Learning Scientists Blog — The Learning Scientists

Jul 18

Jul 18 GUEST POST: My Journey from Mayhem to Morphology

For Teachers, For Researchers, Guest Posts

I became a high school speech pathologist after earning a Master’s degree in Speech and Language Pathology. When I was in school, Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs) didn't learn a whole lot about orthography. We learned many things...

Jul 16

Jul 16 Weekly Digest #68: Desirable Difficulties

Learning Scientists

For Researchers, For Teachers, Digests

The concept of desirable difficulties describes the idea that students need tasks that challenge them to the right degree in order to learn best. Some have criticized this theory for being circular (1). That is, when a learning task is easy and later performance is low...

Jul 13

Jul 13 The Key to Interleaving: Jumble It Up!

Megan Sumeracki

Learning Scientists Posts, For Teachers, For Researchers

Interleaving can be a confusing topic and is often confused with spaced practice. In laboratory studies, we can disentangle the effects of interleaving and spacing to show that they are both helpful on their own to produce learning (1). However, in classroom ...

Jul 11

Jul 11 GUEST POST: Elaborative Interrogation – What if Students Can’t Produce Useful Elaborations?

Learning Scientists

Guest Posts, For Teachers, For Researchers

Diagrams can help students learn, especially when students connect verbal information (like words in the text of a lesson) with the diagrams (1). But getting students to make these connections can be tricky because you can’t look at a diagram and the text at the same time!

Jul 9

Jul 9 Weekly Digest #67: Dual Coding in the Classroom

Learning Scientists

For Teachers, For Researchers, Digests

Dual coding, or combining visuals with words, is one of the 6 strategies for effective learning. The idea is that by combining a visual representation of an idea with a verbal representation of an idea, we will be able to learn the idea better. (Of course, this can be ...

Jul 4

Jul 4 GUEST POST: WOOP Your Way Forward - A Self-Regulation Strategy That Could Help You Get Ahead and Stay Ahead

Learning Scientists

Guest Posts, For Teachers, For Students, For Researchers, For Parents

You’ve got a big project due at the end of the term. You’ve got a cumulative exam in two weeks. You’ve got an oral presentation in three days. You know you should space your study/work sessions (because you’ve been reading posts such as this one on this blog)...