Today, I thought it would be nice to revisit the topic of music, but in a different way: A recent study (1) investigated whether learning to play the piano benefits from spaced practice and, to my surprise, they found this not to be the case...
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Are Prequestions Useful?
Retrieval practice primarily focuses on testing/quizzing students after they have already learned some material. Today, I want to tell you about a study that examined the effectiveness of prequestions, or asking students questions before they have started learning the material.
Teaching the Science of Learning to Students – Part 2, Do College Students Transfer their Use of Effective Learning Strategies?
This is a two-part blog series. Now, in Part 2, I will share some of the collaborative work I have been doing to create first-year seminar materials to help teach the science of learning to first-year college students, what I have learned anecdotally, and the many ...
Teaching the Science of Learning to Students – Part 1, Why We Started the Learning Scientists Project
This is a two-part blog series. In Part 1, I tell some personal stories about why we started the Learning Scientists Project, and highlight some important issues related to evidence for the six strategies producing effective learning and evidence that students can transfer ...
Separation From Your Cellphone Boosts Your Cognitive Capacity
In a recent weekly digest, we explored the pros and cons about cellphones in the classroom. In today’s blog post, I would like to contribute to that discussion by presenting a new research study that looked into the effects of the mere presence of one’s cellphone while performing...
The Big Problem with Classroom Research
Our goal as Learning Scientists is to try to bridge the gap between researchers and educators. Unfortunately, this is a very difficult goal, often more difficult than many people realize. We have often found that educators are disillusioned by basic ...