All in Learning Scientists Posts
Does test anxiety cause poorer performance on exams? Meta-analyses show that students with higher test anxiety tend to perform worse on exams (1). We also know that anxiety can affect cognitive processes through working memory capacity (2). Therefore, the general consensus is that test anxiety interferes with our working memory, which in turn leads to poorer exam performance… However, a recent study with German medical students found that test anxiety did not predict exam performance when prior knowledge was controlled for, claiming strong evidence against the interference hypothesis (3).
When I ask my students about their go-to study strategies, one strategy that is frequently mentioned is flashcards. This nicely aligns with research into the topic showing that generating and learning with flashcards is a common strategy among students (1). However, the question is whether students use flashcards effectively…
It is that time of year again! We’re taking a break to spend time with family and recharge for next year. We hope that you are able to stay safe and take time to enjoy the end of 2022, and ring in a happy new year!
Our next post will be a podcast on January 20th, 2022.
Any educator in today’s environment will tell you that all the cognitive strategies in the world are great, but we also need to focus on social-emotional learning (SEL). And today’s blog is about one facet of SEL that has plenty of research to support its necessity in learning: self-efficacy.
Today is (American) Thanksgiving so I wanted to take the opportunity to thank our community! 2022 has been challenging and we are so grateful for the continued support, encouragement, and contributions of our community…
studying can be complicated! Improving students’ knowledge and understanding of effective strategies would certainly be helpful - we’ve spent the last year writing a book hoping to do just that! - but it is only one component of effective studying and learning. When students are tasked with making choices about their learning a number of cognitive, motivational, behavioral, and contextual factors come into play. The suite of skills learners use to handle those factors is referred to as self-regulated learning (1).
