A Framework for Training Students to Better Use Evidence-Based Learning Strategies
Cover photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels
By Megan Sumeracki
If you read our blog, even sporadically, you are almost certainly aware that investigations into evidence-based learning strategies have been ongoing for quite some time. In fact, as we near the end of 2025, I’m realizing that Ebbinghaus’ work on spaced practice was published 140 years ago (1)! Retrieval practice work extends back over 100 years as well, with Abbott’s work published in 1909 (2).
We know a lot about what cognitive strategies promote student learning, and what strategies really don’t. (Of course, we don’t know everything, and more research investigating novel questions is great! But, the base of this research is pretty well established at this point.) And yet, still, surveys from even the last couple of decades suggest that many students do not utilize evidence-based strategies. Instead, they tend to select strategies that are largely ineffective, or are highly inefficient (3; see this post, this post, and this post, for example).
How do we encourage students to adopt effective strategies? This is a difficult question (4). Ultimately, it is a question of transfer, and transfer is notoriously difficult to achieve (see this pair of posts, Part 1 and Part 2). It is particularly true when we are talking about far transfer. Our goal with effective learning strategies training would ideally be to get students to learn how to use these strategies and then continue to use them (flexibly, appropriately) across a lot of different subject areas, and a lot of different types of learning situations. There have been some interventions that we’ve covered before (see this post (5); this post (6); and this post (7)) with varying levels of success.
To address this, Mark McDaniel and Gil Einstein developed a framework related to training and transfer of effective learning strategies (8). Their purpose is twofold. First, McDaniel and Einstein note that while there are plenty of resources being developed, based on empirical evidence, to support students and teachers in developing the use of effective strategies. However, as they note, “little has been offered about how to effectively train this information so that students will initiate using these learning strategies on their own for their learning challenges (e.g., schoolwork) and sustain the use of these strategies” (8; p. 1364). The second goal was to promote more research on examining training and transfer of spontaneous (i.e., independent) use of effective strategies. Importantly, they developed a framework that could be applied across subject-matter domains, and even across students of varying ages.
I’ve been particularly interested in this paper, because I’m highly interested in this big question—how do we train students to utilize effective strategies and then get them to transfer the practice to other learning opportunities—but also because Mark McDaniel taught my training and transfer seminar at Washington University in St. Louis in grad school! (Fun fact: Cindy was in that seminar with me, too.)
Within McDaniel and Einstein’s framework, they describe four components that they theorize, based on the research we do have, need to be present in order to successfully train students to utilize evidence-based learning strategies. Importantly, they argue that all four components must be present for training and transfer to be successful. I briefly summarize each of these four components here, and refer any interested reader to the paper itself, in which the authors summarize a great deal of research on which the framework is based.
Strategy Knowledge
Students need to understand what strategies are actually effective, when and how to use them, and why the strategies are effective. The why is important, because it will help the students better understand how to more flexibly use the strategies, rather than providing a rigid prescription that must be followed.
Belief
The students need to believe that the learning strategies work, and specifically that they will work for them. The authors argue that, based on past research, direct experience with the strategies and their consequences will likely help most with this. In doing so, the students will also develop a strong relationship between their strategy selection and learning outcomes. This can, in turn, help to increase their self-efficacy, or their confidence in their own ability to learn.
Image by anhvanyds com from Pixabay
Commitment
Students need to develop a personal commitment to applying the strategies, during training and after training. The training program needs to focus on increasing students’ motivation, interest, and persistence. Utility-value interventions to increase learners’ perceived value of a given task can help accomplish this. another plausible approach is to train students to avoid inappropriately attributing their own successes and failures to external events (e.g., the task was too easy/hard, the teacher doesn’t like me, I was lucky/unlucky, etc.). Correctly recognizing the relationship between effective strategies and one’s own learning performance can help increase motivation to use the strategies, and strengthen commitment.
Planning
The authors share examples of research demonstrating that even when students have accurate knowledge about what strategies to use, believe that they will work, and are at least somewhat motivated to use the strategies, all of this still does not always translate to actual practice. Thus, students need to develop a concrete plan for implementing the learning strategies in their own lives. The plans should be specific, identifying when, where, and how to use the interventions. One evidence-based way of doing this is to create implementation intentions. These intentions are very concrete, and are framed as “when [this specific situation ]arises, I will [do xyz].” An example might be something like, “each morning after I take a shower, I will practice retrieval by writing out what I can remember learning from the day before.”
Planning in this way should increase the likelihood that students transfer what they have learned about the strategies and use them in other contexts.
More research is needed to directly test this framework. However, the framework is built on a solid base of past research, and sounds promising, both in stimulating more research in this area and in improving transfer of learning strategies to students’ independent studying!
References:
(1) Ebbinghaus, H. E. (1964). Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology. New York, NY: Dover. (Original work published 1885)
(2) Abbott, E. E. (1909). On the analysis of the factors of recall in the learning process. The Psychological Review: Monograph Supplements, 11, 159-177. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093018
(3) Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective teaching techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14, 4-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
(4) Sumeracki, M. A., Kaminske, A. N., Kuepper-Tetzel, C. E., & Nebel, C. L. (2023). The Learning Scientists: Promoting communication about the science of learning. In C. E. Overson, C. M. Hakala, L. L. Kordonowy, & V.A. Benassi (Eds.), In their own words: What scholars want you to know about why and how to apply the science of learning in your academic setting (pp. 295–302). Society for the Teaching of Psychology. https://teachpsych.org/ebooks/itow
(5) Maurer, T. W., & Cabay, E. (2023). Challenges of Shaping Student Study Strategies for Success: Replication and Extension. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 11. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.11.18
(6) Ariel, R., & Karpicke, J. D. (2018). Improving self-regulated learning with a retrieval practice intervention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 24(1), 43-56. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000133
(7) Oreopoulus, P., & Petronijevic, U. (2019). The remarkable unresponsiveness of college students to nudging and what we can learn from it. EdWorkingPaper: 19-102. Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai19-109.
(8) McDaniel, M. A., & Einstein, G. O. (2020). Training learning strategies to promote self-regulation and transfer: The knowledge, belief, commitment, and planning framework. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(6), 1363-1381. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620920723 [PDF from McDaniel Lab]
