Alright we’ve reached the last chapter of the book Make It Stick. This chapter is mainly directed to people who don’t really want to know much or read into the neurological details and want to get into the gist of it right away.
It’s split into mainly 3 parts: tips for students, tips of lifelong learnings, tips for teachers and tips for trainers. I would not however, just flip to the section immediately because the bulk of the strategies are actually in the first section. The contents of the other sections are mainly about how to manage these different strategies with respect to their own requirements with regards to pedagogy, learning materials, audience etc. This post will be for students because having the other sections will make this post too lengthy. I will make the post for the others sections in a separate post.
Learning Tips for Students
What Makes a Successful Student. The most successful students are those who take charge of their own learning. They persevere in following a simple routine and they put it in effort to discipline themselves in following it. The paragraphs below would be the different techniques and strategies that you can learn and you can practice them. Eventually, you will be surprised at the results.
Accepting The Nature Of Learning. Firstly, you must tell yourself that learning is and will be difficult most of the time. When the learning is or seems easy, usually the knowledge and information does not stay there for very long. Along the way, you will definitely face difficult situations and challenges. But, this is only proof and signs that you are putting in effort and you should not give up and continue to do so. In fact, the more you struggle, the more it will improve your mastery.
Retrieval Practice. Retrieval practice is mainly about quizzing yourself. Trying to remember the knowledge and skills from memory should be your main method when studying, especially to replace rereading. Some of the questions you can ask are,
i. What is the main idea here?
ii. What are the ideas that are new to me?
iii. How would I explain the idea to someone else?
iv. How are the ideas connected to what I already know?
Using Retrieval Practice when Studying. It will be good for you to make a timetable and schedule times for you to quiz yourself once a week. You can make the questions and answers by yourself. Additionally you can also do it with a group of friends or check the questions and answers with someone knowledgeable or a teacher. Remember that quizzing and retrieval practice are used to show the parts that you are weak in so that you can study and focus on these parts.
Why It Works. Normal studying methods of reading, highlighting or underlining only gives a student a feeling and illusion that he/she has the knowledge with him/her. Quizzing and retrieval practice, however, gives a student a clear picture of what the student knows and what the student needs to work on. When your brain is trying to remember what you’ve learnt, you are making your brain more familiar to how to access the information. It’s like being in a forest. Without a map, you will be trying to remember the different parts of the forest and will be able to know the forest better.
Spacing Out the Retrieval Practice. Spacing out means allowing a period of time between the times you study with retrieval practice. Paragraphs and concepts should be quizzed on the same day, but words or short names should be quizzed within a few minutes. After that, leave it for several days or a week. Once you know you have grasped the information well, quiz yourself once a month. As you quiz yourself with new material, reach back in your memory to remember the past topics. Having a journal, notebook or something to record the things that you have learnt will make sure that you will be able to check your knowledge.
Interleaving Different Problem Types. Interleaving while studying allows your brain to be able to to differentiate different skills, knowledges and information. So when you are studying a topic and when you reach a point of understanding of it but it is not 100%, you should immediately try the knowledge on as many different problems as possible. Although this will make you feel like you are not doing any proper studying, repeating this on the days when you have scheduled a retrieval practice session will improve your understanding and your ability to apply the knowledge in different situations and problems. Always remember and warn yourself from the illusions of knowing: feeling like you have learnt but actually you have not.
Other Study Strategies
Elaboration. Elaboration is the technique of creating new interpretations of meaning in other forms of information. For example, as a student learns the principles of heat transfer, by imagining that you are holding a cup of hot chocolate would allow you to strengthen your understanding of the concept. The more you create these forms of images to what you already know in your life, you will strengthen the understanding of what you have just learnt and allow better connections of it to other pieces of information that you will learn in the future.
Generation. Generation is mainly the process where your brain attempts to solve a question or problem before you understand what the answer is. In English language learning, for example, students can do this by removing the helping words to a cloze passage, whether it be a grammar, vocabulary or comprehension cloze. Later, when the answer is revealed and correct feedback, if necessary, is provided, your brain would then adapt to the new information thanks to the effort created.
Reflection. Reflection is defined by the authors as the “combination of retrieval practice and elaboration that adds layers to learning and strengthen skills”. It involves asking yourself questions like:
i. What went well?
ii. What could I have done better?
iii. What other knowledge or experience does it remind me of?
iv. What other strategies could I use to make your learning better?
v. Is there anything I need to learn to increase my mastery of the information?
A good technique would be to write down the responses a paragraph and record your progress.
Calibration. Calibration is basically using a tool to measure what you have learnt, so that you are not fooled by your feelings and illusions of knowing. Examples of these can be quizzes, tests or sample examination papers. Of course, you can check your answers then ask yourself the questions in Reflection.
The Million In My Head 