Despite its importance to students and teachers alike, engagement is a tricky concept to define… how can you tell if someone is engaged in learning? And do interest and attention lead to better learning?
All in For Students
Digest #139: What Comes After School? Career Tips and Advise
Here at The Learning Scientists we talk a lot about how to improve learning, particularly in schools. But what happens after graduation? How do you take the first steps from school to career? In this digest we’ve gathered several resources to help students think about future careers in teaching, psychology, and how to gain relevant work experience.
Explain It To Me: The Beneficial Effects of Explaining for Memory
One of the talks introduced me to an interesting research question that is potentially applicable to authentic studying situations for students: When studying a text, should students pretend to explain the main ideas to someone, engage in retrieval practice, or does it not make a difference?
Digest #138: Fostering Self-Regulated Learning in Students
One research line that is highlighted at the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) conference is self-regulated learning in students and in what ways teachers could help foster self-regulated learning in students. There are many different ways on how research is approaching this issue…
How Should Students Take Notes?
Summary: Taking notes by hand seems to be better than taking notes using a laptop because it requires students to put the notes into their own words. However, the research is nuanced! It is important to remember, too, that if laptops are creating distractions learning will suffer. …
GUEST POST: To Nap or Not to Nap, IS That a Question?
I can remember my undergraduate days when one of my first thoughts after turning my alarm off in the morning was, “when can I take a nap today?” I wasn’t necessarily staying up too late or pulling all night cram sessions – although that did happen. However, I can look back now and see …