Advising students how to study is complex. Learning is messy. It's circular, not linear. It has ups and downs. Sudden insights may puntuate periods of seemingly little change. Yet, when students are working for themselves without our guidance (i.e. at home), they need something simple to follow.
Over the years I've toiled with this problem, but through cycles of variation and selection I've been producing an ever-adapting guide for my students. That's what I'd like to share with you. Take a quick look before I discuss it more below.
So, it's not perfect, is it? Not model can ever capture it all. It's power is in its simplicity and it fits on half an A4 paper. It has solved problems I've had with students in my context. Firstly, a lot of my students think that reading and rereading is how to study. They really do get that fuzzy "I understand" feeling, and when they get back a disastrous exam they are distraught. Sometimes angry. They can't believe the mismatch between the outcome and their mental model.
And you know what? Fair enough. They'd put study time in, they'd taken it seriously. It's disappointing. But they often didn't learn their lesson, and the same would happen again later in my subject and in other subjects. So my guide makes explicit the distinction between familiarity and actually being able to generate answers for yourself.
Next, there are the crammers and rote learners. We have loads of students who study this way. Yet, when they're asked to explain something novel—like a new context, or a variation in a concept—they can't. So the next distinction I've made explicit to my students is the difference between description and a flexible understanding that can explore, infer, and make predictions. Is this a perfect distinction for a theory of knowledge. No, but it is a very useful distinction to make to students.
So the model makes distinct the correlation between ways of studying and learning outcomes. But, it also guides students on how to organise themselves. It invites students to begin with generating answers, instead of sticking to reading and rereading. And from here, they can either move forward and backwards depending on their feeling. This gives a bit of agency to the students to practice their meta-cognition. Are they getting it? Are they remembering? They have to become self-aware.
And even so. With this neat model. My students won't follow it unless I make them read it in lesson with me, and then spend the rest of the lesson giving it a go. Maybe, later I'll do it again. Because getting students practising "how to study" is harder than one would imagine. Anyway, take from my model what matters to you. This is a model that has evolved around my context, my students, and my way of teaching. If it provokes something new thoughts, feel free to adapt it to yours. If you want to see my "basic knowledge questions", click here.
And If you've liked this then check out my book. Download chapter 1 here—English edition—edición española—or check out my other posts.
@CMooreAnderson (Blue Sky)
@CMooreAnderson (X)
