Self-testing Study Strategies

Many of us have just passed mid-way through our terms, perhaps returning mid-term assessments to students. I thought this 2012 paper on "Study strategies of college students: Are self-testing and scheduling related to achievement?" by Hartwig & Dunlosky might provide us suggestions for students who did not perform well.

In summary, the authors found that students benefit from self-testing, scheduling one’s study, and a checklist of strategies recommended by cognitive research. They found that low performers were more likely to engage in late-night studying; massing (vs. spacing) of study; and driven by impending deadlines.

Current evidence suggests that self-testing has widespread benefits across different kinds of tests, materials, and student abilities (Roediger & Butler, 2011).

Self-testing can help students extrapolate material into authentic contexts. Theories of self-regulated learning show that learners use a variety of strategies to achieve goals, and that the quality of strategy use should be related to performance (Dunlosky & Metcalfe, 2009). Mentoring students into using these self-regulating skills can be fostered by providing them prompts:

- How do I know when I know something?

- What is the evidence and how reliable is it?

- How are events, theories, models or people connected?

- What is the cause and effect?

- Why does it matter? What does it all mean?

Hartwig, M.K. & Dunlosky, J. Psychon Bull Rev (2012) 19: 126. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0181-y