This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Show Notes:In Episode 75, Megan, Cindy, Carolina, and Althea talk about their new book, Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning Better. They provide an overview of the book, provide some examples, and discuss the writing process. Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning Better is out July 19th! Preorders are available now with a 20% off code if you access through our website.Pre-order through the link on our website and use the code provided there to get 20% off.You can read about the book and access Chapter 1 for free here

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>In Episode 75, Megan, Cindy, Carolina, and Althea talk about their new book, Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning Better. They provide an overview of the book, provide some examples, and discuss the writing process. Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning Better is out July 19th! Preorders are available now with a 20% off code if you access through our website.<a href="https://www.learningscientists.org/books" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pre-order through the link on our website</a> and use the code provided there to get 20% off.You can read about the book and access Chapter 1 for free <a href="https://www.learningscientists.org/ace-that-test-a-students-guide-to-learning-better" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>

Episode 75: Introducing our New Book Ace That Test!!

Matt Pinkett

Content warning: Please be advised that in this episode we discuss the topic of suicide in depth with a lived experience story. Matt reads a part of his book where a mother describes her personal experience with this topic.This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Show Notes:In Episode 74, Carolina interviews Matt Pinkett – the author of Boys Don’t Try? – to talk about his new book Boys Do Cry: Improving Boys’ Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools which comes out this month. Matt explains his motivation for writing the book and why it is important to learn about mental health in boys specifically. He reads a moving excerpt from his book and details some of the research behind the topics he selected to dive into. The interview concludes with practical recommendations from the book for teachers and for parents. Prepare for a thought-provoking and eye-opening episode.Further resources for this episode:Boys Do Cry: Improving Boys’ Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools on Amazon.Boys Don’t Try Rethinking Masculinity in Schools on Amazon.Boys will be boys? How schools can be guilty of gender bias by Joanna Moorhead for The Guardian.Suicide and self-harm helplines around the world:Suicide Hotlines and Prevention Resources Around the World

<h3>Content warning: Please be advised that in this episode we discuss the topic of suicide in depth with a lived experience story. Matt reads a part of his book where a mother describes her personal experience with this topic.</h3>This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>In Episode 74, Carolina interviews Matt Pinkett – the author of Boys Don’t Try? – to talk about his new book Boys Do Cry: Improving Boys’ Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools which comes out this month. Matt explains his motivation for writing the book and why it is important to learn about mental health in boys specifically. He reads a moving excerpt from his book and details some of the research behind the topics he selected to dive into. The interview concludes with practical recommendations from the book for teachers and for parents. Prepare for a thought-provoking and eye-opening episode.<h3>Further resources for this episode:</h3><ul><li><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boys-Do-Cry-Improving-Wellbeing/dp/1032168692/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boys Do Cry: Improving Boys’ Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools</a> on Amazon.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boys-Dont-Rethinking-Masculinity-Schools/dp/0815350252/ref=pd_bxgy_img_sccl_1/258-1071757-5075864?pd_rd_w=gJa37&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.40f919ed-e530-4b1a-8d7e-39de6587208d&amp;pf_rd_p=40f919ed-e530-4b1a-8d7e-39de6587208d&amp;pf_rd_r=BCPGR9YH88SYMWWGKT7J&amp;pd_rd_wg=51GNh&amp;pd_rd_r=11396c88-b549-4ef7-a8fa-26e3f08aa081&amp;pd_rd_i=0815350252&amp;psc=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boys Don’t Try Rethinking Masculinity in Schools</a> on Amazon.</li><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/apr/23/school-guilty-bias-against-boys-gender-gap-education" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boys will be boys? How schools can be guilty of gender bias</a> by Joanna Moorhead for The Guardian.</li></ul><h3>Suicide and self-harm helplines around the world:</h3><ul><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/suicide/suicide-prevention-hotlines-resources-worldwide" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Suicide Hotlines and Prevention Resources Around the World</a></li></ul>

Episode 74: Boys Do Cry – An Interview With Matt Pinkett

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Show Notes:In Episode 73 Althea interview Mark Schneider, Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES). Mark discusses some of the challenges facing educators today and how IES can facilitate education research. In the episode, he talked about a new grant project aimed at using artificial intelligence to assist speech language pathologists working in schools. You can read more about the research here. 

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>In Episode 73 Althea interview Mark Schneider, Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES). Mark discusses some of the challenges facing educators today and how IES can facilitate education research. In the episode, he talked about a new grant project aimed at using artificial intelligence to assist speech language pathologists working in schools. You can read more about the research <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=5840" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>.

Episode 73: An Interview with the Director of IES

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Show Notes:In Episode 72, Althea interviews Jerry Apps and Natasha Kassulke, authors of Planting an Idea: A Guidebook to Critical and Creative Thinking about Environmental Problems. Coming out just in time for Earth Day, Planting an Idea is designed to help readers young and old examine and develop opinions on a variety of environmental issues. You can purchase it at Fulcrum Publishing and bookshop.org. You can also visit jerryapps.com to learn more about Jerry’s other works.

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>In Episode 72, Althea interviews Jerry Apps and Natasha Kassulke, authors of Planting an Idea: A Guidebook to Critical and Creative Thinking about Environmental Problems. Coming out just in time for Earth Day, Planting an Idea is designed to help readers young and old examine and develop opinions on a variety of environmental issues. You can purchase it at <a href="https://www.fulcrumbooks.com/product-page/planting-an-idea" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fulcrum Publishing</a> and <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/planting-an-idea-using-independent-thinking-to-understand-our-environmental-challenges-jerry-apps/18585396" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bookshop.org</a>. You can also visit <a href="https://jerryapps.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">jerryapps.com</a> to learn more about Jerry’s other works.

Episode 72: An Interview with the Authors of Planting an Idea

John Hattie

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Show Notes:In Episode 71, Althea interviews John Hattie, author of Visible Learning. They talk about his newest book, Visible Learning: The Sequel. 

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>In Episode 71, Althea interviews John Hattie, author of Visible Learning. They talk about his newest book, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Visible-Learning-The-Sequel-A-Synthesis-of-Over-2100-Meta-Analyses-Relating/Hattie/p/book/9781032462035" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Visible Learning: The Sequel</a>.

Episode 71: An Interview with John Hattie, Author of Visible Learning

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Show Notes:In Episode 70, Cindy interviews John Dunlosky from Kent State University and Regan Gurung from Oregon State University. John and Regan recently published a book entitled Study Like A Champ: The Psychology-Based Guide to Grade A Study Habits. In this episode John and Regan discuss a little bit about their research and how they practice what they preach in the classroom.In the episode, Cindy mentions the following:GUEST BLOG: The 5-sided flashcardPodcast Episode 38: A (pseudo) Randomized Control Experiment about Teaching Effective Learning StrategiesIn addition, this blog, Learning With Flashcards, was written while this episode was in production but is highly relevant to the flashcard discussion! 

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>In Episode 70, Cindy interviews John Dunlosky from Kent State University and Regan Gurung from Oregon State University. John and Regan recently published a book entitled <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/study-like-a-champ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Study Like A Champ: The Psychology-Based Guide to Grade A Study Habits</a>. In this episode John and Regan discuss a little bit about their research and how they practice what they preach in the classroom.In the episode, Cindy mentions the following:<a href="https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2019/4/4-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GUEST BLOG: The 5-sided flashcard</a><a href="https://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2019/3/7/episode-38-a-psuedo-randomized-control-experiment-about-teaching-effective-learning-strategies" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Podcast Episode 38: A (pseudo) Randomized Control Experiment about Teaching Effective Learning Strategies</a>In addition, this blog, <a href="https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2023/2/3-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Learning With Flashcards</a>, was written while this episode was in production but is highly relevant to the flashcard discussion!

Episode 70: An Interview with the Authors of Study Like a Champ

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Show Notes:In Episode 69, Cindy interviews Garth Neufeld from Cascadia College and Eric Landrum from Boise State University. Eric and Garth co-host the Psych Sessions Podcast. On their podcast, they interview psychology teachers from all levels of education and have conversations about teaching.

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>In Episode 69, Cindy interviews Garth Neufeld from Cascadia College and Eric Landrum from Boise State University. Eric and Garth co-host the <a href="https://psychsessionspodcast.libsyn.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Psych Sessions Podcast</a>. On their podcast, they interview psychology teachers from all levels of education and have conversations about teaching.

Episode 69: An Interview with the Psych Sessions Podcast Hosts

Arun Verma

This episode was funded by listeners like you. In today's episode, we feature one of our patrons, David Handel, MD. David is the CEO and co-founder of iDoRecall.com. iDoRecall is a unique spaced repetition flashcard app that enables you to create flashcards linked to the relevant location in your learning materials, where you just learned something, and you want to ensure that you’ll remember it. Recently iDoRecall embarked on an ambitious project that led to our becoming an OpenStax EdTech Ally Partner. We hired subject-matter expert educators to create comprehensive sets of linked flashcards for most of the OpenStax textbooks. We have made these flashcard sets available for 100% free use by you, your students, and your schools. We are also offering educators, just like you, the opportunity to obtain a free iDoRecall educator’s license that will enable you to monitor your students’ engagement and metrics as they use the OpenStax flashcards to learn and remember what they learn Please fill out this form if you are  interested in this free license (that we usually sell). For more details on how to help support our podcast and  gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Show Notes:In Episode 68, Carolina interviews Dr Zayba Ghazali-Mohammed (@Zayba_G) and Dr Arun Verma (@drarunverma) to learn more about the concept of intersectionality. Zayba is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Psychology at the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow and founder of the Race and Equality Network (RaEN). Arun is a leader in advising on implementing intersectionality, equity, and diversity in various contexts. In this episode, they share why it is important to raise awareness for intersectionality in any context, and specifically in education. They discuss challenges and opportunities of acknowledging and even embracing intersectionality in the classroom – and share many tips for teachers and students on how to proactively create “intersectional educational spaces” that provide room for diversity and learning. The first step is recognizing that intersectionality exists and educating oneself about what it is. This episode is a good starting point. Enjoy!Further resources for this episode:The Race and Equality Network (RaEN) on Twitter and further resourcesAnti-Racism in Higher Education: An Action Guide for Change edited by Arun VermaDr Arun Verma’s website with many resourcesThe intersectionality wheel by Simpson (2009)

This episode was funded by listeners like you. In today's episode, we feature one of our patrons, David Handel, MD. David is the CEO and co-founder of <a href="https://www.idorecall.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iDoRecall.com</a>. iDoRecall is a unique spaced repetition flashcard app that enables you to create flashcards linked to the relevant location in your learning materials, where you just learned something, and you want to ensure that you’ll remember it. Recently iDoRecall embarked on an ambitious project that led to our becoming an OpenStax EdTech Ally Partner. We hired subject-matter expert educators to create comprehensive sets of linked flashcards for most of the OpenStax textbooks. We have made these flashcard sets available for 100% free use by you, your students, and your schools. We are also offering educators, just like you, the opportunity to obtain a free iDoRecall educator’s license that will enable you to monitor your students’ engagement and metrics as they use the OpenStax flashcards to learn and remember what they learn Please <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSflO9ttUju9tiSafJ-CjCnajJ6dnUkElaXrIoC2rPDt0sI2ag/viewform" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">fill out this form</a> if you are interested in this free license (that we usually sell). For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>In Episode 68, Carolina interviews Dr Zayba Ghazali-Mohammed (<a href="https://twitter.com/zayba_g" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@Zayba_G</a>) and Dr Arun Verma (<a href="https://twitter.com/drarunverma" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@drarunverma</a>) to learn more about the concept of intersectionality. Zayba is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Psychology at the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow and founder of the Race and Equality Network (RaEN). Arun is a leader in advising on implementing intersectionality, equity, and diversity in various contexts. In this episode, they share why it is important to raise awareness for intersectionality in any context, and specifically in education. They discuss challenges and opportunities of acknowledging and even embracing intersectionality in the classroom – and share many tips for teachers and students on how to proactively create “intersectional educational spaces” that provide room for diversity and learning. The first step is recognizing that intersectionality exists and educating oneself about what it is. This episode is a good starting point. Enjoy!Further resources for this episode:<ul><li>The Race and Equality Network (RaEN) <a href="https://twitter.com/RaEN_SPaN" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">on Twitter</a> and <a href="https://linktr.ee/RaceEquality" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">further resources</a></li><li><a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/anti-racism-in-higher-education" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Anti-Racism in Higher Education: An Action Guide for Change</a> edited by Arun Verma</li><li><a href="https://www.arunverma.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dr Arun Verma’s website</a> with many resources</li><li>The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/ntersectionality-wheel-Simpson-2009_fig1_301674339" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">intersectionality wheel</a> by Simpson (2009)</li></ul>

Episode 68: Intersectionality with Zayba Ghazali-Mohammed and Arun Verma

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Show Notes:In Episode 67, Megan interviews Eva Dundas from Branching Minds (@BranchingMinds). Visit Branching Minds www.branchingminds.com, for free resources for teachers and leaders. Information about the December 2022 Summit can be found here. You can also join the MTSS Facebook that Eva mentions to connect with other educators.

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>In Episode 67, Megan interviews Eva Dundas from Branching Minds (<a href="https://twitter.com/BranchingMinds" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@BranchingMinds</a>). Visit Branching Minds <a href="https://www.branchingminds.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.branchingminds.com</a>, for free resources for teachers and leaders. Information about the December 2022 Summit can be found <a href="https://www.branchingminds.com/mtss-summit-2022" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. You can also join the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2444123535667120" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MTSS Facebook</a> that Eva mentions to connect with other educators.

Episode 67: How to Support Students with MTSS with Eva Dundas

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Show Notes:In Episode 66, Cindy interviews Rebecca Rolland, a speech pathologist, Harvard Lecturer, author of The Art of Talking with Children, and mom of two! Listen to learn about talking with your own children, as well as the children in your classroom.

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>In Episode 66, Cindy interviews <a href="https://rebeccarolland.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rebecca Rolland</a>, a speech pathologist, <a href="https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/rebecca-rolland" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Harvard Lecturer,</a> author of <a href="https://rebeccarolland.com/books/the-art-of-talking-with-children/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Art of Talking with Children</a>, and mom of two! Listen to learn about talking with your own children, as well as the children in your classroom.

Episode 66: Talking about Talking with Children, an Interview with Rebecca Rolland

A podcast for teachers, students, and parents about evidence based practice and learning.

24 years into teaching and this has me working on new teaching ideas. Well worth it

Excellent

If you like learning, you&#39;ll like this podcast!

Informative and interesting

The Learning Scientists Podcast

Althea Kaminske

This episode was funded by the Chartered College of Teaching, and listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Listening on the web? You can subscribe to our podcast to get new episodes each month! Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssShow Notes: Megan and Althea at the Psychonomic Society Conference in New Orleans, LA (November, 2018) Megan and Althea at the Psychonomic Society Conference in New Orleans, LA (November, 2018) Althea Kaminske is an Assistant Professor at St. Bonaventure University in Olean, NY, our newest member of the Learning Scientists, co-Director of CALM (the Center for Attention, Learning and Memory), and author of the book 5 Teaching and Learning Myths Debunked: A Guide for Teachers. In this episode, Megan interviews Althea at the Psychonomic Society Conference in New Orleans, LA. (Note, we’re in the conference hotel, and so you can sometimes hear some street noise!!) Althea is conducting research with students on learning and distractions of cell phones and exercise and learning. 

This episode was funded by the <a href="https://chartered.college/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chartered College of Teaching</a>, and listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.Listening on the web? You can subscribe to our podcast to get new episodes each month! Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a><h1>Show Notes:</h1> Megan and Althea at the Psychonomic Society Conference in New Orleans, LA (November, 2018) Megan and Althea at the Psychonomic Society Conference in New Orleans, LA (November, 2018) Althea Kaminske is an <a href="https://www.sbu.edu/academics/psychology/faculty-and-staff/bauernschmidt-althea" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Assistant Professor at St. Bonaventure University</a> in Olean, NY, our newest member of the Learning Scientists, co-Director of <a href="https://sbucalm.blog/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CALM (the Center for Attention, Learning and Memory)</a>, and author of the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Five-Teaching-Learning-Myths-Debunked-Brown/dp/113855667X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1544052492&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=5+teaching+and+learning+myths+debunked" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">5 Teaching and Learning Myths Debunked: A Guide for Teachers</a>. In this episode, Megan interviews Althea at the Psychonomic Society Conference in New Orleans, LA. (Note, we’re in the conference hotel, and so you can sometimes hear some street noise!!) Althea is conducting research with students on learning and distractions of cell phones and exercise and learning.

Episode 32 - Attention, Learning, and Memory with Althea Kaminske

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Megan talks research findings showing that medical residents benefit from retrieval practice after didactic conferences.In the last episode, Alyssa Smith, a third-year medical student, talked about the effective study strategies that she has been using throughout medical school. This episode continues with the medical education theme, discussing a paper by Doug Larsen, Andrew Butler, and Henry "Roddy" Roediger (1). This paper is interesting because it looks at the importance of retrieval practice for medical residents. Much of the research we discuss was done with college students or younger children. In this case, the research was conducted with individuals who are much further along in their professional career.The Experiment:Medical residents across all three years of the Pediatric Residency Program and all four years of the Emergency Medicine Program participated in a didactic conference. The conference was an hour-long interactive teaching session that was pretty typical of the types of sessions medical residents would attend to learn about broad topics. This particular conference covered the treatment of status epilepticus, and the diagnosis and treatment of myasthenia gravis. The residents may run into patients with either of these in emergency medicine.The experiment was within-subjects, meaning all of the residents participated in both of the repeated retrieval and repeated study learning conditions. In the repeated retrieval condition, residents took practice tests with feedback after the conference. They repeated this two more times at 2-week intervals. In the repeated study condition, residents reviewed a study guide after the conference. They repeated this two more times at 2-week intervals.They were randomly assigned to one of two groups:Group 1: practiced repeated retrieval with status epilepticus, reviewed the study guide for myasthenia gravisGroup 2: repeatedly reviewed the study guide for status epilepticus, practiced retrieval with myasthenia gravisThe residents all took one big test over both topics 6 months after initial learning at the didactic conference.The Results:Residents who practiced retrieval remembered a lot more than those who reviewed the study guide! So, repeated retrieval spaced out over time led to greater levels of retention compared to repeated studying spaced out over time. Repeated retrieval is beneficial for residents, individuals who are much further along in their professions than some of the typical populations we study. The authors point out that residents are probably not repeatedly studying the information from these didactic conferences spaced out over time. So, the repeated study condition may actually be better than what the typical resident does. Yet, repeated retrieval leads to even better retention compared to repeated studying over time!Tune in next month to learn about the importance of sleep and learning, and self care! Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Larsen, D. P., Butler, A. C., &amp; Roediger, H. L. (2009). Repeated testing improves long-term retention relative to repeated study: a randomized controlled trial. Medical Education, 43, 1174-1181.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Megan talks research findings showing that medical residents benefit from retrieval practice after didactic conferences.In the <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2018/5/2/episode-18-effective-studying-in-medical-school-with-alyssa-smith" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">last episode</a>, Alyssa Smith, a third-year medical student, talked about the effective study strategies that she has been using throughout medical school. This episode continues with the medical education theme, discussing a paper by Doug Larsen, Andrew Butler, and Henry "Roddy" Roediger (1). This paper is interesting because it looks at the importance of retrieval practice for medical residents. Much of the research we discuss was done with college students or younger children. In this case, the research was conducted with individuals who are much further along in their professional career.The Experiment:Medical residents across all three years of the Pediatric Residency Program and all four years of the Emergency Medicine Program participated in a didactic conference. The conference was an hour-long interactive teaching session that was pretty typical of the types of sessions medical residents would attend to learn about broad topics. This particular conference covered the treatment of status epilepticus, and the diagnosis and treatment of myasthenia gravis. The residents may run into patients with either of these in emergency medicine.The experiment was within-subjects, meaning all of the residents participated in both of the repeated retrieval and repeated study learning conditions. In the repeated retrieval condition, residents took practice tests with feedback after the conference. They repeated this two more times at 2-week intervals. In the repeated study condition, residents reviewed a study guide after the conference. They repeated this two more times at 2-week intervals.They were randomly assigned to one of two groups:<ul><li>Group 1: practiced repeated retrieval with status epilepticus, reviewed the study guide for myasthenia gravis</li><li>Group 2: repeatedly reviewed the study guide for status epilepticus, practiced retrieval with myasthenia gravis</li></ul>The residents all took one big test over both topics 6 months after initial learning at the didactic conference.The Results:Residents who practiced retrieval remembered a lot more than those who reviewed the study guide! So, repeated retrieval spaced out over time led to greater levels of retention compared to repeated studying spaced out over time. Repeated retrieval is beneficial for residents, individuals who are much further along in their professions than some of the typical populations we study. The authors point out that residents are probably not repeatedly studying the information from these didactic conferences spaced out over time. So, the repeated study condition may actually be better than what the typical resident does. Yet, repeated retrieval leads to even better retention compared to repeated studying over time!Tune in next month to learn about the importance of sleep and learning, and self care! <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Larsen, D. P., Butler, A. C., &amp; Roediger, H. L. (2009). Repeated testing improves long-term retention relative to repeated study: a randomized controlled trial. Medical Education, 43, 1174-1181.

Episode 19 - Bite-Size Research on Benefits of Retrieval with Medical Residents

Alyssa Smith

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes: Alyssa Smith with the Rosalind Franklin Statue on the Rosalind Franklin campus In this episode, Megan interviews her little sister, Alyssa Smith, who is finishing up her 3rd year in Medical School at Chicago Medical School.Alyssa uses many of the six strategies for effective learning that we talk about on the podcast. As the sister of a Cognitive Psychologist who specializes in learning, she has of course heard of these strategies before. But in addition, during orientation to Medical School she and her class were introduced to many of these strategies and the research behind them. The students were taught explicitly how to use the strategies, and student tutors reinforce the strategies with their younger peers.Alyssa and her class were told during this orientation that many of the strategies they have used to get them this far, for example cramming, might not cut it in medical school. In medical school, students are required to learn an immense amount of information and retain that information over time. To do this, they will need to use the most effective learning strategies.Alyssa explains that when she was an undergraduate, she did do a lot of cramming and she was able to do well in her classes. However, we know cramming does not tend to lead to long-term learning, and Alyssa says she has lost a lot of what she learned as an undergrad, even from class in which she did very well. This isn't uncommon; many of her peers say the same thing. She knows that as a physician she will need to remember what she is learning in medical school, and is now dedicated to ensuring that she is learning for the long-term.So how does Alyssa use effective strategies now? She explained with some very specific examples.How she has used spacing and interleaving Alyssa Smith at her White Coat Ceremony At the beginning of each week, Alyssa created a study schedule and made sure to schedule time for at least 2 or 3 different courses each day. One thing that really helped her to stick to her schedule was to plan a little bit of flexible time each week. Alyssa planned Monday through Friday, but left the weekends for studying whatever she was struggling with the most. This helped her stick to her schedule. If she was struggling with something, in the past she might have been tempted to ignore her other courses and focus on the difficult topics. But, with her flexible schedule, she would say to herself "I have to do well on every course. I can't neglect the others, so I'm going to stick to my schedule." Then on the weekends she would go back to the things she felt she needed to revist, and often found she actually knew it better than she thought she did!How she has used retrievalTo help with classes like Anatomy and Pharmacology, Alyssa used flashcard programs, like Anki. One great thing about Anki is that it incorporates spacing. You can input your confidence on different terms, and based on your confidence it will show up sooner (like 10 minutes) or later (like 2 days). But importantly, they always come back to make sure you're engaging in repeated retrieval. They can also utilize interleaving if you make different decks.How she has used dual coding, combined with other strategies Alyssa's diagrams for dual coding retrieval practice! Alyssa found dual coding to be effective and fun. (She says she knows it's nerdy, but it's true!!!) Alyssa talks about online programs that utilize dual coding, like SketchyMedical. They show videos that tell a little story and as you go along include symbols that are associated with specific concepts. These programs are not free, but Alyssa said she personally found them useful.She also created her own dual coding retrieval practice by drawing diagrams of things she needed to learn on her closet door mirror, so that she could practice retrieving the information using the diagrams as cues whenever she was getting ready! (Introducing spacing, too.)Has learning styles come up as a med student?Unfortunately, this is something she has heard from both students and professors. But, during her initial orientation the class was told that the learning styles theory is not true. Instead, the class was told to integrate lots of different methods!What would you recommend to incoming medical students?Alyssa recommends learning how to use evidence-based study strategies right away. Start out by creating a schedule where you're studying your classes each day if you can, and at least 2-3 days per week. Then, stick to the schedule so you're not cramming!What would you say to premed students who are hoping to get into medical school?Start incorporating these strategies now, there's a learning curve and it was difficult at first but it was frustrating. Get into the habit now, and Stay tuned for a bite-size research episode about learning medical concepts later this month! Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1> Alyssa Smith with the Rosalind Franklin Statue on the Rosalind Franklin campus In this episode, Megan interviews her little sister, Alyssa Smith, who is finishing up her 3rd year in Medical School at Chicago Medical School.Alyssa uses many of the six strategies for effective learning that we talk about on the podcast. As the sister of a Cognitive Psychologist who specializes in learning, she has of course heard of these strategies before. But in addition, during orientation to Medical School she and her class were introduced to many of these strategies and the research behind them. The students were taught explicitly how to use the strategies, and student tutors reinforce the strategies with their younger peers.Alyssa and her class were told during this orientation that many of the strategies they have used to get them this far, for example cramming, might not cut it in medical school. In medical school, students are required to learn an immense amount of information and retain that information over time. To do this, they will need to use the most effective learning strategies.Alyssa explains that when she was an undergraduate, she did do a lot of cramming and she was able to do well in her classes. However, we know cramming does not tend to lead to long-term learning, and Alyssa says she has lost a lot of what she learned as an undergrad, even from class in which she did very well. This isn't uncommon; many of her peers say the same thing. She knows that as a physician she will need to remember what she is learning in medical school, and is now dedicated to ensuring that she is learning for the long-term.So how does Alyssa use effective strategies now? She explained with some very specific examples.<h3>How she has used spacing and interleaving</h3> Alyssa Smith at her White Coat Ceremony At the beginning of each week, Alyssa created a study schedule and made sure to schedule time for at least 2 or 3 different courses each day. One thing that really helped her to stick to her schedule was to plan a little bit of flexible time each week. Alyssa planned Monday through Friday, but left the weekends for studying whatever she was struggling with the most. This helped her stick to her schedule. If she was struggling with something, in the past she might have been tempted to ignore her other courses and focus on the difficult topics. But, with her flexible schedule, she would say to herself "I have to do well on every course. I can't neglect the others, so I'm going to stick to my schedule." Then on the weekends she would go back to the things she felt she needed to revist, and often found she actually knew it better than she thought she did!<h3>How she has used retrieval</h3>To help with classes like Anatomy and Pharmacology, Alyssa used flashcard programs, like <a href="https://apps.ankiweb.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Anki</a>. One great thing about Anki is that it incorporates spacing. You can input your confidence on different terms, and based on your confidence it will show up sooner (like 10 minutes) or later (like 2 days). But importantly, they always come back to make sure you're engaging in repeated retrieval. They can also utilize interleaving if you make different decks.<h3>How she has used dual coding, combined with other strategies</h3> Alyssa's diagrams for dual coding retrieval practice! Alyssa found dual coding to be effective and fun. (She says she knows it's nerdy, but it's true!!!) Alyssa talks about online programs that utilize dual coding, like <a href="https://www.sketchymedical.com/#!/home" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SketchyMedical</a>. They show videos that tell a little story and as you go along include symbols that are associated with specific concepts. These programs are not free, but Alyssa said she personally found them useful.She also created her own dual coding retrieval practice by drawing diagrams of things she needed to learn on her closet door mirror, so that she could practice retrieving the information using the diagrams as cues whenever she was getting ready! (Introducing spacing, too.)<h3>Has learning styles come up as a med student?</h3>Unfortunately, this is something she has heard from both students and professors. But, during her initial orientation the class was told that the learning styles theory is not true. Instead, the class was told to integrate lots of different methods!<h3>What would you recommend to incoming medical students?</h3>Alyssa recommends learning how to use evidence-based study strategies right away. Start out by creating a schedule where you're studying your classes each day if you can, and at least 2-3 days per week. Then, stick to the schedule so you're not cramming!<h3>What would you say to premed students who are hoping to get into medical school?</h3>Start incorporating these strategies now, there's a learning curve and it was difficult at first but it was frustrating. Get into the habit now, and Stay tuned for a bite-size research episode about learning medical concepts later this month! <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>

Episode 18 - Effective Studying in Medical School with Alyssa Smith

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists have found evidence for the following 6 strategies for effective learning:Spaced PracticeRetrieval PracticeElaborationInterleavingConcrete ExamplesDual CodingToday, in our last of the 6 learning strategy podcasts, we are talking about dual coding, which involves combining words and pictures while learning. Dual coding can help learning in the following ways:1) Adding images to verbal explanations can make ideas more concreteIt is easier for us to remember concrete information than abstract information (1). (You can listen to the Concrete Examples episode for more than this.) It is harder to visually depict abstract concepts, so by engaging in the process of expressing an idea in a picture, you are effectively making it more concrete.2) Images can provide additional cues at retrievalAccording to the original dual coding theory, the combination of words with visuals provides us with two different channels for later recall (2). Another way to think about this is that we are adding another retrieval cue by representing the information as a picture in addition to words. For example, a student could forget the verbal description of a process, but still remember a diagram and reconstruct their understanding of the process on the exam from their memory of that picture. The difference between Learning Styles and Dual CodingLearning Styles is the idea that each individual has a "style" of learning, such as auditory, kinesthetic, etc., and that it is a good idea to identify that style for each student and teach them accordingly (the "matching hypothesis) (3). However, there is very little evidence that this hypothesis plays out. Instead, we all learn best when we combine these formats. Of course, students do have preferences! But, that does not mean that students will perform better when they study in their preferred style. On the other hand, certain information certainly lends itself better to one presentation style than another. Instead of focusing on which student requires which type of format, we should be focusing on providing all students with multiple relevant representations of the information they are trying to learn.Too much of a good thing?It is important not to overdo it by including numerous pictures, as they may distract from learning instead of enhancing it. This is particularly an issue when pictures are not relevant to the information being learned, and are just included for decoration.  Irrelevant image from Pixabay At this point, images can become distracting "seductive details" (4). See this post for more on the pitfalls of overusing dual coding.We end the episode by highlighting some ways that teachers and students can combine words with visuals during learning.  Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Gorman, A. M. (1961). Recognition memory for nouns as a function of abstractedness and frequency. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 23–39.(2) Paivio, A., &amp; Csapo, K. (1973). Picture superiority in free recall: Imagery or dual coding? Cognitive Psychology, 5, 176–206.(3) Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., &amp; Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9, 105–119.(4) Harp, S. F., &amp; Mayer, R. E. (1998). How seductive details do their damage. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 414–434.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists have found evidence for the following 6 strategies for effective learning:<a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/spaced-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spaced Practice</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/retrieval-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Retrieval Practice</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/elaboration" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Elaboration</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/interleaving" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Interleaving</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/concrete-examples" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Concrete Examples</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/dual-coding" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dual Coding</a>Today, in our last of the 6 learning strategy podcasts, we are talking about dual coding, which involves combining words and pictures while learning. Dual coding can help learning in the following ways:<h2>1) Adding images to verbal explanations can make ideas more concrete</h2>It is easier for us to remember concrete information than abstract information (1). (You can listen to the <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2018/1/3/episode-10-concrete-examples" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Concrete Examples episode</a> for more than this.) It is harder to visually depict abstract concepts, so by engaging in the process of expressing an idea in a picture, you are effectively making it more concrete.<h2>2) Images can provide additional cues at retrieval</h2>According to the original dual coding theory, the combination of words with visuals provides us with two different channels for later recall (2). Another way to think about this is that we are adding another retrieval cue by representing the information as a picture in addition to words. For example, a student could forget the verbal description of a process, but still remember a diagram and reconstruct their understanding of the process on the exam from their memory of that picture. <h2>The difference between Learning Styles and Dual Coding</h2>Learning Styles is the idea that each individual has a "style" of learning, such as auditory, kinesthetic, etc., and that it is a good idea to identify that style for each student and teach them accordingly (the "matching hypothesis) (3). However, there is very little evidence that this hypothesis plays out. Instead, we all learn best when we combine these formats. Of course, students do have preferences! But, that does not mean that students will perform better when they study in their preferred style. On the other hand, certain information certainly lends itself better to one presentation style than another. Instead of focusing on which student requires which type of format, we should be focusing on providing all students with multiple relevant representations of the information they are trying to learn.<h2>Too much of a good thing?</h2>It is important not to overdo it by including numerous pictures, as they may distract from learning instead of enhancing it. This is particularly an issue when pictures are not relevant to the information being learned, and are just included for decoration.  Irrelevant image from Pixabay At this point, images can become distracting "seductive details" (4). See <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/11/17-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this post</a> for more on the pitfalls of overusing dual coding.We end the episode by highlighting some ways that teachers and students can combine words with visuals during learning.  <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Gorman, A. M. (1961). Recognition memory for nouns as a function of abstractedness and frequency. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 23–39.(2) Paivio, A., &amp; Csapo, K. (1973). Picture superiority in free recall: Imagery or dual coding? Cognitive Psychology, 5, 176–206.(3) Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., &amp; Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9, 105–119.(4) Harp, S. F., &amp; Mayer, R. E. (1998). How seductive details do their damage. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 414–434.

Episode 12 - Dual Coding

This episode was funded by the Chartered College of Teaching, and listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Listening on the web? You can subscribe to our podcast to get new episodes each month! Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssShow Notes:In this bite-size research episode, Megan describes a paper by Dr. Jennifer McCabe (2011) investigating whether students understand what learning strategies are most effective, and whether we can teach this to students.Reference:McCabe, J. (2011). Metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates. Memory &amp; Cognition, 39, 462-476.

This episode was funded by the <a href="https://chartered.college/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chartered College of Teaching</a>, and listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.Listening on the web? You can subscribe to our podcast to get new episodes each month! Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a><h1>Show Notes:</h1>In this bite-size research episode, Megan describes a paper by Dr. Jennifer McCabe (2011) investigating whether students understand what learning strategies are most effective, and whether we can teach this to students.Reference:McCabe, J. (2011). Metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates. Memory &amp; Cognition, 39, 462-476.

Episode 37 - Bite-Size Research on Learning to Learn Effectively

Emma Blakey

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:This is the first episode in a series recorded in London! In June 2018 we attended the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction conference (or, more simply, EARLI) for the special interest group on Neuroscience and Education (@EarliSIG22). While there, we recorded live interviews with teachers and researchers. First up is Dr. Emma Blakey! Emma (@EmBlakey) is a Lecturer in Developmental Psychology at the University of Sheffield. Her research is all about investigating how young children learn to control and regulate their behavior. This can be very difficult to do! Executive functioning develops slowly throughout childhood, so young kids are having to learn how to take turns and delay their gratification.What is executive functioning?Executive function is the technical term that psychologist use to describe how we regulate and control our behavior. It's an umbrella term explaining a set of different skills we use to control our behvior:Working memory - allows children to maintain and process information in mindInhibitory control - suppress in appropriate but automatic responses (like wanting to eat a whole chocolate cake but resisting so there is enough to share)Cognitive flexibility - allows us to switch our attention and behavior in line with different goals or changes in the environmentHow does executive function develop? Prefrontal Cortex - "BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Sciences, licensed under CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.1 Japan." Slowly! They don't fully mature until late adolescents. But there are rapid improvements in executive function during the preschool years. Specifically, between the ages of 3 and 4 children seem to get much better at regulating their behavior. This has been linked to improvements in language but also to big growth spurts in the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain that supports our ability to regulate behavior.How does executive function development relate to education?Around this time, children are also often transitioning in school. For young kids, ages 2-3, many children are in informal school atmosphere where they are playing most of the day. But around ages 4-5, children are making the transition to formal schooling. Children's ability to regulate their behavior really predicts how they adjust to this formal school environment -- children who have better executive function are better able to regulate their attention and behavior. This is called school readiness. Children who are a little bit younger or have slower executive function development may have a difficult time focusing attention and ignoring distractions in formal school.Formal school places a lot of heavy demands on children's executive functions. Formal school also often requires children to switch among different tasks. Because this type of switching tends to require a lot a great deal of cognitive flexibility, younger children in general will struggle with switching back and forth more than older children. Children are also required to process more information in formal school, and this places demands on working memory. For example, children often need to remember instructions or particular pieces of information, and this can be quite difficult for young children, or children who struggle with executive function compared to their peers. Emma notes that in addition to younger children having more difficulty with executive function compared to older children, there are also individual differences in executive function development. Not all children are developing at exactly the same pace! So, it is important to remember that for these children, learning in this environment can be quite difficult.For teachers who want to learn more about working memory, this PDF is a great resource!If switching is problematic for young kids, what does this mean for interleaving?Interleaving is one of the six strategies for effective learning, We discussed interleaving in Episode 8 and Episode 9. The main idea behind interleaving is that switching between ideas in order to learn and understand them better. We have a very interesting chat with Emma about the potential downside of interleaving for younger children. The concern Emma has is that children may have a harder time switching and may be impaired in their learning of the skill or material when interleaving. This could even apply to adults who have lower executive functions. More research is needed!Inattentiveness vs. ADHDA problem that arises is that inattentiveness is often misdiagnosed as ADHD, where in fact it could be a working memory problem. Emma mentions Dr. Susan Gathercole, who has done a lot of work on how to identify children with ADHD versus working memory problems, who may need different treatments.Improving executive functionWouldn't it be great if we could help children with executive function problems by training them to increase their working memory? Unfortunately, however, "brain training" does not work as there is minimal transfer between the tasks people are trained on, and other more relevant tasks (see this guest post on our blog for more on the false promise of brain training, and this post by Megan about lack of transfer in education). Emma has, unfortunately, found the same lack of transfer in her lab with children.What does Emma want teachers and parents to know?For a child who is struggling with executive function, scaffold or adapt the environment to accommodate this: keep checklists and instructions written down so that children do not have to keep a lot in their working memory. Provide visual or tactile supports, and minimize distractions to avoid unnecessarily taxing working memory.For children with good executive functions, one might want to challenge executive functions, such as having children repeat back from a book they're hearing, or playing games that require inhibitory control. However, we are still in the early stages of this research; the science is still evolving - and this is true for all fields.The big takeawayOverall, Emma wants us all to be aware of what executive functions are, that they take a while to develop, and to realize young children's limitations - their executive functions just haven't developed yet! Emma's research into executive functions and learning has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation, but the views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Foundation. Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>This is the first episode in a series recorded in London! In June 2018 we attended the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction conference (or, more simply, <a href="https://www.earli.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">EARLI</a>) for the special interest group on Neuroscience and Education (<a href="https://twitter.com/EarliSig22" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@EarliSIG22</a>). While there, we recorded live interviews with teachers and researchers. First up is Dr. Emma Blakey! Emma (<a href="https://twitter.com/EmBlakey" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@EmBlakey</a>) is a <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychology/staff/academic/emma-blakey" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lecturer in Developmental Psychology</a> at the University of Sheffield. Her research is all about investigating how young children learn to control and regulate their behavior. This can be very difficult to do! Executive functioning develops slowly throughout childhood, so young kids are having to learn how to take turns and delay their gratification.<h3>What is executive functioning?</h3>Executive function is the technical term that psychologist use to describe how we regulate and control our behavior. It's an umbrella term explaining a set of different skills we use to control our behvior:<ol><li>Working memory - allows children to maintain and process information in mind</li><li>Inhibitory control - suppress in appropriate but automatic responses (like wanting to eat a whole chocolate cake but resisting so there is enough to share)</li><li>Cognitive flexibility - allows us to switch our attention and behavior in line with different goals or changes in the environment</li></ol><h3>How does executive function develop?</h3> Prefrontal Cortex - "BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Sciences, licensed under CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.1 Japan." Slowly! They don't fully mature until late adolescents. But there are rapid improvements in executive function during the preschool years. Specifically, between the ages of 3 and 4 children seem to get much better at regulating their behavior. This has been linked to improvements in language but also to big growth spurts in the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain that supports our ability to regulate behavior.<h3>How does executive function development relate to education?</h3>Around this time, children are also often transitioning in school. For young kids, ages 2-3, many children are in informal school atmosphere where they are playing most of the day. But around ages 4-5, children are making the transition to formal schooling. Children's ability to regulate their behavior really predicts how they adjust to this formal school environment -- children who have better executive function are better able to regulate their attention and behavior. This is called school readiness. Children who are a little bit younger or have slower executive function development may have a difficult time focusing attention and ignoring distractions in formal school.Formal school places a lot of heavy demands on children's executive functions. Formal school also often requires children to switch among different tasks. Because this type of switching tends to require a lot a great deal of cognitive flexibility, younger children in general will struggle with switching back and forth more than older children. Children are also required to process more information in formal school, and this places demands on working memory. For example, children often need to remember instructions or particular pieces of information, and this can be quite difficult for young children, or children who struggle with executive function compared to their peers. Emma notes that in addition to younger children having more difficulty with executive function compared to older children, there are also individual differences in executive function development. Not all children are developing at exactly the same pace! So, it is important to remember that for these children, learning in this environment can be quite difficult.For teachers who want to learn more about working memory, <a href="https://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/WM-classroom-guide.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this PDF</a> is a great resource!<h3>If switching is problematic for young kids, what does this mean for interleaving?</h3>Interleaving is one of the six strategies for effective learning, We discussed interleaving in <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2017/12/6/episode-8-interleaving" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 8</a> and <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2017/12/20/episode-9-bite-size-research-on-interleaving-categories" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 9</a>. The main idea behind interleaving is that switching between ideas in order to learn and understand them better. We have a very interesting chat with Emma about the potential downside of interleaving for younger children. The concern Emma has is that children may have a harder time switching and may be impaired in their learning of the skill or material when interleaving. This could even apply to adults who have lower executive functions. More research is needed!<h3>Inattentiveness vs. ADHD</h3>A problem that arises is that inattentiveness is often misdiagnosed as ADHD, where in fact it could be a working memory problem. Emma mentions <a href="https://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/susan.gathercole/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dr. Susan Gathercole</a>, who has done a lot of work on how to identify children with ADHD versus working memory problems, who may need different treatments.<h3>Improving executive function</h3>Wouldn't it be great if we could help children with executive function problems by training them to increase their working memory? Unfortunately, however, "brain training" does not work as there is minimal transfer between the tasks people are trained on, and other more relevant tasks (see <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/2/28-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this guest post on our blog</a> for more on the false promise of brain training, and <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/12/14-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this post by Megan</a> about lack of transfer in education). Emma has, unfortunately, found the same lack of transfer in her lab with children.<h3>What does Emma want teachers and parents to know?</h3>For a child who is struggling with executive function, scaffold or adapt the environment to accommodate this: keep checklists and instructions written down so that children do not have to keep a lot in their working memory. Provide visual or tactile supports, and minimize distractions to avoid unnecessarily taxing working memory.For children with good executive functions, one might want to challenge executive functions, such as having children repeat back from a book they're hearing, or playing games that require inhibitory control. However, we are still in the early stages of this research; the science is still evolving - and this is true for all fields.<h3>The big takeaway</h3>Overall, Emma wants us all to be aware of what executive functions are, that they take a while to develop, and to realize young children's limitations - their executive functions just haven't developed yet! Emma's research into executive functions and learning has been funded by the <a href="http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/trialling-executive-function-training-intervention-preschoolers" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nuffield Foundation</a>, but the views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Foundation. <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>

Episode 21 - Executive Function Development with Emma Blakey

This episode was funded by the Chartered College of Teaching, and listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Listening on the web? You can subscribe to our podcast to get new episodes each month! Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssShow Notes:In this episode, Megan and Althea discuss things to keep in mind when trying to implement evidence-based learning strategies into your classroom.We start out with a brief description of the six strategies for effective learning. If you haven’t listened to previous episodes yet, we recommend going back to the first set of episodes, 1 through 13, to hear more about each strategy in depth. The purpose of the review is to provide a bit of spaced practice!Some tips to keep in mind: Don’t try to implement all of the strategies all at once or all of the time. Don’t try to overhaul your entire course! Start with small changes and see how it goes. You can keep making little changes with each iteration of the course.Remember, each strategy works because it encourages processing that promotes learning. So, implementing these strategies are all about encouraging useful processing. When looking from the outside, two groups of students can look like they’re doing the exact same thing, but in reality one group may be doing something useful and the other not. Using the strategies in the classroom also won’t always look the same.

This episode was funded by the <a href="https://chartered.college/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chartered College of Teaching</a>, and listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.Listening on the web? You can subscribe to our podcast to get new episodes each month! Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a><h1>Show Notes:</h1>In this episode, Megan and Althea discuss things to keep in mind when trying to implement evidence-based learning strategies into your classroom.We start out with a brief description of the six strategies for effective learning. If you haven’t listened to previous episodes yet, we recommend going back to the first set of episodes, 1 through 13, to hear more about each strategy in depth. The purpose of the review is to provide a bit of spaced practice!Some tips to keep in mind: <ul><li>Don’t try to implement all of the strategies all at once or all of the time. </li><li>Don’t try to overhaul your entire course! Start with small changes and see how it goes. You can keep making little changes with each iteration of the course.</li><li>Remember, each strategy works because it encourages processing that promotes learning. So, implementing these strategies are all about encouraging useful processing. When looking from the outside, two groups of students can look like they’re doing the exact same thing, but in reality one group may be doing something useful and the other not. Using the strategies in the classroom also won’t always look the same.</li></ul>

Episode 35 - Implementing Effective Strategies

This episode was funded by the Chartered College of Teaching, and listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.Listening on the web? You can subscribe to our podcast to get new episodes each month! Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssShow Notes: Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel is an Assistant Professor at the University of Dundee in Scotland, where she is the Principle Investigator of the Learning and Teaching Lab.  She is also the founder of the TILE Network (Teaching Innovation and Learning Enhancement Network).In this episode, Megan interviews Carolina about her research on CPD sessions, Service Learning projects aimed at teaching students to utilize effective learning strategies, and the start of TILE.

This episode was funded by the <a href="https://chartered.college/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chartered College of Teaching</a>, and listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.Listening on the web? You can subscribe to our podcast to get new episodes each month! Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a><h1>Show Notes:</h1> Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel is an <a href="https://www.dundee.ac.uk/psychology/staff/profile/carolina-kuepper-tetzel.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Assistant Professor at the University of Dundee</a> in Scotland, where she is the Principle Investigator of the <a href="http://www.carolinakuepper-tetzel.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Learning and Teaching Lab</a>. She is also the founder of the <a href="https://learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk/tile/about-us/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TILE</a> Network (Teaching Innovation and Learning Enhancement Network).In this episode, Megan interviews Carolina about her research on CPD sessions, Service Learning projects aimed at teaching students to utilize effective learning strategies, and the start of TILE.

Episode 36 - Carolina's Research on CPD and Service Learning

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists have found evidence for the following 6 strategies for effective learning:Spaced PracticeRetrieval PracticeElaborationInterleavingConcrete ExamplesDual CodingToday, we are talking about interleaving. Be sure to listen to our spaced practice and retrieval practice episodes, as those are the most important strategies!Interleaving is a learning strategy that involves switching between topics and ideas, which has been shown to improve long-term learning relative to blocking study of the same idea or topic (1). We recently spoke with a 12-year-old student in the UK, who described a similar strategy that he uses, and called it "jumbling it up". We loved this term so much, that we wrote a blog post about it!Early research in interleaving focused a lot on motor skills (2), but more recently there has been renewed interest in this strategy as it applies to problem-solving, for example in maths (3), as well as how it applies to music (4). In the podcast, Yana talks about an adorable concrete example of interleaving involving her 5-year-old daughter who was trying to interleave addition and subtraction problems.Interleaving might work because it helps students learn to distinguish between concepts and learn when to apply which strategy (5). Machine learning studies have also attempted to simulate the processes involved in interleaving (6). However, there is still much we do not know about interleaving! For example, while we know that it's not worth interleaving completely unrelated material from different subjects (7), we don't yet know exactly how related the interleaved material should be, or what effect interleaving has on attention. Yana recently submitted a grant proposal with Dr. Sophie Forster at Sussex University to explore these unanswered questions.  We hope you enjoyed this podcast! Check back in 2 weeks, when we’ll be releasing a “bite-size research” episode describe an interesting paper about interleaving. Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Taylor, K., &amp; Rohrer, D. (2010). The effects of interleaved practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24, 837-848.(2) Shea, J. B., &amp; Morgan, R. L. (1979). Contextual interference effects on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of a motor skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 5, 179-187.(3) Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. F., &amp; Stershic, S. (2015). Interleaved practice improves mathematics learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107, 900-908.(4) Carter, C. E., &amp; Grahn, J. A. (2016). Optimizing music learning: Exploring how blocked and interleaved practice schedules affect advanced performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 7.(5) Rohrer, D. (2012). Interleaving helps students distinguish among similar concepts. Educational Psychology Review, 24, 355-367.(6) Li, N., Cohen, W. W., &amp; Koedinger, K. R. (2012, June). Problem Order Implications for Learning Transfer. In ITS (pp. 185-194).(7) Hausman, H., &amp; Kornell, N. (2014). Mixing topics while studying does not enhance learning. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3, 153-160.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists have found evidence for the following 6 strategies for effective learning:<a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/spaced-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spaced Practice</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/retrieval-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Retrieval Practice</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/elaboration" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Elaboration</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/interleaving" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Interleaving</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/concrete-examples" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Concrete Examples</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/dual-coding" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dual Coding</a>Today, we are talking about interleaving. Be sure to listen to our <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2017/10/4/episode-4-spaced-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">spaced practice</a> and <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2017/9/6/episode-2-retrieval-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">retrieval practice</a> episodes, as those are the most important strategies!Interleaving is a learning strategy that involves switching between topics and ideas, which has been shown to improve long-term learning relative to blocking study of the same idea or topic (1). We recently spoke with a 12-year-old student in the UK, who described a similar strategy that he uses, and called it "jumbling it up". We loved this term so much, that we wrote <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/7/13-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a blog post about it</a>!Early research in interleaving focused a lot on motor skills (2), but more recently there has been renewed interest in this strategy as it applies to problem-solving, for example in maths (3), as well as how it applies to music (4). In the podcast, Yana talks about an adorable concrete example of interleaving involving her 5-year-old daughter who was trying to interleave addition and subtraction problems.Interleaving might work because it helps students learn to distinguish between concepts and learn when to apply which strategy (5). Machine learning studies have also attempted to simulate the processes involved in interleaving (6). However, there is still much we do not know about interleaving! For example, while we know that it's not worth interleaving completely unrelated material from different subjects (7), we don't yet know exactly how related the interleaved material should be, or what effect interleaving has on attention. Yana recently submitted a grant proposal with Dr. Sophie Forster at Sussex University to explore these unanswered questions.  We hope you enjoyed this podcast! Check back in 2 weeks, when we’ll be releasing a “bite-size research” episode describe an interesting paper about interleaving. <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Taylor, K., &amp; Rohrer, D. (2010). The effects of interleaved practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24, 837-848.(2) Shea, J. B., &amp; Morgan, R. L. (1979). Contextual interference effects on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of a motor skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 5, 179-187.(3) Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. F., &amp; Stershic, S. (2015). Interleaved practice improves mathematics learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107, 900-908.(4) Carter, C. E., &amp; Grahn, J. A. (2016). Optimizing music learning: Exploring how blocked and interleaved practice schedules affect advanced performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 7.(5) Rohrer, D. (2012). Interleaving helps students distinguish among similar concepts. Educational Psychology Review, 24, 355-367.(6) Li, N., Cohen, W. W., &amp; Koedinger, K. R. (2012, June). Problem Order Implications for Learning Transfer. In ITS (pp. 185-194).(7) Hausman, H., &amp; Kornell, N. (2014). Mixing topics while studying does not enhance learning. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3, 153-160.

Episode 8 - Interleaving

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists have found evidence for the following 6 strategies for effective learning:Spaced PracticeRetrieval PracticeElaborationInterleavingConcrete ExamplesDual CodingToday, we are talking about elaboration. Be sure to listen to our spaced practice and retrieval practice episodes, as those are the most important strategies!Elaboration is a really broad concept - at its core, it just means connecting or adding information. "Elaborative interrogation" is a strategy within this broad idea, and it involves asking “how" and “why" questions and finding those answers (1). Students can do this independently, with the teacher helping, or in pairs of groups. Once they come up with the questions, students must also find the answers!For example, how might you learn about the physics of flying? You could do it by answering lots of fact-based questions, but you can also supplement this by asking and then answering elaboration questions, such as "why does a plane need an engine?" and "how does a plane take off?"Elaborative interrogation can be a tricky strategy to implement, because students won’t always focus on the right information, or have the content knowledge necessary to carry out the task effectively. In the podcast episode, we use lots of examples from younger and older students, demonstrating how hard it can be to pick out the right information to ask questions about, or even come up with “how” and “why” questions at all. Students may also produce incorrect explanations in answer to their own questions. Elaboration has been shown to help students who are more familiar with the topic, while those who are less familiar don’t benefit as much (2); some studies (3) have even found elaboration to be less effective than re-reading, when students are unable to produce useful elaborations (see this guest blog post). Teachers will need to guide students towards the right kinds of questions, and give feedback on explanations. Ideally, students would be able to describe and explain ideas from memory - that is, retrieval practice using elaborative interrogation!We hope you enjoyed this podcast! Check back in 2 weeks, when we’ll be releasing a “bite-size research” episode describing an interesting paper on elaborative interrogation. Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Pressley, M., Symons, S., McDaniel, M. A., Snyder, B. L., &amp; Turnure, J. E. (1988). Elaborative interrogation facilitates acquisition of confusing facts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 268-278.(2) Woloshyn, V. E., Pressley, M., &amp; Schneider, W. (1992). Elaborative-interrogation and prior-knowledge effects on learning of facts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 115-124.(3) Clinton, V., Alibali, M. W., &amp; Nathan, M. J. (2016). Learning about posterior probability: Do diagrams and elaborative interrogation help? The Journal of Experimental Education, 84, 579-599.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists have found evidence for the following 6 strategies for effective learning:<a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/spaced-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spaced Practice</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/retrieval-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Retrieval Practice</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/elaboration" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Elaboration</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/interleaving" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Interleaving</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/concrete-examples" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Concrete Examples</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/dual-coding" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dual Coding</a>Today, we are talking about elaboration. Be sure to listen to our <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2017/10/4/episode-4-spaced-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">spaced practice</a> and <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2017/9/6/episode-2-retrieval-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">retrieval practice</a> episodes, as those are the most important strategies!Elaboration is a really broad concept - at its core, it just means connecting or adding information. "Elaborative interrogation" is a strategy within this broad idea, and it involves asking “how" and “why" questions and finding those answers (1). Students can do this independently, with the teacher helping, or in pairs of groups. Once they come up with the questions, students must also find the answers!For example, how might you learn about the physics of flying? You could do it by answering lots of fact-based questions, but you can also supplement this by asking and then answering elaboration questions, such as "why does a plane need an engine?" and "how does a plane take off?"Elaborative interrogation can be a tricky strategy to implement, because students won’t always focus on the right information, or have the content knowledge necessary to carry out the task effectively. In the podcast episode, we use lots of examples from younger and older students, demonstrating how hard it can be to pick out the right information to ask questions about, or even come up with “how” and “why” questions at all. Students may also produce incorrect explanations in answer to their own questions. Elaboration has been shown to help students who are more familiar with the topic, while those who are less familiar don’t benefit as much (2); some studies (3) have even found elaboration to be less effective than re-reading, when students are unable to produce useful elaborations (see <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/7/11-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this guest blog post</a>). Teachers will need to guide students towards the right kinds of questions, and give feedback on explanations. Ideally, students would be able to describe and explain ideas from memory - that is, retrieval practice using elaborative interrogation!We hope you enjoyed this podcast! Check back in 2 weeks, when we’ll be releasing a “bite-size research” episode describing an interesting paper on elaborative interrogation. <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Pressley, M., Symons, S., McDaniel, M. A., Snyder, B. L., &amp; Turnure, J. E. (1988). Elaborative interrogation facilitates acquisition of confusing facts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 268-278.(2) Woloshyn, V. E., Pressley, M., &amp; Schneider, W. (1992). Elaborative-interrogation and prior-knowledge effects on learning of facts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 115-124.(3) Clinton, V., Alibali, M. W., &amp; Nathan, M. J. (2016). Learning about posterior probability: Do diagrams and elaborative interrogation help? The Journal of Experimental Education, 84, 579-599.

Episode 6 - Elaborative Interrogation

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Yana Weinstein talks about combining spacing and retrieval practice.In Episode 2 we introduced retrieval practice, and in Episode 4 we introduced spaced practice. We are often asked whether these effective strategies for learning are only applicable to fact learning - at a recent workshop with K-12 teachers, we were asked:What do these strategies do to students’ abilities to make inferences, apply what they know, and think creatively?Megan responded to this question with a blog post aptly entitled "Retrieval and Spaced Practice Sound Great, but Are They Just for Memorization?". In this episode, I continue answering that question by describing the results of a study on spaced retrieval practice that looked not only at performance on factual questions. but also on higher-order (application) questions (1). The goal of this study was to extend the already huge evidence for the benefits of spaced retrieval practice to a situation where students were engaging in what they called higher-order learning.The take-away points from this study are that spaced retrieval practice works not only in basic lab studies, but can also work in highly realistic classroom settings. Also, spaced retrieval can help not only memory of factual information, but also performance on more complex application questions. Thus, a very simple tweak in the timing of students’ retrieval practice can have a measurable impact on later performance. Next month, we’ll continue by talking about Elaboration. Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Kapler, I. V., Weston, T., &amp; Wiseheart, M. (2015). Spacing in a simulated undergraduate classroom: Long-term benefits for factual and higher-level learning. Learning and Instruction, 36, 38-45.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Yana Weinstein talks about combining spacing and retrieval practice.In <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2017/9/6/episode-2-retrieval-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 2</a> we introduced retrieval practice, and in <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2017/10/4/episode-4-spaced-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 4</a> we introduced spaced practice. We are often asked whether these effective strategies for learning are only applicable to fact learning - at a recent workshop with K-12 teachers, we were asked:What do these strategies do to students’ abilities to make inferences, apply what they know, and think creatively?Megan responded to this question with a blog post aptly entitled <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/7/7-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Retrieval and Spaced Practice Sound Great, but Are They Just for Memorization?"</a>. In this episode, I continue answering that question by describing the results of a study on spaced retrieval practice that looked not only at performance on factual questions. but also on higher-order (application) questions (1). The goal of this study was to extend the already huge evidence for the benefits of spaced retrieval practice to a situation where students were engaging in what they called higher-order learning.The take-away points from this study are that spaced retrieval practice works not only in basic lab studies, but can also work in highly realistic classroom settings. Also, spaced retrieval can help not only memory of factual information, but also performance on more complex application questions. Thus, a very simple tweak in the timing of students’ retrieval practice can have a measurable impact on later performance. Next month, we’ll continue by talking about Elaboration. <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Kapler, I. V., Weston, T., &amp; Wiseheart, M. (2015). Spacing in a simulated undergraduate classroom: Long-term benefits for factual and higher-level learning. Learning and Instruction, 36, 38-45.

Episode 5 - Bite-Size Research on Spaced Retrieval

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists have found evidence for the following 6 strategies for effective learning:Spaced PracticeRetrieval PracticeElaborationInterleavingConcrete ExamplesDual CodingToday we’re introducing spaced practice - spacing out studying the same information over multiple sessions rather than cramming it all into one (1).What is spaced practice?We talk about how the idea is really simple in theory, but harder to implement. The benefits of spaced practice have been demonstrated in many domains, from fact learning (2), to problem solving (3), and even to musical instrument learning (4). We also talk about how the benefits of spaced practice appear on a delayed test rather than an immediate test (5).For more about how spaced practice can be helpful and instructions for how to implement it during studying, see this blog post.How can we get students to space out their learning?It's hard! You can try to help students set aside blocks of time to study: first have them log how they spend their time for a week, and then have them look for times in their schedule that they could dedicate to studying. Even if they only plan to study 5 minutes each day, that's infinitely more than 0 minutes! You might want to use a time log to use with your students to help them plan for spaced practice. On the podcast, we describe our own attempts at implementing spaced practice in our real lives - with variable success.If your students need help forming intentions and sticking to them - don't we all? - you can share this guest post with them. Implementing spaced practice in the classroomSince it is quite difficult for students to independently engaged in spaced practice, teachers might consider providing students with opportunities for spaced practice as part of the mandatory classroom experience. If you're really planning ahead, you can try to break up the topics you're teaching and space them all out throughout the semester - but this is tricky (though see here for a resource digest full of ideas for spaced teaching).A lighter approach to introducing spacing is to give students an opportunity to practice the information you've taught at a later date, for example by implementing "lagged" homework. In this system, homework on a given topic is given a few weeks after the topic is taught.For more on how to implement lagged homework, see this teacher's blog post. Another idea is to combine spaced practice with retrieval practice, providing students with in-class opportunities to retrieve information from previous classes. A teacher in the UK proposed the following method: To read more about this method, see this blog post. And, for more about teacher implementation of spaced practice, see this guest post on our blog.We hope you enjoyed this podcast! Check back in 2 weeks, when we’ll be releasing a “bite-size research” episode describe an interesting paper on spaced practice. Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Ebbinghaus, H. (1913). Memory (HA Ruger &amp; CE Bussenius, Trans.). New York: Columbia University, Teachers College. (Original work published 1885). Retrieved from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Ebbinghaus/memory8.htm(2) DeRemer, P., &amp; D'Agostino, P. R. (1974). Locus of distributed lag effect in free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 13, 167-171.(3) Grote, M. G. (1995). The effect of massed versus spaced practice on retention and problem-solving in High School physics. Ohio Journal of Science, 95, 243-247.(4) Simmons, A. L. (2012). Distributed practice and procedural memory consolidation in musicians’ skill learning. Journal of Research in Music Education, 59, 357-368.(5) Rawson, K. A., &amp; Kintsch, W. (2005). Rereading effects depend on time of test. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 70-80.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists have found evidence for the following 6 strategies for effective learning:<a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/spaced-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spaced Practice</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/retrieval-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Retrieval Practice</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/elaboration" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Elaboration</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/interleaving" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Interleaving</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/concrete-examples" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Concrete Examples</a> <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/dual-coding" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dual Coding</a>Today we’re introducing spaced practice - spacing out studying the same information over multiple sessions rather than cramming it all into one (1).<h2>What is spaced practice?</h2>We talk about how the idea is really simple in theory, but harder to implement. The benefits of spaced practice have been demonstrated in many domains, from fact learning (2), to problem solving (3), and even to musical instrument learning (4). We also talk about how the benefits of spaced practice appear on a delayed test rather than an immediate test (5).For more about how spaced practice can be helpful and instructions for how to implement it during studying, see <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/7/21-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this blog post</a>.<h2>How can we get students to space out their learning?</h2>It's hard! You can try to help students set aside blocks of time to study: first have them log how they spend their time for a week, and then have them look for times in their schedule that they could dedicate to studying. Even if they only plan to study 5 minutes each day, that's infinitely more than 0 minutes! You might want to use <a href="https://tilt.colostate.edu/learning/learningResources/pdfs/weeklyTimeLog.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a time log</a> to use with your students to help them plan for spaced practice. On the podcast, we describe our own attempts at implementing spaced practice in our real lives - with variable success.If your students need help forming intentions and sticking to them - don't we all? - you can share <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/7/4-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this guest post</a> with them. <h2>Implementing spaced practice in the classroom</h2>Since it is quite difficult for students to independently engaged in spaced practice, teachers might consider providing students with opportunities for spaced practice as part of the mandatory classroom experience. If you're really planning ahead, you can try to break up the topics you're teaching and space them all out throughout the semester - but this is tricky (though see here for <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/3/28/weekly-digest-3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a resource digest full of ideas for spaced teaching</a>).A lighter approach to introducing spacing is to give students an opportunity to practice the information you've taught at a later date, for example by implementing "lagged" homework. In this system, homework on a given topic is given a few weeks after the topic is taught.For more on how to implement lagged homework, see <a href="https://mrbenney.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/trying-to-apply-spacing-in-science/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this teacher's blog post</a>. Another idea is to combine spaced practice with retrieval practice, providing students with in-class opportunities to retrieve information from previous classes. A teacher in the UK proposed the following method: To read more about this method, see <a href="https://reflectingenglish.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/memory-platforms/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this blog post</a>. And, for more about teacher implementation of spaced practice, see <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/4/12-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this guest post on our blog</a>.We hope you enjoyed this podcast! Check back in 2 weeks, when we’ll be releasing a “bite-size research” episode describe an interesting paper on spaced practice. <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Ebbinghaus, H. (1913). Memory (HA Ruger &amp; CE Bussenius, Trans.). New York: Columbia University, Teachers College. (Original work published 1885). Retrieved from <a href="http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Ebbinghaus/memory8.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Ebbinghaus/memory8.htm</a>(2) DeRemer, P., &amp; D'Agostino, P. R. (1974). Locus of distributed lag effect in free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 13, 167-171.(3) Grote, M. G. (1995). The effect of massed versus spaced practice on retention and problem-solving in High School physics. Ohio Journal of Science, 95, 243-247.(4) Simmons, A. L. (2012). Distributed practice and procedural memory consolidation in musicians’ skill learning. Journal of Research in Music Education, 59, 357-368.(5) Rawson, K. A., &amp; Kintsch, W. (2005). Rereading effects depend on time of test. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 70-80.

Episode 4 - Spaced Practice

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:This is our first bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Megan Sumeracki talks about retrieval practice.In our second episode, we introduced retrieval practice or bringing information to mind. We know from a century of research that retrieval practice improves learning. There are a lot of ways to practice retrieval, and this strategy seems to be very flexible and can be used in a lot of different ways.One easy way to implement retrieval practice in the classroom is to give students frequent low-stakes or no-stakes quizzes. But the next natural question is, what retrieval format should I use?The two most common formats are short-answer and multiple-choice formats. Some research shows that short-answer quizzes improve learning more than multiple-choice quizzes because they require the students to produce the answer (1). Yet often multiple-choice quizzes are easier to administer and to grade, and we know this is very important for busy teachers. So what to do? (Spoiler alert, based on my honors thesis and the work of others, the format does not have a huge impact on learning. The important thing is to make sure students practice retrieval in some way.)In 2005, Park (2) created a hybrid format to try to combine the benefits of short-answer and multiple-choice formats. Sixth-grade students would first try to answer a question in short-answer format, and then could click a "next" button for the multiple-choice alternatives to select the correct answer. The catch is that the multiple-choice alternatives only show up for a brief amount of time. So, the students really had to try to produce the answer before clicking next. Park found that the hybrid quiz led to a little bit more learning than a standard multiple-choice quiz after a few days.In 2008, I was really interested in quiz formats and decided to conduct my undergraduate honors thesis on this topic at Purdue University. In my experiments (3), students were randomly assigned to one of a few different conditions, and each condition was assigned a different retrieval-practice format. Some students answered multiple-choice questions, some answered short-answer questions, and others answered hybrid questions. Finally, some students were in a control group where they didn't answer questions at all. All of the students read a text, took a quiz (except the control group), and then read statements containing the correct answer to all of the quiz questions. One week later, we gave the students an assessment test.My thesis advisor and I found that retrieval practice, regardless of format, improved learning over the control group. Data from Smith &amp; Karpicke, 2014 (3) Experiment 4 However, we also found that the type of retrieval format didn't really much matter. Across 4 experiments, any differences we found between retrieval formats were really pretty small. Data from Smith &amp; Karpicke, 2014 (3) Experiment 4 At first, my advisor and I were really surprised by this! But after doing a very systematic review of the literature and conducting 4 experiments of our own, it seems that the retrieval practice format does not have a huge effect on learning. Others have found little to no difference between retrieval practice formats (e.g., 4, 5, 6). In another paper that was published after mine, researchers found that there weren't format differences among younger middle school students (7).Main Takeaway:Retrieval practice improves learning, and we can be pretty sure of this based on a century of research. However, the type of format you use is not likely to make a huge difference to learning. You can read a blog based on this research here. You can find the published paper containing my honors thesis experiments here. We hope you enjoyed this bite-size research podcast! Check back on the first Wednesday of next month, when we’ll be releasing a podcast about spaced practice. Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Kang, S. H. K., McDermott, K. B., &amp; Roediger, H. L. (2007). Test format and corrective feedback modify the effects of testing on long-term retention. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19, 528-558.(2) Park, J. (2005). Learning in a new computerised testing system. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 436-443.(3) Smith, M. A., &amp; Karpicke, J. D. (2014). Retrieval practice with short-answer, multiple-choice, and hybrid tests. Memory, 22, 784-802.(4) Clariana, R. B., &amp; Lee, D. (2001). The effects of recognition and recall study tasks with feedback in a computer-based vocabulary lesson. Educational Technology Research &amp; Development, 49, 23-36.(5) Williams, J. P. (1963). Comparison of several response modes in a review program. Journal of Educational Psychology, 54, 253-360.(6) Gay, L. R. (1980). The comparative effects of multiple-choice versus short-answer tests on retention. Journal of Educational Measurement, 17, 45-50.(7) McDermott, K. B., Agarwal, P. K., D'Antonio, L., Roediger, H. L., &amp; McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Both multiple-choice and short-answer quizzes enhance later exam performance in middle and high school classes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 20 , 3-21.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>This is our first bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Megan Sumeracki talks about retrieval practice.In our <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2017/9/6/episode-2-retrieval-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">second episode</a>, we introduced retrieval practice or bringing information to mind. We know from a century of research that retrieval practice improves learning. There are a lot of ways to practice retrieval, and this strategy seems to be very flexible and can be used in a lot of different ways.One easy way to implement retrieval practice in the classroom is to give students frequent low-stakes or no-stakes quizzes. But the next natural question is, what retrieval format should I use?The two most common formats are short-answer and multiple-choice formats. Some research shows that short-answer quizzes improve learning more than multiple-choice quizzes because they require the students to produce the answer (1). Yet often multiple-choice quizzes are easier to administer and to grade, and we know this is very important for busy teachers. So what to do? (Spoiler alert, based on my honors thesis and the work of others, the format does not have a huge impact on learning. The important thing is to make sure students practice retrieval in some way.)In 2005, Park (2) created a hybrid format to try to combine the benefits of short-answer and multiple-choice formats. Sixth-grade students would first try to answer a question in short-answer format, and then could click a "next" button for the multiple-choice alternatives to select the correct answer. The catch is that the multiple-choice alternatives only show up for a brief amount of time. So, the students really had to try to produce the answer before clicking next. Park found that the hybrid quiz led to a little bit more learning than a standard multiple-choice quiz after a few days.In 2008, I was really interested in quiz formats and decided to conduct my undergraduate honors thesis on this topic at Purdue University. In my experiments (3), students were randomly assigned to one of a few different conditions, and each condition was assigned a different retrieval-practice format. Some students answered multiple-choice questions, some answered short-answer questions, and others answered hybrid questions. Finally, some students were in a control group where they didn't answer questions at all. All of the students read a text, took a quiz (except the control group), and then read statements containing the correct answer to all of the quiz questions. One week later, we gave the students an assessment test.My thesis advisor and I found that retrieval practice, regardless of format, improved learning over the control group. Data from Smith &amp; Karpicke, 2014 (3) Experiment 4 However, we also found that the type of retrieval format didn't really much matter. Across 4 experiments, any differences we found between retrieval formats were really pretty small. Data from Smith &amp; Karpicke, 2014 (3) Experiment 4 At first, my advisor and I were really surprised by this! But after doing a very systematic review of the literature and conducting 4 experiments of our own, it seems that the retrieval practice format does not have a huge effect on learning. Others have found little to no difference between retrieval practice formats (e.g., 4, 5, 6). In another paper that was published after mine, researchers found that there weren't format differences among younger middle school students (7).<h2>Main Takeaway:</h2>Retrieval practice improves learning, and we can be pretty sure of this based on a century of research. However, the type of format you use is not likely to make a huge difference to learning. You can read a blog based on this research <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/3/18-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. You can find the published paper containing my honors thesis experiments <a href="http://learninglab.psych.purdue.edu/downloads/2014_Smith_Karpicke_Memory.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. We hope you enjoyed this bite-size research podcast! Check back on the first Wednesday of next month, when we’ll be releasing a podcast about spaced practice. <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Kang, S. H. K., McDermott, K. B., &amp; Roediger, H. L. (2007). Test format and corrective feedback modify the effects of testing on long-term retention. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19, 528-558.(2) Park, J. (2005). Learning in a new computerised testing system. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 436-443.(3) Smith, M. A., &amp; Karpicke, J. D. (2014). Retrieval practice with short-answer, multiple-choice, and hybrid tests. Memory, 22, 784-802.(4) Clariana, R. B., &amp; Lee, D. (2001). The effects of recognition and recall study tasks with feedback in a computer-based vocabulary lesson. Educational Technology Research &amp; Development, 49, 23-36.(5) Williams, J. P. (1963). Comparison of several response modes in a review program. Journal of Educational Psychology, 54, 253-360.(6) Gay, L. R. (1980). The comparative effects of multiple-choice versus short-answer tests on retention. Journal of Educational Measurement, 17, 45-50.(7) McDermott, K. B., Agarwal, P. K., D'Antonio, L., Roediger, H. L., &amp; McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Both multiple-choice and short-answer quizzes enhance later exam performance in middle and high school classes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 20 , 3-21.

Episode 3 - Bite-Size Research on Retrieval Practice Formats

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Megan talks about the need for multiple concrete examples in order for students to transfer the underlying idea to new problems.In the last episode, we talked about the research on concrete examples. (If you haven't listened to that episode yet, we recommend listening to it before listening to this one.) One of the points we made was the need for multiple concrete examples. Students need multiple examples, preferably with different surface details, to help them understand the underlying idea and to increase the likelihood that they will be able to apply that underlying idea to novel problems int he future. Research by Gick and Holyoak (1, 2) illustrates this point.In one experiment (1), students read a story about a general and a fortress, and then were given a new problem, called the tumor problem: General and fortress story used in Gick and Holyoak (1, 2) Tumor problem used in Gick and Holyoak (1, 2) Visual depiction of the general and fortress story and tumor problem Spontaneous transfer from the general and fortress story to the tumor problem is quite low (20%). When students are given a hint, more are able to transfer (92%). However, a hint is not always feasible.In 1983, Gick and Holyoak (2) experimented with a lot of different ways to try to improve spontaneous transfer. Unfortunately, many did not increase spontaneous transfer very much:Having students summarize the solution doesn't help muchProviding a verbal description of the underlying structure doesn't help muchProviding a digram depicting the underlying structure doesn't help much Diagram depicting the underlying structure, used in Gick and Holyoak, 1983 (2) But, spontaneous transfer does improve when students are given multiple concrete examples with different surface details.In one experiment (2), students were given two stories, the general story and a fire chief story, that were similar in underlying structure but different in surface details. At the end of the stories the underlying structure was summarized. After reading these stories, the students were asked to summarize both stories, and make some other ratings. Now, 62% of students spontaneously transfer the solution from the two stories to the tumor problem before the hint. After being given a hint, 82% in total can transfer. This is still not 100%, but is moving in the right direction!These experiments highlight the importance of providing multiple concrete examples with different surface details. It also demonstrates how difficult transfer can be, even when we're trying to transfer information in the same physical context (in this case, a lab) and close in time (in this case, during the same experimental session). To read more about transfer, check out this blog and this blog.Tune in next month to learn about the remaining strategy, dual coding! Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Gick, M. L., &amp; Holyoak, K. J. (1980). Analogical problem solving. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 306-355.(2) Gick, M. L., &amp; Holyoak, K. J. (1983). Schema induction and analogical transfer. Cognitive Psychology, 15, 1-38.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Megan talks about the need for multiple concrete examples in order for students to transfer the underlying idea to new problems.In the <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2018/1/3/episode-10-concrete-examples" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">last episode</a>, we talked about the research on concrete examples. (If you haven't listened to that episode yet, we recommend listening to it before listening to this one.) One of the points we made was the need for multiple concrete examples. Students need multiple examples, preferably with different surface details, to help them understand the underlying idea and to increase the likelihood that they will be able to apply that underlying idea to novel problems int he future. Research by Gick and Holyoak (1, 2) illustrates this point.In one experiment (1), students read a story about a general and a fortress, and then were given a new problem, called the tumor problem: General and fortress story used in Gick and Holyoak (1, 2) Tumor problem used in Gick and Holyoak (1, 2) Visual depiction of the general and fortress story and tumor problem Spontaneous transfer from the general and fortress story to the tumor problem is quite low (20%). When students are given a hint, more are able to transfer (92%). However, a hint is not always feasible.In 1983, Gick and Holyoak (2) experimented with a lot of different ways to try to improve spontaneous transfer. Unfortunately, many did not increase spontaneous transfer very much:<ul><li>Having students summarize the solution doesn't help much</li><li>Providing a verbal description of the underlying structure doesn't help much</li><li>Providing a digram depicting the underlying structure doesn't help much</li></ul> Diagram depicting the underlying structure, used in Gick and Holyoak, 1983 (2) But, spontaneous transfer does improve when students are given multiple concrete examples with different surface details.In one experiment (2), students were given two stories, the general story and a fire chief story, that were similar in underlying structure but different in surface details. At the end of the stories the underlying structure was summarized. After reading these stories, the students were asked to summarize both stories, and make some other ratings. Now, 62% of students spontaneously transfer the solution from the two stories to the tumor problem before the hint. After being given a hint, 82% in total can transfer. This is still not 100%, but is moving in the right direction!These experiments highlight the importance of providing multiple concrete examples with different surface details. It also demonstrates how difficult transfer can be, even when we're trying to transfer information in the same physical context (in this case, a lab) and close in time (in this case, during the same experimental session). To read more about transfer, check out <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/6/2-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this blog</a> and <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/6/9-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this blog</a>.Tune in next month to learn about the remaining strategy, dual coding! <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Gick, M. L., &amp; Holyoak, K. J. (1980). Analogical problem solving. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 306-355.(2) Gick, M. L., &amp; Holyoak, K. J. (1983). Schema induction and analogical transfer. Cognitive Psychology, 15, 1-38.

Episode 11 - Bite-Size Research on Providing Multiple Concrete Examples

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:Today's episode is the second of two episodes that we recorded specifically for parents. Our goal was to take what we know about the science of learning and focus on how it can be used by you - parents - to help your children with their learning and performance on tests, exams, and other types of assessments. We hope that these 2 episodes will be applicable to parents of a range of students, regardless of age and specific subject(s) being studied.You may be a parent of a child whose school is implementing effective strategies from cognitive psychology, or you may be interested in helping your child utilize these strategies at home even if they are not part of the school's regular practice. We talk about the strategies from both of these perspectives.In the previous episode, we talked about how parents can help their children with spaced practice and retrieval practice, and we touched on interleaving. In this episode, we talk about elaboration, concrete examples, and dual coding.Elaboration involves adding details to our memories. One way to do that is to simply have conversations with your children about topics that may relate to concepts that they have learned in class. You can also encourage elaborative interrogation by posing how and why questions. If your child isn't ready to answer them yet, that's OK - you can look up the answer together, or even ask their teachers.Concrete examples are important for your children to experience when trying to learn an abstract idea. Because concrete information is easier to understand and remember, finding and generating concrete examples for the abstract ideas they are studying will help your children learn more. It's important to ensure that your child understands the connection between the concrete example and the abstract idea, so that they don't just remember the example alone.Dual coding involves combining words and visuals to provide multiple ways for information to be understood and later remembered. You can help your children connects words and visuals by drawing with them, or having them describe a picture to you. However, it's important to note that this technique is not just for children who like art; be careful with labeling your child as a "visual learner", as this does not appear to be a useful categorization. Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>Today's episode is the second of two episodes that we recorded specifically for parents. Our goal was to take what we know about the science of learning and focus on how it can be used by you - parents - to help your children with their learning and performance on tests, exams, and other types of assessments. We hope that these 2 episodes will be applicable to parents of a range of students, regardless of age and specific subject(s) being studied.You may be a parent of a child whose school is implementing effective strategies from cognitive psychology, or you may be interested in helping your child utilize these strategies at home even if they are not part of the school's regular practice. We talk about the strategies from both of these perspectives.In the <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2018/4/4/episode-16-for-parents-interested-in-student-learning-part-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">previous episode</a>, we talked about how parents can help their children with spaced practice and retrieval practice, and we touched on interleaving. In this episode, we talk about elaboration, concrete examples, and dual coding.<a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/elaboration" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Elaboration</a> involves adding details to our memories. One way to do that is to simply have conversations with your children about topics that may relate to concepts that they have learned in class. You can also encourage elaborative interrogation by posing how and why questions. If your child isn't ready to answer them yet, that's OK - you can look up the answer together, or even ask their teachers.<a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/concrete-examples" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Concrete examples</a> are important for your children to experience when trying to learn an abstract idea. Because concrete information is easier to understand and remember, finding and generating concrete examples for the abstract ideas they are studying will help your children learn more. It's important to ensure that your child understands the connection between the concrete example and the abstract idea, so that they don't just remember the example alone.<a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/dual-coding" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dual coding</a> involves combining words and visuals to provide multiple ways for information to be understood and later remembered. You can help your children connects words and visuals by drawing with them, or having them describe a picture to you. However, it's important to note that this technique is not just for children who like art; be careful with labeling your child as a "visual learner", as this <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/5/25-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">does not appear to be a useful categorization</a>. <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>

Episode 17 - For Parents Interested in Student Learning Part 2

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:Today's episode is specifically for students. Our goal was to take what we know about the science of learning and focus on how it can be used by you - students - to increase how much you're learning and improve your performance on tests, exams, and other types of assessments. We hope that this episode will be applicable to a range of students, regardless of age and specific subject(s) being studied.The two most important study strategies are spaced practice and retrieval practice. They have the most evidence for their effectiveness, and are the most broadly applicable across a huge variety of different skills and subjects.Spaced practice is the opposite of cramming. We tend to find that students often end up cramming for their tests. However, if you space out your study episodes over time instead, you will be learning more for the long-term, rather than just forgetting most of the information soon after the test. If you think you don't need that information again, you are probably mistaken! Most of what we learn would be useful to remember in the future - for example, the next class might build on the previous class, and if you've forgotten everything from that previous class, you will have to re-learn a lot of information.You can't decide to space out your studying at the last minute. You have to plan ahead and schedule spaced study sessions. But, it's important to be realistic! Don't plan to study for an unrealistic amount of time, or you will be frustrated by your inability to reach your goals. It's also important to adjust your study schedule if it doesn't work for you.What should you actually do during these study sessions? That's where retrieval practice comes in. The idea behind this strategy is to bring information to mind from memory. You can do this in many ways - writing or sketching what you know from memory, teaching someone else the material, or even just telling someone a story about what you are learning. This act of bringing the information to mind from memory - producing the information without the notes or textbook in front of you - will actually improve your memory for the material.You should try to take as many practice tests as you can get your hands on, or if you don't have any of those, just write out everything you can remember about the topic from memory. Afterwards, go back to your notes or textbooks to verify that the information you produced is correct, and check for any errors.Unfortunately, we find that students do not frequently use this study strategy. Some students do take practice tests, but they say they do it to check how much they learn - not to actually increase learning through retrieval practice. The strategy students tend to use more often is reading and re-reading. This can feel easier than retrieval practice, because the information on the page gets more and more familiar. Retrieval practice, on the other hand, can feel difficult because of the effort involved in bringing the information to mind from memory. This difficulty and struggle, however, are crucial to learning.Spaced practice and retrieval practice work really well together, so do try out these two important study strategies. In the next episode, we'll talk about another 4 effective learning strategies.Here is a blog post we wrote to demonstrate how students can make the most of the Learning Scientists website. Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>Today's episode is specifically for students. Our goal was to take what we know about the science of learning and focus on how it can be used by you - students - to increase how much you're learning and improve your performance on tests, exams, and other types of assessments. We hope that this episode will be applicable to a range of students, regardless of age and specific subject(s) being studied.The two most important study strategies are spaced practice and retrieval practice. They have the most evidence for their effectiveness, and are the most broadly applicable across a huge variety of different skills and subjects.<a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/spaced-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spaced practice</a> is the opposite of cramming. We tend to find that students often end up cramming for their tests. However, if you space out your study episodes over time instead, you will be learning more for the long-term, rather than just forgetting most of the information soon after the test. If you think you don't need that information again, you are probably mistaken! Most of what we learn would be useful to remember in the future - for example, the next class might build on the previous class, and if you've forgotten everything from that previous class, you will have to re-learn a lot of information.You can't decide to space out your studying at the last minute. You have to plan ahead and schedule spaced study sessions. But, it's important to be realistic! Don't plan to study for an unrealistic amount of time, or you will be frustrated by your inability to reach your goals. It's also important to adjust your study schedule if it doesn't work for you.What should you actually do during these study sessions? That's where <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/retrieval-practice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">retrieval practice</a> comes in. The idea behind this strategy is to bring information to mind from memory. You can do this in many ways - writing or sketching what you know from memory, teaching someone else the material, or even just telling someone a story about what you are learning. This act of bringing the information to mind from memory - producing the information without the notes or textbook in front of you - will actually improve your memory for the material.You should try to take as many practice tests as you can get your hands on, or if you don't have any of those, just write out everything you can remember about the topic from memory. Afterwards, go back to your notes or textbooks to verify that the information you produced is correct, and check for any errors.Unfortunately, we find that students do not frequently use this study strategy. Some students do take practice tests, but they say they do it to check how much they learn - not to actually increase learning through retrieval practice. The strategy students tend to use more often is reading and re-reading. This can feel easier than retrieval practice, because the information on the page gets more and more familiar. Retrieval practice, on the other hand, can feel difficult because of the effort involved in bringing the information to mind from memory. This difficulty and struggle, however, are crucial to learning.Spaced practice and retrieval practice work really well together, so do try out these two important study strategies. In the next episode, we'll talk about another 4 effective learning strategies.Here is a blog post we wrote to demonstrate <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2018/1/11-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">how students can make the most of the Learning Scientists website</a>. <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>

Episode 14 - How Students Can Use Spacing and Retrieval Practice

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Yana talks about an experiment that examined the impact of dual coding on second language learning.In the last episode, we talked about the research on dual coding. (If you haven't listened to that episode yet, we recommend listening to it before listening to this one). The basic premise is that combining words with visuals can be beneficial to learning - but not only to those who claim to be “visual learners”.In the paper described in the current episode (1), the author looked at Korean middle school students learning English. The materials for the experiment were pairs of words that, when translated from English into Korean, essentially mean the same thing. But if you switch one out for another in English, you drastically change the meaning.Here is an example from the paper: They key manipulation was that during learning, some students would see these pictures, whereas others would instead see an explanation of why the incorrect words was in correct, in Korean. The learning styles matching hypothesis was pitted against the dual coding hypothesis. If learning style matching is important, then those who prefer pictures should benefit more from seeing the pictures during study, whereas those who prefer words should benefit more from getting the verbal explanations in Korean. Instead, however, all learners generally benefited from dual coding, regardless of their preferred learning style. Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Lee, S. (2017). Raising EFL Learners' Awareness of L2 Lexical Errors and Correct Usage: A Dual Coding Approach. English Teaching, 72(2), 29-50.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Yana talks about an experiment that examined the impact of dual coding on second language learning.In the <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2018/2/7/episode-12-dual-coding" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">last episode</a>, we talked about the research on dual coding. (If you haven't listened to that episode yet, we recommend listening to it before listening to this one). The basic premise is that combining words with visuals can be beneficial to learning - but not only to those who claim to be “visual learners”.In the paper described in the current episode (1), the author looked at Korean middle school students learning English. The materials for the experiment were pairs of words that, when translated from English into Korean, essentially mean the same thing. But if you switch one out for another in English, you drastically change the meaning.Here is an example from the paper: They key manipulation was that during learning, some students would see these pictures, whereas others would instead see an explanation of why the incorrect words was in correct, in Korean. The learning styles matching hypothesis was pitted against the dual coding hypothesis. If learning style matching is important, then those who prefer pictures should benefit more from seeing the pictures during study, whereas those who prefer words should benefit more from getting the verbal explanations in Korean. Instead, however, all learners generally benefited from dual coding, regardless of their preferred learning style. <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Lee, S. (2017). Raising EFL Learners' Awareness of L2 Lexical Errors and Correct Usage: A Dual Coding Approach. English Teaching, 72(2), 29-50.

Episode 13 - Bite-Size Research on Dual Coding vs Learning Styles

Jane Emerson

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust, Chartered College of Teaching, and supporters like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast, please see our Patreon page.Listening on the web? You can subscribe to our podcast to get new episodes each month! Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssShow Notes:This is the seventh episode in a series recorded in London! In June 2018 we attended the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction conference (or, more simply, EARLI) for the special interest group on Neuroscience and Education (@EarliSIG22). While there, we recorded live interviews with teachers and researchers. In this episode, we speak with Jane Emerson who started off as a speech and language therapist,  did her Masters in Human Communication, and after years of experience working with dyslexic students in schools founded a center, Emerson House, with a colleague. This center helps children with dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dyscalculia. Jane has taught children for many years, lectured widely, and written a number of books including The Dyscalculia Assessment and The Dyscalculia Solution. You can find her on Facebook at Jane Emerson - Freelance SEND Advisor. Image from CPD College on YouTube Dyslexic children have difficulties with phonics or phonological awareness, language, vocabulary, memory (both short- and long-term). Dyslexic students tend to have problems with spelling both because of difficulties with phonics, but also because of poorer visual recall. However, dyslexia is not only about spelling, but can have more pervasive effects on academic performance due to the impacts on memory.Dyscalculia might present itself as lack of common sense about numbers. That is, some students may have trouble transferring their understanding of a specific example (e.g., 1 + 2) to a similar but slightly different situation (e.g., 2 + 3), treating it as an entirely new problem and not applying a previously learned rule. For example, unlike others of their age, students with these difficulties may not be able to infer the answer to 13 x 2 after having memorized the 2 x tables up to 12. One way to help alleviate is to use physical manipulatives to demonstrate relationships between numbers.Dyspraxia is described as a developmental co-ordination delay or disorder. At the extreme, this disorder can result in the inability to learn to drive and great reluctance to use any machinery. At school, the first sign is often poor handwriting, and learning to touch-type as early as possible can help with this. Students with this disorder may receive accommodations such as having a scribe.Other accommodations such as extra time alone may not always be helpful, since often students may not know what to do with this extra time. The important thing is to learn skills to implement during that time. On the podcast, we discuss the subtle difference between learning styles and learning preferences, and how this plays out in students with learning difficulties.The Big TakeawaysFor reading, Jane says it’s very helpful to give children a lot of information about one character or set of characters so that they can really understand get into a particular genre before moving on to another one. For spelling, combining seeing and hearing words can be really important, and  adding touch-typing on to that for multi-sensory learning is even better. And for math, concrete, multi-sensory materials to demonstrate the principles being learned. 

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>, <a href="https://chartered.college/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chartered College of Teaching</a>, and supporters like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast, please see <a href="https://www.patreon.com/learningscientists" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our Patreon page</a>.Listening on the web? You can subscribe to our podcast to get new episodes each month! Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a><h1>Show Notes:</h1>This is the seventh episode in a series recorded in London! In June 2018 we attended the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction conference (or, more simply, <a href="https://www.earli.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">EARLI</a>) for the special interest group on Neuroscience and Education (<a href="https://twitter.com/EarliSig22" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@EarliSIG22</a>). While there, we recorded live interviews with teachers and researchers. In this episode, we speak with Jane Emerson who started off as a speech and language therapist, did her Masters in Human Communication, and after years of experience working with dyslexic students in schools founded a center, <a href="https://www.emersonhouse.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Emerson House</a>, with a colleague. This center helps children with dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dyscalculia. Jane has taught children for many years, lectured widely, and written a number of <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/author/jane-emerson" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">books</a> including The Dyscalculia Assessment and The Dyscalculia Solution. You can find her on Facebook at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sendadvisorlondon/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jane Emerson - Freelance SEND Advisor</a>. Image from CPD College on YouTube Dyslexic children have difficulties with phonics or phonological awareness, language, vocabulary, memory (both short- and long-term). Dyslexic students tend to have problems with spelling both because of difficulties with phonics, but also because of poorer visual recall. However, dyslexia is not only about spelling, but can have more pervasive effects on academic performance due to the impacts on memory.Dyscalculia might present itself as lack of common sense about numbers. That is, some students may have trouble transferring their understanding of a specific example (e.g., 1 + 2) to a similar but slightly different situation (e.g., 2 + 3), treating it as an entirely new problem and not applying a previously learned rule. For example, unlike others of their age, students with these difficulties may not be able to infer the answer to 13 x 2 after having memorized the 2 x tables up to 12. One way to help alleviate is to use physical manipulatives to demonstrate relationships between numbers.Dyspraxia is described as a developmental co-ordination delay or disorder. At the extreme, this disorder can result in the inability to learn to drive and great reluctance to use any machinery. At school, the first sign is often poor handwriting, and learning to touch-type as early as possible can help with this. Students with this disorder may receive accommodations such as having a scribe.Other accommodations such as extra time alone may not always be helpful, since often students may not know what to do with this extra time. The important thing is to learn skills to implement during that time. On the podcast, we discuss the subtle difference between learning styles and learning preferences, and how this plays out in students with learning difficulties.The Big TakeawaysFor reading, Jane says it’s very helpful to give children a lot of information about one character or set of characters so that they can really understand get into a particular genre before moving on to another one. For spelling, combining seeing and hearing words can be really important, and adding touch-typing on to that for multi-sensory learning is even better. And for math, concrete, multi-sensory materials to demonstrate the principles being learned.

Episode 27 - Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Dyspraxia with Jane Emerson

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Megan Sumeracki talks about elaborative interrogation with middle school students. In the study Megan describes (1), elaborative interrogation worked well for students who were working independently, and with a partner. In this study, 6th and 7th grade students learned two types of science facts: those that were consistent with their prior knowledge, and those that were inconsistent. An example of a consistent or unsurprising science fact from their research is "the larger an animal is, the more oxygen it needs to live". But take, for example, this fact: "the sun is made up of every color, including blue and violet". This type of fact might be more surprising to students. The study looked at how elaborative interrogation impacted learning of both types of facts.The students worked either independently, or in pairs - and in one of the following three learning conditions:1) Elaborative interrogation: answering the question "why is that fact true?" and using their class materials to help.2) Select their own study strategy: students were told to study the facts in whatever way they think will help them learn them best, and think back to strategies that have worked in the past.3) Read the information for understanding, out loud.Learning was assessed both immediately, and 60 days after the study session. Learning in pairs versus independently did not make a difference, but students who practiced elaborative interrogation learned more than those in the other two learning conditions. This was true both for facts that were consistent, and those that were inconsistent with prior knowledge. Importantly, this learning was durable - 60 days after the study session, students who practiced elaborative interrogation still performed best. It's interesting to note that students who selected their own study strategy did not better than those who just read for understanding.Here's an important caveat to the findings: the quality of the elaborative interrogation answers mattered. Students performed best when they produced an adequate response to the question. However, producing an "inadequate" response was still better than providing no response at all. And finally, studying in pairs did not lead to a larger number of adequate responses than studying alone.So far, we’ve covered retrieval practice, spaced practice, and elaborative interrogation in our podcasts. Over the next three months we’ll be talking about interleaving, concrete examples, and dual coding! Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Woloshyn, V. E., &amp; Stockley, D. B. (1995). Helping students acquire belief-inconsistent and belief-consistent science facts: Comparisons between individual and dyad study using elaborative interrogation self-selected study and repetitious-reading. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 75-89.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Megan Sumeracki talks about elaborative interrogation with middle school students. In the study Megan describes (1), elaborative interrogation worked well for students who were working independently, and with a partner. In this study, 6th and 7th grade students learned two types of science facts: those that were consistent with their prior knowledge, and those that were inconsistent. An example of a consistent or unsurprising science fact from their research is "the larger an animal is, the more oxygen it needs to live". But take, for example, this fact: "the sun is made up of every color, including blue and violet". This type of fact might be more surprising to students. The study looked at how elaborative interrogation impacted learning of both types of facts.The students worked either independently, or in pairs - and in one of the following three learning conditions: 1) Elaborative interrogation: answering the question "why is that fact true?" and using their class materials to help. 2) Select their own study strategy: students were told to study the facts in whatever way they think will help them learn them best, and think back to strategies that have worked in the past. 3) Read the information for understanding, out loud.Learning was assessed both immediately, and 60 days after the study session. Learning in pairs versus independently did not make a difference, but students who practiced elaborative interrogation learned more than those in the other two learning conditions. This was true both for facts that were consistent, and those that were inconsistent with prior knowledge. Importantly, this learning was durable - 60 days after the study session, students who practiced elaborative interrogation still performed best. It's interesting to note that students who selected their own study strategy did not better than those who just read for understanding.Here's an important caveat to the findings: the quality of the elaborative interrogation answers mattered. Students performed best when they produced an adequate response to the question. However, producing an "inadequate" response was still better than providing no response at all. And finally, studying in pairs did not lead to a larger number of adequate responses than studying alone.So far, we’ve covered retrieval practice, spaced practice, and elaborative interrogation in our podcasts. Over the next three months we’ll be talking about interleaving, concrete examples, and dual coding! <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Woloshyn, V. E., &amp; Stockley, D. B. (1995). Helping students acquire belief-inconsistent and belief-consistent science facts: Comparisons between individual and dyad study using elaborative interrogation self-selected study and repetitious-reading. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 75-89.

Episode 7 - Bite-Size Research on Elaborative Interrogation

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.Show Notes:This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Yana talks about interleaving while trying to learn how to categorize things.In the last episode, we talked about the research on interleaving. The idea behind interleaving is that students might switch up their studying so that they are not studying the same idea or concept for a long time, but instead are alternating the material they are studying. Mainly, the benefits that we discussed come from studies of motor learning (1) or problem solving (2). So, we talked about studies where students were given math homework based on one type of problem, or math homework with problems from different areas that required different approaches to solve them (2).In this episode, Yana talks about a different type of learning that has also been shown to benefit from interleaving: learning which items are part of one category, and which are part of another. Earlier research on this topic looked at how people learn to classify paintings by different artists (3), or different types of birds into a taxonomy (4). In these studies, students aren’t interleaving problem solving or retrieval practice. Instead, they are just studying examples from different categories. And in these studies, interleaving examples from different categories generally helps the learner extract the main features of each category. The set of studies described in this episode (5) applied this type of design to students learning chemistry. In this set of experiments, students studied visual representations of chemicals, as shown below. Each diagram shows the structure of the elements, and how they form the chemicals.  Image from Eglington and Kang (2017) They saw 12 examples of chemicals in each of 5 categories - 60 examples in total. Then, when they came back two days later, students were shown new visual representations from these 5 chemical categories, and were asked to determine which category they fit into. What differed between the two groups of students was whether the examples from the 5 categories had appeared interleaved or blocked during the study phase. Those who had seen the chemicals interleaved during study got an average to 85% on the categorization quiz 2 days later, compared to only 71% in the blocked condition. In a follow-up experiment with more complex materials, students who interleaved performed at 65% and students who blocked performed at 49% on the later test, showing the same pattern of results. The authors also found that participants in the interleaving group outperformed those in the blocking group even when both groups were given cues about similarities and differences between categories. This type of learning - that is, learning how to categorize visual representations of chemical elements - may seem quite basic, but it is actually very important for those who want to go on and study chemistry in more depth. For example, knowing which chemicals belong to which category is essential to understanding how the chemicals interact. And, the same can be said for any subject: knowing the basics is essential to later understanding of more complex abstract ideas.Tune in over the next two months to learn about the remaining two strategies, concrete examples and dual coding! Subscribe to our Podcast!Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rssReferences:(1) Shea, J. B., &amp; Morgan, R. L. (1979). Contextual interference effects on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of a motor skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 5, 179-187.(2) Taylor, K., &amp; Rohrer, D. (2010). The effects of interleaved practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24, 837-848.(3) Kornell, N., &amp; Bjork, R. A. (2008). Learning concepts and categories: Is spacing the “enemy of induction”? Psychological Science, 19, 585-592.(4) Tauber, S. K., Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Wahlheim, C. N., &amp; Jacoby, L. L. (2013). Self-regulated learning of a natural category: Do people interleave or block exemplars during study?. Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review, 20, 356-363.(5) Eglington, L. G., &amp; Kang, S. H. (2017). Interleaved Presentation Benefits Science Category Learning. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6, 475-485.

This episode was funded by <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wellcome Trust</a>.<h1>Show Notes:</h1>This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Yana talks about interleaving while trying to learn how to categorize things.In the <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2017/12/6/episode-8-interleaving" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">last episode</a>, we talked about the research on interleaving. The idea behind interleaving is that students might switch up their studying so that they are not studying the same idea or concept for a long time, but instead are alternating the material they are studying. Mainly, the benefits that we discussed come from studies of motor learning (1) or problem solving (2). So, we talked about studies where students were given math homework based on one type of problem, or math homework with problems from different areas that required different approaches to solve them (2).In this episode, Yana talks about a different type of learning that has also been shown to benefit from interleaving: learning which items are part of one category, and which are part of another. Earlier research on this topic looked at how people learn to classify paintings by different artists (3), or different types of birds into a taxonomy (4). In these studies, students aren’t interleaving problem solving or retrieval practice. Instead, they are just studying examples from different categories. And in these studies, interleaving examples from different categories generally helps the learner extract the main features of each category. The set of studies described in this episode (5) applied this type of design to students learning chemistry. In this set of experiments, students studied visual representations of chemicals, as shown below. Each diagram shows the structure of the elements, and how they form the chemicals.  Image from Eglington and Kang (2017) They saw 12 examples of chemicals in each of 5 categories - 60 examples in total. Then, when they came back two days later, students were shown new visual representations from these 5 chemical categories, and were asked to determine which category they fit into. What differed between the two groups of students was whether the examples from the 5 categories had appeared interleaved or blocked during the study phase. Those who had seen the chemicals interleaved during study got an average to 85% on the categorization quiz 2 days later, compared to only 71% in the blocked condition. In a follow-up experiment with more complex materials, students who interleaved performed at 65% and students who blocked performed at 49% on the later test, showing the same pattern of results. The authors also found that participants in the interleaving group outperformed those in the blocking group even when both groups were given cues about similarities and differences between categories. This type of learning - that is, learning how to categorize visual representations of chemical elements - may seem quite basic, but it is actually very important for those who want to go on and study chemistry in more depth. For example, knowing which chemicals belong to which category is essential to understanding how the chemicals interact. And, the same can be said for any subject: knowing the basics is essential to later understanding of more complex abstract ideas.Tune in over the next two months to learn about the remaining two strategies, concrete examples and dual coding! <h2>Subscribe to our Podcast!</h2>Go to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learning-scientists-podcast/id1279414575" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show on iTunes</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.RSS feed: <a href="http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss</a>References:(1) Shea, J. B., &amp; Morgan, R. L. (1979). Contextual interference effects on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of a motor skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 5, 179-187.(2) Taylor, K., &amp; Rohrer, D. (2010). The effects of interleaved practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24, 837-848.(3) Kornell, N., &amp; Bjork, R. A. (2008). Learning concepts and categories: Is spacing the “enemy of induction”? Psychological Science, 19, 585-592.(4) Tauber, S. K., Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Wahlheim, C. N., &amp; Jacoby, L. L. (2013). Self-regulated learning of a natural category: Do people interleave or block exemplars during study?. Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review, 20, 356-363.(5) Eglington, L. G., &amp; Kang, S. H. (2017). Interleaved Presentation Benefits Science Category Learning. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6, 475-485.

Episode 9 - Bite-Size Research on Interleaving Categories

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