Last week, I wrote about normal classroom practices that are completely backed up by scientific research in the hopes that you could be encouraged in what you are already doing and also be more intentional about doing it, knowing that it is effective. Today, I want to talk about some things that we've been doing wrong (or just as importantly telling kids to do wrong) because, when studied scientifically, they turned out to be ineffective.
Read the chapter again - When a student doesn't do well on a test at the beginning of the year, I ask them to come in and talk with me about studying. I always start with the question, "What do you currently do to study." There answer is almost always, "I re-read the chapter" or "I go over my notes." We all know this isn't how to memorize something because we don't apply it to anything else we want to remember. If you have to type in a number in a few seconds, you don't just look at it again. You repeat it over and over out loud as you walk across the room to your computer. If you are in a play, you don't read the script again to learn your lines. You put the script down and try to remember the line. Then, you pick it back up to check and see if you were right. It's called retrieval practice, and it is highly effective. I tell my students RECALL beats REREAD every time.
Group by learning style - This is the myth that will not die. It started when I was in middle school. You had to take a test to learn your personal style, and teachers felt pressured to cater each lesson to each style, which is completely untenable. I remember being in groups that were specifically designed to have one person from each learning style in it, even though no research had ever remotely suggested that teachers do that. Parents still tell me their child's learning style when I meet with them, and many teachers still believe in it. Brain science, however, is clear. There is no such thing as a person whose brain behaves differently if they prefer to learn from visuals than if they prefer to learn from listening. Their brains are not more active when being taught in their preferred style. One of the reasons for the staying power of this myth is that dual coding (teaching with multiple modalities at the same time) IS effective. That's why many teachers will tell you they see benefits when teaching with multiple styles. The conclusion they are drawing is wrong when they could stress less by understanding the difference. Teaching with strong visuals attached to our words helps all students. You can create one strong lesson that pairs visuals with words (whether written or auditory) and give every brain a chance to process the information through two different parts of their brain. You don't have to cater your teaching to individual students when catering it to the material is so much more effective.
Brainstorm in groups - Since we starting making group work the gold standard of education (which it is sometimes, but not always), we have encouraged group brainstorming with the belief that we can get more ideas from a group than we can from individuals. The research shows the opposite result. When people brainstorm together in groups, there are fewer unique ideas, and the idea that the group ends up going with is usually the least creative idea. This comes from social pressure. A more introverted person is less likely to present their ideas to the group and more likely to go along with the majority even if they don't agree. Once a person perceived as a leader puts their idea into the mix, the group tends to go along with it and stop presenting anything else. This doesn't mean work can't be done in groups, but if you want more ideas and more creativity, it is best to let people brainstorm on their own for fifteen minutes, to write down their ideas, and then to have all ideas read to the group without responding to any of them until they have all been heard. The research shows that this practice will result in more solutions and that the group will be more likely to gravitate to the best one, not just the one presented by the most vocal person.
Highlight and underline - I'll admit that this one surprised me. I was shocked to learn that it is not just ineffective, it has a negative effect (meaning highlighting and underlining makes it less likely you will remember it). I've always been a person who read information texts with a pencil in my hand, ready to underline anything I liked and wanted to revisit. That's a good practice if you are going to have a discussion on a book or plan to write a blog post on it and need to be able to find material to reference. It's a bad practice if you are going to have a test on what you are reading. By underlining the text, you have told your brain that it doesn't need to remember the information because it will be easy to find when you need it again. Meanwhile, it instills a false sense of confidence because since you highlighted it, you believe you confirmed its importance and know it well.
Extensive and detailed note-taking - Should students take notes? Yes. When done properly, it helps them maintain focus and gives them a guide for later study. Do most students take notes well? No. I don't know about your students, but mine come to me with a belief that copying every word I project (and nothing else) is note-taking. I sometimes intentionally move on from a slide before they can get everything down in order to break them of this habit. When they ask, "Should we write this down," the answer I give is less than satisfying because it is, "You might." On the rare occasion that I do want to students to copy an entire slide, I stop talking and give them time to do so. When I tell students they should have things I said in their notes, they are surprised because it wasn't projected. There is one lesson of the year in which the only thing I project the entire period is a diagram of the human ear. We spend thirty minutes talking about each part's function and how it relates to the other parts, symptoms of problems with each part, and how the ear is also responsible for our sense balance. One year, at the end of this rich conversation, my students said, "We didn't take any notes today. What are you going to ask about on the test?" They should have been taking notes the entire time, but because I had only projected the diagram, they thought they didn't need to write anything down. Proper notes should point students back to the detailed information. They should not be able to study using their notes alone. It should point them to page numbers and reference videos on the LMS. It should prompt their memory, not replace it.
Last week's post was meant as an encouragement. This one is not intended to be discouraging, but it should serve as a challenge to keep current on the best research about education and not assume that just because you did things a certain way that it is the only way or even the best way.
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