Annotated Bibliography: Improving Student Learning Strategies

Journal Article #1:

 Reference: Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D.T.

(2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public

Interest, 14, 4-58.

 Review: This journal article investigates ten distinct learning strategies to determine their respective effectiveness in regard to student educational outcomes. Notably, the authors restricted their investigation to learning strategies that satisfied the following criteria: 1) easily utilized by most students without special training; 2) applicable to a wide range of academic subjects; and 3) do not require any special equipment and/or technology.

To accomplish the aforementioned objective, these researchers report promising results from experiments involving students actually enrolled in their introductory organic chemistry and introductory philosophy lecture courses. More specifically, in the organic chemistry course, the utilization of active learning strategies improved the student retention rate from

38% to 75%. Similarly, in the philosophy course, 91% of the students self-reported that the employment of active learning strategies in the classroom significantly enhanced their overall learning experience. Finally, these researchers proficiently address the three leading issues associated with the utilization of active learning strategies in the classroom:

1) reduced content coverage; 2) excessive time demands; and 3) consumer anxiety.

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 Journal Article #3:

 Reference: Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331, 772-775.

 Review: This journal article investigates the efficacy of concept mapping and retrieval practice with respect to student educational outcomes. Most remarkably, this article indicates

For instance, I learned to appreciate the immense importance of aligning the course assessment methods with the Student Learning Outcomes and the pedagogical techniques implemented in the classroom. Reflecting from personal experience, I suspect that this alignment is crucial since any discordance between course assessment methods and Student Learning

Outcomes and/or instructional strategies is likely to be detrimental in regard to student learning and academic performance. Additionally, this course furnished several opportunities for participants to gain practical experience in utilizing a variety of novel, scientifically-proven teaching and learning

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Willingham, 2013; Faust & Paulson, 1998; Karpicke & Blunt, 2011).

Furthermore, during this course, I learned to appreciate the significance of adopting a growth mindset with respect to the endeavors of teaching and learning, and, likewise, persuading students to embrace a growth mindset and practice the highly-effective metacognition-based learning techniques described by McGuire and McGuire (2015). In brief, these