TY - JOUR
T1 - Fostering Effective Learning Strategies in Higher Education – A Mixed-Methods Study
AU - Biwer, Felicitas
AU - Oude Egbrink, Mirjam
AU - Aalten, Pauline
AU - de Bruin, Anique
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Dutch Ministry of Education for funding the design of the Study Smart program through a Comenius fellowship grant. We would also like to thank the team of EDLAB, the Maastricht center for educational innovation, for collaboration in designing the Study Smart program. Finally, we thank Sanne Rovers for her contribution as the second coder of all qualitative data and her thoughts on the model.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Dutch Ministry of Education for funding the design of the Study Smart program through a Comenius fellowship grant. We would also like to thank the team of EDLAB, the Maastricht center for educational innovation, for collaboration in designing the Study Smart program. Finally, we thank Sanne Rovers for her contribution as the second coder of all qualitative data and her thoughts on the model.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s)
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Cognitive psychological research from the last decades has shown that learning strategies that create desirable difficulties during learning, e.g., practice testing, are most effective for long-term learning outcomes. However, there is a paucity of research on how to effectively translate these insights into training students in higher education. Therefore, we designed an intervention program aiming to create awareness about, foster reflection on, and stimulate practice of effective learning strategies. In a first examination of the pilot intervention (N = 47), we tested the effects of the intervention on metacognitive knowledge and self-reported use of effective learning strategies during self-study, using a control-group mixed-methods design. The intervention program had positive effects on knowledge about effective learning strategies and increased the use of practice testing. Qualitative interview results suggested that to sustainably change students’ learning strategies, we may consider tackling their uncertainty about effort and time, and increase availability of practice questions.
AB - Cognitive psychological research from the last decades has shown that learning strategies that create desirable difficulties during learning, e.g., practice testing, are most effective for long-term learning outcomes. However, there is a paucity of research on how to effectively translate these insights into training students in higher education. Therefore, we designed an intervention program aiming to create awareness about, foster reflection on, and stimulate practice of effective learning strategies. In a first examination of the pilot intervention (N = 47), we tested the effects of the intervention on metacognitive knowledge and self-reported use of effective learning strategies during self-study, using a control-group mixed-methods design. The intervention program had positive effects on knowledge about effective learning strategies and increased the use of practice testing. Qualitative interview results suggested that to sustainably change students’ learning strategies, we may consider tackling their uncertainty about effort and time, and increase availability of practice questions.
U2 - 10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.03.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.03.004
M3 - Article
SN - 2211-3681
VL - 9
SP - 186
EP - 203
JO - Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
JF - Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
IS - 2
ER -