Jessica Shanmac HI-OD Learning

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Photo by  Joanna Kosinska  on  Unsplash If you are like me, you are a recovering notetaker. Whenever you hear something noteworthy or read important info in a book, you want to write it down. You may even use a pen and paper. It’s hard to break this habit when it comes to learning, even against your better judgement and the overwhelming evidence in Make It Stick (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014). You may think you need to go cold turkey and never jot down an idea again, but have no fear. I have a way for you to assuage your notetaking urges, while using the three “keystone study strategies” that interrupt forgetting and help you participate in effortful learning (Brown et al., 2014).  The three study strategies incorporate retrieval practice, spacing practice, and interleaving practice.   Here’s what us avid notetakers can do below. Photo by  Tachina Lee  on  Unsplash Retrieval Practice Think of a list ...

Photo by  Avel Chuklanov  on  Unsplash It seems to me that structure-building is a mix of nature versus nurture, much like many other things (as far as we know). Some people are natural, or more talented, structure-builders, as if it’s a cognitive mechanism they were born with. But structure building can be learned, nurtured and improved upon. “We know that when questions are embedded in texts to help focus readers on the main ideas, the learning performance of low structure-builders improves to a level commensurate with high structure-builders ( Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014, p. 155). We can learn to be higher structure-builders if we apply deliberate practice. Photo by  Atharva Lele  on  Unsplash This is similar to how people can learn to use memory cues to increase their working memory capacity and recall ability, much like the Oxford students taught mnemonic schemes. If a student can learn how to link “Herman and Mack’s restrai...

Photo by  Thomas Smith  on  Unsplash In Make It Stick , Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014) tell the story about Bonnie Blodgette, The Blundering Gardener. Her method of jumping in and creating a garden before "knowing" how to be a gardener has lead to her expertise in the home gardening world. She learned by doing, which is also known as "generative learning" (Brown et al., 2014). Photo by  Valeria Zoncoll  on  Unsplash The biggest generative learning endeavor I have ever taken on is parenting. I babysat a little in my teens, I have had pets from babyhood to elder-hood (which some people count as equivalent - though I do not), and I have read many books on multiple, applicable subjects. But nothing fully prepares you for having a baby. I had plans, thoughts, and ideas, but so much of parenting for us was to wing it. Eventually, we learned about our child and her needs, and we learned about each of our strengths as parents and partners in paren...

Photo by  Chris Liverani  on  Unsplash "Retrieval practice that you perform at different times and in different contexts and that interleaves different learning material has the benefit of linking new associations to the material. This process builds interconnected networks of knowledge that bolster and support mastery of your field. It also multiplies the cues of retrieving and knowledge, increasing the versatility with which you can later apply it" (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014, p. 83). Photo by  Icons8 team  on  Unsplash This statement is definitely a powerful awakening for me as a learner, and as someone who frequently leads and teaches others. I remember learning about test taking in college; that the way you study will lead to the way you recall studied information on test day. For example, if you always study with music on in your headphones, but you cannot use them in class, you may do worse on your test. However, if we u...

Photo by  David Travis  on  Unsplash I am an avid notetaker. I always have been. In middle school through graduate school, I thought I was being a diligent student. I did all the reading. I highlighted passages. I wrote down definitions and key points from the texts. I took notes at each lecture. I have notebook upon notebook filled with facts and information that my brain has quickly discarded. But this is not an effective way to learn. Dr. Bjork (2016) mentions that "students go into a court stenographer mode taking notes and that suppresses learning rather than creates learning". I am a court-stenographer-learning-suppressing person! And what's even sadder is that I am in my second-to-last semester of my master's program. I most likely will not attend school after this, yet I just learned how ineffective my predominant learning methods have been. All that wasted paper and hand cramping and what do I have to show for it? High percentages of forgetting. ...