In this video, Dr. Stephen Chew shares a model about how people learn, and highlights key points about memory that will benefit students as they are trying to learn and cope, especially in stressful times like we are experiencing with the Covid pandemic.
by Dana Melone, Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School
We all want our students to study effectively. Many of our students fall into the trap of doing what they have always done. They do this for a lot of reasons. Maybe it has worked for them in the past and now suddenly their method is not working, maybe they were never taught how to study and assumed it must be intuitive, or maybe they have never needed to study in the past. The list can go on and on. As educators, we know that study habits are an important part of academic achievement.
I teach five sections of Advanced Placement Psychology with an average of about 150 students per school year. These students are sophomores, juniors, and seniors from a variety of different socioeconomic, racial and ethnic groups. My students also come in with a variety of experience in taking advanced courses and a variety of ranges of grade point averages. I talk with my students at the beginning of the school year about their study habits to determine whether I need to teach them study skills.
Here are just a few of the patterns of studying/learning misconceptions that I see:
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Misconceptions |
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After seeing these patterns year after year, I wanted to teach my students effective study methods and the use of metacognition in studying. I wanted the focus to be on continuous modeling of this in the course and honest discussions about how this can be used at home as a study tool. For the past few years I have been focusing on clearing up misconceptions about studying, and teaching students methods of retrieval practice, interleaving multiple areas of content, and spacing out their retrieval practice over time for better retention. This focus helps my students provide their own feedback on what they know and do not know.
Retrieval practice is defined as “A learning strategy where we focus on getting information out” (retrievalpractice.org). This means I am teaching my students to talk, write, and answer questions about the content without looking at the material while they are doing it. By focusing on on retrieval over time (spacing of learning), plus weaving in multiple topics from the course at a time (interleaving), I am helping my students become self sufficient in determining what they know and what they do not know about the content and its connection to other units in the course.
I incorporate these three high efficacy learning strategies in my classroom in multiple ways and encourage students to use similar techniques in their own studying. Here are a few examples:
My students have really responded to these methods but it has taken a lot of teaching and reteaching the method and the reasoning behind the use of the method. Many of them have started creating them for their other classes. I have seen a decrease in students asking me for fill in the blank study guides and an increase in students asking me for tips on how to use retrieval practice to study a variety of topics. My plan moving forward is to show students correlation data from their exams showing the relationship between retrieval practice and test scores.
by Aaron S. Richmond, Ph. D., Metropolitan State University of Denver
As a standalone assessment tool, the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IF-AT) has been demonstrated to affect student learning and students’ perceptions of the teacher (e.g., Brosvic et al. 2006; Slepkov & Sheil, 2014) and possibly improve metacognition (see Richmond, 2017). However, can IF-AT be combined with a cooperative learning activity such as Team-Based Learning (TBL) to enhance metacognition as well?
To partially answer this question, several researchers suggest that the IF-AT may be used effectively with TBL (Carmichael, 2009; Hefley & Tyre, 2012; Ives, 2014). For example, you could first form teams, give them an exam to discuss and debate the correct answer, and then have the teams decide on the correct answer. If students within a team cannot come to a consensus 
on the response to a question, you may allow them to write an “appeal” to turn in a separate answer. Click on Figure 1 for a video on how to use IF-AT combined with TBL. IF-AT may also be used in dyads to allow students to discuss correct and incorrect answers. Students read a question, discuss the correct and incorrect answers, and then cooperatively make a decision, with the IF-AT providing immediate feedback. A third way, suggested by Ives (2011), is to do a two-stage group quiz. Ives suggests that you should have individual students write weekly quiz questions (first-stage), then get into teams and take quizzes in teams that consist of student’s written questions. However, the question then becomes, can the combination of TBL and IF-AT instructional strategies improve metacognition?
Figure 1. Team-Based Learning Using IF-AT.
The Interplay Among IF-AT, TBL, and Metacognition
As I argued previously (Richmond, 2017), IF-AT may improve student’s metacognition; however, by adding TBL, what metacognitive processes and skills might improve? I see a several metacognitive benefits that may occur when combining these two instructional strategies.
First, the combination of IF-AT and TBL may increase student’s metacognitive awareness. For instance, test anxiety may be reduced in a group setting when using IF-AT (Ives, 2011) because students have the opportunity to debate the answers, hear from others, gather consensus and share responsibility. As the awareness of and conscious effort to reduce test anxiety is part of metacognitive awareness, the combination of TBL and IF-AT may make this process more salient.
Second, using TBL with IF-AT may also increase student’s calibration (e.g., the accuracy of knowing when you know or do not know something). That is, in a cooperative learning activity such as TBL, students are either reinforced with their correct knowledge through the process of debating and discussion of answers OR confronted with their incorrect knowledge by interacting with team members. Consequently, their assessment (calibration) of their knowledge should become more accurate through this process. For example, if a team member accurately identifies a correct answer, and one of the team members (who had the incorrect answer to start with) observes this, they may reflect on their answer, determine why and how they came to the incorrect answer, and change future strategies to study and subsequent estimations of knowledge. Or, an individual team member could consistently get (originally) the correct answer, but always underestimate his or her knowledge. This type of student may gain confidence in their knowledge and become more accurately calibrated.
Third, by combining TBL and IF-AT, there may also be an increase of metacognitive, cognitive, and learning strategy skills. That is, as team members share how, where, what, and why they studied, other team members may incorporate these strategies into their quiver of learning strategies (especially if the team member who suggested it was correct). For example, one team member may explain the elaborative strategy they used effectively to study, and other team members listen and incorporate elaboration into their repertoire of strategies. Or, for example, a team member may consistently get questions wrong and share what strategy he or she uses (e.g., cramming and rehearsal). Other team members observe this, realize that strategy does not appear to work very well, and subsequently rarely use it themselves (we could only wish J).
Based on the above examples, it does seem likely that the combined use of TBL and IF-AT may improve various metacognitive skills.
Concluding Thoughts and The Hallmark of Good Assessments—Evidence
As a SoTL scholar, I would be remiss not to investigate the evidence supporting or refuting the 
efficacy of IF-AT and TBL. There are a handful of studies that demonstrate the advantage of using TBL and IF-AT to increase academic performance and enjoyment of class (e.g., Carmichael, 2009; Haberyan, 2007). The combination of IF-AT and TBL has also demonstrated to stimulate small group discussion and identify and correct content misconceptions (Cotner, Baepler, & Kellerman, 2008). However, there appears to be a gap in the research. Specifically, there are several research questions which arise:
As I mentioned in my first blog on IF-AT (Richmond, 2017) and here, I think there are enormous SoTL research opportunities for investigating the effects of IF-AT and TBL to improve metacognition. This, invariably, leads to the proverbial phrase: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing—so get to work!
Please follow me on Twitter: @AaronSRichmond
References
Carmichael, J. (2009). Team-based learning enhances performance in introductory biology. Journal of College Science Teaching, 38(4), 54–61.
Clark, M. C., Nguyen, H. T., Bray, C., & Levine, R. E. (2008). Team-based learning in an undergraduate nursing course. Journal of Nursing Education, 47, 111–117.
Cotner, S., Baepler, P., & Kellerman, A. (2008). Scratch this! The IF-AT as a technique for stimulating group discussion and exposing misconceptions. Journal of College Science Teaching, 37(4), 48.
Haberyan, A., (2007). Team-based learning in an industrial/organizational psychology course. North American Journal of Psychology, 9,143–152.
Hefley, T., & Tyre, A. J. (2012). Favorable team scores under the team-based learning paradigm: A statistical artifact?. RURALS: Review of Undergraduate Research in Agricultural and Life Sciences, 6(1), 1. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=rurals
Ives, J. (2011). Two-stage group quizzes part 1: What, how and why. Science Learnification: Teaching and learning in the sciences with a focus on physics education research (PER) from the trenches. Retrieved from https://learnification.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/two-stage-group-quizzes-part-1-what-how-and-why/
Richmond, A. S. (2017, February 24th). Scratch and win or scratch and lose? Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique. Retrieved from https://www.improvewithmetacognition.com/scratch-win-scratch-lose-immediate-feedback-assessment-technique/
Slepkov, A. D., & Shiell, R. C. (2014). Comparison of integrated testlet and constructed-response question formats. Physical Review Special Topics-Physics Education Research, 10(2), 020120.