Learning How to Learn Strategies

 

Questions to Help Teachers Teach Learning How to Learn Strategies.

 

1. What background information do my students need to be successful in my course?

• What prior content should they have? Can I provide ways for students to review this content if they don’t have it?
• What skills do I assume my students have that are related to being successful in this course?

 

2. What cognitive levels of thinking do my students need to operate at to be successful in my course?

• Is my course mostly knowledge and comprehension based information—facts and explanations?
• Will students need to be able to apply what they learn or evaluated or synthesize?

 

3. What types of thinking skills/strategies do my students need to use to be successful in my course?

• Do they need to solve problems?
• Compare and contrast information?
• Be creative or inventive in their thinking?

 

4.      What information gathering skills do my students need to be successful in my cours

 

• Do they need to know how to use Internet search engines?
• Library research resources?
• Certain databases?

 

5. What types of fix up strategies do students usually need to be successful in my course?

• What areas of my course are usually really difficult for students?
• Is there a set of questions students should know to ask when they do not understand the material?
• Is there a set of steps a student should take to figure out how to solve a problem when they get stuck?

 

6. What types of study skills do my students need to have to be successful in my course?

• Do I give objective tests?
• Do I give essay tests?
• Are their large amounts of information that must be organized?

 

7. What types of learning strategies do my students need to have to be successful in my course?

• Do they need to be good note-takers?
• Do they need to know how to summarize?
• Do they need to know how to find important information in the textbook
• Do they need to know how to develop example, analogies or metaphors?

 

 

 

Learning How to Learn includes all of the following areas.

 

1.        Ways of organizing information

 

2.        Ways of comprehending information / Finding the Important Information

 

3.        Ways of studying information

 

4.        Ways of recalling information

 

5.        Ways of finding information

 

6.        Ways of thinking about information

 

 

 

Ways of organizing information may include:

 

1.        By topic

 

2.        By concept

 

3.        By theme

 

4.        By unit

 

5.        By time

 

6.        By location

 

7.        By importance

 

 

Strategies for Organizing Information

 

1.        Outlining

 

2.        Notetaking

 

3.        Summarizing

 

4.        Highlighting

 

5.        Note Cards

 

6.        Marginal Notes

 

7.        Graphic Displays/Maps

 

8.        Time lines

 

 

Ways of Comprehending Information.

 

1.        By connecting to background

 

2.        By association

 

3.        By analogy

 

4.        By example

 

5.        By relationship

 

6.        By visualizing

 

7.        By using context

 

8.        By using prediction

 

 

Finding Important Information in Text

 

1.        Use of Cue and Clues

2.        By the organization and structure of the material.

3.        By using locator questions

 

 

 

Strategies for Comprehension

 

1.        Reading Strategies  SQR4

2.        Cognitive maps

3.        Modeling Others

4.        Discussion

5.        Using optimal Learning Style

6.        Self-Questioning

7.        Brainstroming

 

Ways of Studying Information.

 

1. Daily review/rehearsal/practice

2. Organize the information

3. Practice tests / Test reviews

4. Summarizing

5. Writing

6. Saying aloud

7.        Peer questioning

8.        Proper time of day

9.        Proper location

 

 

Ways of Recalling Information.

 

1.        Semantic memory/ words

2.        Episodic memory/location

3.        Procedural memory/muscle

4.        Automatic memory/conditioned response

5.        Emotional memory

 

 

Strategies for Recalling Information

 

1.          Visualize the information

2.          Rehearsal/ practice/review

3.          Graphic organizers

4.          Explain to others/peer teaching

5.          Summarize

6.          Mnemonic devices

7.          Music/songs

8.          Emotional significance

9.          Make it stand out/special

10. Go to the location/retrace your steps

11. Use a systematic approach to        

      learning and studying/ procedural    

      memory

12.        Use 3X5 cards with practice  

       /automatic memory.

 

 

Ways of Finding Information.

 

1. Using search engines

2. Using the library

3. Ask others/peers/faculty

4.        Source books

 

 

Ways of Thinking about Information.

 

1.        Inference/interpretation

2.        Application

3.        Synthesis

4.        Analysis

5.        Evaluation

6.        Systems thinking

7.        Creative thinking

8.        Problem solving

 

 

Strategies for Thinking about Information

 

1.        Modeling comprehension

2.        Problem solving approaches

3.        Fix up strategies

4.        Metacognitive strategies

5.        Back burner thinking

6.        Questioning approaches

7.        Out of the box thinking

8.        Comparing and Contrasting

9.        Inductively and Deductively