Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allow you navigate the world quickly and efficiently. Many heuristics are very useful, because they allow you to understand a situation and respond to it without processing every piece of information in detail.
All in Learning Scientists Posts
Different Research Methods: Strengths and Weaknesses
There are a lot of different methods of conducting research, and each comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. While most researchers are exposed to a variety of methodologies throughout graduate training, we tend to become engrossed with ...
Who Should Create Study Plans?
One aspect that seems important when it comes to self-regulated learning is the ability to plan one’s own learning and, for instance, to decide what material to study next, how long to study the material for, and how to study the material. Being allowed to be in charge of such planning promises to have positive effects on motivation...
Which Should Come First: Problem-Solving or Instruction?
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) classes have been the strong focus of discovery ( or constructivist, problem-based, active-learning) methods of instruction, certainly with some success...
Memorizing versus Understanding
This post continues a series of posts on the value of memory. I wrote a few months ago about how memory is used for everything we do, and recently published a post-humus guest blog by Ralph A. Raimi in defense of memorization.
Do Students Utilize Effective Learning Strategies?
For decades, and even centuries, cognitive psychologists have been studying the best ways to learn. For those who are frequent readers of our blog, I promise I won’t go on and on about the strategies and their evidence base… I know you’ve heard this all before. (But, for newer ...