Brain-Based Learning

Science-Backed Studying Techniques

If high school students were never taught how to study, they’re going to keep being frustrated by using ineffective studying methods. Here’s how to help change that.

December 23, 2024

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Many educators assume that at some point, students have been taught how to study effectively, but I’ve been a high school teacher for nearly 20 years, and I’ve learned that that is typically not the case.

When students rely on ineffective studying methods like highlighting and rewriting notes, they sometimes come to believe that “studying” doesn’t work. By the time they reach my class, I need to break down these misconceptions before they can adopt more effective strategies. That’s why I make a point to explicitly teach study strategies to my sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

In the first month of the school year, I spend a significant amount of class time in my AP Biology course emphasizing study skills that challenge typical study strategies. Although I’m a veteran teacher, every year I’m anxious about students’ performance on their first unit exam; the success or failure on this assessment often sets a tone for my credibility with my classes.

If a student follows my guidance but doesn’t achieve the result they hoped for, I risk losing their trust. Success, on the other hand, is transformative—they will be more likely to adopt these strategies across their classes. The exam feels like a pivotal moment, shaping how hard I’ll need to work to get everyone to trust the process as the year unfolds.

Study strategies that work

For about half of my students, AP Biology is the first class that demands significant preparation and study. To prepare them to meet this challenge, I teach study strategies that are backed by cognitive science research. The study strategies I focus on come from the Learning Scientists, a collaborative of cognitive scientists whose mission is to put their research into action in classrooms. Here is a list of their six recommended high-impact study strategies.

  • Retrieval practice: actively bringing memories from long-term memory into short term memory.
  • Spaced practice: offering shorter, more frequent study sessions instead of cramming into one long study session.
  • Dual coding: combining words and pictures.
  • Elaboration: asking and answering questions to increasing detail.
  • Interleaving: switching between related topics or problems.
  • Concrete examples: collecting a variety of examples to build meaningful understanding, especially important for abstract ideas.

On the first day of class, I assign the video, How to Study Effectively for School or College, developed by the Learning Scientists. This video introduces the aforementioned six effective study strategies. In class the following day, I begin with a Pear Deck bell-ringer activity that prompts students to apply the strategies from the video.

In subsequent lessons, as I begin biology content, I incorporate dual coding, retrieval practice, spaced practice, and elaboration into class activities. Each time we use one of the six strategies, I explicitly point it out. For example, I will use a strategy from Mark Enser based on the BBC Radio 4 show Just a Minute. In partners, students are given a topic that they must speak on for one minute without hesitation, repetition, or deviation. This is a great activity that utilizes spaced practice, retrieval, and elaboration.

Daniel T. Willingham’s book Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy has been a helpful resource for developing how I approach study misconceptions with students. I model how to read a college-level textbook, stressing that reading for learning is different from reading for pleasure. Reading for learning requires a more intense level of concentration and interaction with the text, utilizing strategies like elaboration and concrete examples while note-taking.

To assist students in making reading a more effective learning experience, I ask them not to highlight or recopy the textbook or their own notes. This practice gives a false sense of security, making students overly confident with their knowledge of the material, a concept known as familiarity.

“The familiarity trap” is something I revisit throughout the year because it’s the most common mistake students make when studying for exams. When I conference with struggling students, I often find that this is what’s holding them back from reaching their potential.

As we approach the end of our first content unit, I teach a mini-lesson on reorganizing notes and revisit the concept of mistaking familiarity with knowing. Reorganizing notes involves students combining their notes from different sources, readings, and lectures. As they reorganize, they look for holes and develop questions. This can help students make connections between topics that they may have not noticed on their first pass at the content.

One way of reorganizing notes is creating a visual representation of the cognitive architecture of their brain; this taps back into the concept of dual coding. Concept mapping allows students to spatially represent their thoughts on paper, ultimately reinforcing what is already in their brain. I model this with students and give them an activity to create their own, such as this example activity. Students begin with the vocabulary word microtubules and connect it to ribosomes with an arrow, writing above the arrow how the two words are connected in their mind. I slowly give students one vocabulary word at a time as they build their concept map. When the activity is complete, students share their connections with classmates.

Inevitably some students will not be happy with their score on our first summative exam. To assist them with reflecting on their own study habits, I have students do test corrections, using only their written notes to help them correct their wrong answers.

As students correct questions, they code their answers, using a list of specific study mistakes derived from Outsmart Your Brain. An example might be, “I was familiar with the topic, but I didn’t memorize it.” This helps students to be specific about how their study practices worked or didn’t work rather than just saying, “I didn’t study enough.” My students report that this activity is one of the most powerful that we do because it helps them to reflect on both their content knowledge and their approach to preparing for assessments.

There is never a point in the year when I stop talking about the learning process, intentionally teaching and reinforcing effective study techniques. Guiding students to trust the process is about more than helping them succeed in AP Biology; it’s about equipping them with the skills and confidence to tackle challenging material in all areas of their education. Preparing for a difficult summative exam is never easy. However, it is highly motivating for students when the hard work they put into learning results in success.

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  • Teaching Strategies
  • 9-12 High School

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