as being of “low utility.”
The Best
In contrast to familiar practices like
highlighting and rereading, the learning strategies with the most evidence to
support them aren’t well known outside the psych lab. Take distributed practice,
for example. This tactic involves spreading out your study sessions, rather than
engaging in one marathon. Cramming information at the last minute may allow you
to get through that test or meeting, but the material will quickly disappear
from memory. It’s much more effective to dip into the material at intervals over
time. And the longer you want to remember the information, whether it’s two
weeks or two years, the longer the intervals should be.
The second learning strategy that is highly recommended by the report’s
authors is practice testing. Yes, more tests — but these are not for a grade.
Research shows that the mere act of calling information to mind strengthens that
knowledge and aids in future retrieval. While practice testing is not a common
strategy — despite the robust evidence supporting it — there is one familiar
approach that captures its benefits: using flash cards. And now flash cards can
be presented in digital form, via apps like Quizlet, StudyBlue and FlashCardMachine. Both spaced-out
learning, or distributed practice, and practice tests were rated as having “high
utility” by the authors.
The Rest
The remainder of the techniques evaluated by
Dunlosky and his colleagues fell into the middle ground — not useless, but not
especially effective either. These include mental imagery, or coming up with
pictures that help you remember text (which is time-consuming and only works
with text that lends itself to images); elaborative interrogation, or asking
yourself “why” as you read (which is kind of annoying, like having a 4-year-old
tugging at your sleeve); self-explanation, or forcing yourself to explain the
text in detail instead of passively reading it over (its effectiveness depends
on how complete and accurate your explanations are); interleaved practice, or
mixing up different types of problems (there is not much evidence to show that
this is helpful, outside of learning motor tasks); and lastly the keyword
mnemonic, or associating new vocabulary words, usually in a foreign language,
with an English word that sounds similar — so, for example, learning the French
word for key, la clef, by imagining a key on top of a cliff (which is a
lot of work to remember a single word).
All these techniques were rated of “moderate” to “low” utility by Dunlosky et
al because either there isn’t enough evidence yet to be able to recommend them
or they’re just not a very good use of your time. Much better, say the authors,
to spread out your learning, ditch your highlighter and get busy with your flash
cards.
첫댓글 현광팬으로 표시하고 줄 긋는 방식에 익숙한데 가장 비효율적인 학습 방법이라 하네요... ㅜㅠ
벼락치기식으로 하면 정말 정보가 금세 사라지는 것 같아요. 그런데 항상 회의 직전에 자료를 받는 통역사들에게는 여유롭게 시간을 두고 준비하기가 쉽지 않죠. ㅠㅠ
형광펜은 이제 서랍 깊숙한 곳으로..ㅠㅠ 근데 왠지 서운한데요 ㅎㅎ