and Delivery of Instruction
1. Use mastery learning as the major framework for your own study strategies. The key factors in accomplishing this are to identify the key objectives of a unit of instruction, study to meet those objectives, find a way to test yourself regarding those objectives, and then use whatever time is necessary to repeat this process until you successfully meet the objectives.
2. Be aware that there are eight phases of learning - not just one. Simply deciding to sit down and study hard is not likely to be productive. Sometimes students can instruct themselves, and sometimes they can arrange for others to help them learn. Students often waste time by not learning effectively during class. By following these guidelines during class, you can have more free time for other activities after class. The following is a list of the phases of learning and possible ways in which students might help themselves through these phases:
2.1. Attention.a. Find a way to focus on the interesting aspects of instructional activities.b. Eliminate distractions.
c. Keep yourself at a medium level of arousal (chapter 5).
2.2. Expectancy.
a. Find out the purpose the instructional activity and find a reason to care about that purpose.b. If necessary, add another purpose. (Use principles of self-reinforcement.)
c. Employ principles of self-motivation (chapter 5). 2.3. Retrieval of relevant information to working memory.
a. When beginning to study a topic, ask yourself what you already know about the subject.b. If necessary, ask the teacher what prior knowledge would be helpful.
c. When you are learning something that will be a prerequisite for something else, learn that prerequisite well. Overlearn it.
d. If you discover that you are deficient in a prerequisite concept or skill, review or learn that prerequisite topic before starting on the new skill.
2.4. Selective perception.
a. Focus your attention on exactly what it is that is important in the lesson. Avoid becoming excessively concerned about peripheral issues.b. If you are uncertain about what is important or about the meaning of information, ask questions. If confusion occurs when the teacher is not present, make notes to ask questions. (It's good to try to answer the questions yourself and then verify the accuracy of your answers. This helps with encoding.)
c. If one mode of presentation is ineffective, try another. For example, if your textbook isn't as helpful as it might be, try a supplementary text.
2.5. Encoding.
a. Use the strategies for entering information into long-term memory which are discussed in chapter 6. 2.6. Responding.
a. Volunteer to give answers in class. b. Ask good questions during class. Asking a good question is often a better response than answering a question.
c. Study with a friend. When doing so, interact actively by asking questions and giving feedback. Share roles equally.
d. Make up questions for you or someone else to answer (e.g., Jeopardy games).
e. Look for practical applications of what you are studying.
f. Use the questions that come with the textbook to review. Be sure not to look at the answers until you answer the questions.
g. When someone else is responding to a question in class, respond internally yourself. Use the feedback that person receives as vicarious reinforcement for yourself.
2.7. Feedback.
a. Go over tests and quizzes and make sure you understand the nature of mistakes and how to correct them.b. Use principles of behavior modification to make feedback reinforcing. For example, relate feedback to goals. Shape behavior by reinforcing achievement of short-term goals rather than waiting for long-term goals to be met. Graph your performance and strive for improvement.
c. Make effort attributions (chapter 5) based on realistic goals and feedback. Set goals that are possible to attain, and convince yourself that when you meet these goals, it is because of your effort. When you fail, convince yourself that if you worked at the topic differently you could master it. Resist blaming your teacher or making other excuses.
d. Compare your performance to your own previous performance rather than to that of your peers.
2.8. Cueing retrieval.
a. Look for real-life applications of what you have studied and point these out even after you have "completed" studying that topic in class.b. Look for ways to apply what you have learned in one class to other classes.
c. When reviewing for tests, use distributed rather than massed practice. That is, if you have four hours to review over the weekend, it is usually not best to spend one hour on each of four topics. It is usually better to spend fifteen minutes out of each hour on each of the four topics.
d. Avoid cramming. It is far better to study a topic for fifteen minutes each week for eight weeks than for two hours the night before the exam.
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