Learning Techniques for Students

We all know at least one of them: the visual learner, the active learner, the mental-photographic learner, the try hard learners, and so on.

Whether you are any of the above, or just in between, to learn anything is a severely difficult matter, and varies on subject matter, particular lesson, and individual learner. Grasping certain concepts and rearranging them in such a way so as to make them understood by you and you alone can be extraordinarily hard, especially in such a fast paced, open and freed environment of your freshman year in college.

So as to make your life just a little bit easier, here are a few learning techniques for students, of every age, with detailed analysis of the ways in which they modify aspects of confidence, intelligence, and articulation.

Practice-Testing

Although it may be sort of self-explanatory, practice testing is by far one of the best learning techniques for students, because it gives them the tools of success and opens them up to a moment of hard thought and a bit of mental stress.

Practice tests help students learn the basics of a particular subject or idea, which means said test doesn't necessarily have to be written, or even encompass one fluid idea. You can test yourself at any given moment on any given topic and feel greatly renewed in your ability to understand said idea without hassle.

Whether you're a workaholic or an untimely procrastinator, dividing one's time into intervals of working, playing, and working gives students the ability of grasping time management early on, as well as relieving stress. Gradual testing and learning concepts will greatly benefit students in the long run and has a particular level of effectiveness in its overall longevity.

Distributed practice is one of the best learning techniques for students, because it adheres to the duality of spending one's time wisely, while also harkening back on time spent intuitively. Don't bog yourself down, or overwork yourself too quickly, slow and steady wins the race.

This one involves a little more knowledge on a particular subject, as your bringing back thoughts on the testes subject of your choosing. This is the act of recalling information without the support of notes or friends for guidance.

Retrieval practice helps you heighten your retention of any particular information at hand, while also giving you a chance to see which areas may need more improvement. One of the best ways of doing this, try writing every single piece of info down on a sheet of paper, and see where you come up light.

By asking yourself specific questions, most commonly beginning with why, elaborative interrogation is one of the best techniques in understanding the deeper levels of any given topic. Research from Indiana's state university has shown it may be one of the best techniques at generating prolonged results.

Many awesome things can be researched and made interesting via this concept. By merely asking yourself open-ended questions, which target deeper areas of the material, elaborative interrogation is a self-operated mechanism fueled by your own self-interest, and driven by your curiosity.

Self-Explanation

Explaining something through self-knowledge isn't always the best route, but as it is one of the best learning techniques for students, it can't be ignored. Write out the question, then write out every answer you think is not only viable, but necessary to include.

Self-explanation is a lot like elaborative interrogation, or testing yourself then recording how you got the answer to that specified question. This practice can be applied to practically any form of material, and is not limited to educational purposes, giving it a blend of effectiveness and personal insight.

One of my least favorite techniques, simply because it doesn't work for me, interleaving entails switching from one material on to another in coordinated intervals. This concept is especially difficult, but has a very important level of effectiveness for those who learn photographically and in swift calculated motions.

While it may be a powerful and effective tool for some, for those who have a very limited attention span as is, preforming interleaving can be next to impossible. If you are going to do this, try sticking to familiar topics when switching, that way information doesn't get jumbled or lost when moving on to another subject.

As one of the best learning techniques for students, concepts in design thinking practice the ability of group activity, diverse interaction, and concrete examples, all of which is a test for a group as a whole. While some students may not be in the classroom, design thinking can be particularly difficult, but still has a very important form of effectiveness in learning.

Fortunately, it can be done anywhere and with anyone, just ask aloud any type of question, whether it be to friends or family, and see where the answers start heading. Write down the ones you think are most important, challenge when need be, and listen.

Though it might be widely disapproved of by most educational experts, the use of games in educational theory can be extremely beneficial and is one of the best learning techniques for students. It's a perfect example of how technology is being used in education today, making student learning a fun and entertaining environment.

Gamification works so as to give players a chance to learn something as they play a game, whether it be math or literacy, an educational computer game definitely exists. Even other methods of gamification, like spending a few hours of time between studying to memorize information as you play a game, can also be greatly effective for students.

Using words and visuals in educational practice is a stellar form of test, keeping information memorized and collated. As one of the best learning techniques for students, dual coding gives those who struggle to practice both spelling, heating and seeing said concepts stress-free.

This can be in charts, graphs, images, and more, all of which allow the student to retain the material through two forces of brain activity. The material should obviously be in connection with the lesson at hand, showcasing an effectiveness in practice and performance when the concept is understood.

Social Media

Surprisingly, social media can actually be one of the best learning techniques for students, because it utilizes one of their most treasured habits. Studies have shown that using social media in line with educational practices can be extremely beneficial, since most students use social media so much, there's little need to motivate them in this way.

There are hundreds of different varieties in using social media as an effective learning technique, but one personal favorite of mine is allowing, preferably younger students, to go thorough their favorite celebrities' tweets and fix grammatically mistakes. Who knew Twitter could be an educational tool of the future?

Rereading

As a writer, rereading is the basis for all effective written work. Without constant and attentive rereading, there will be no efficient knowledge taken away from a particular assignment or text. It's one of the best learning techniques for students, and has a level of effectiveness unheard of by most others, so it should not be ignored.

This, though, can be extremely hard in limited time tables, so the best way of doing this is by recording necessary notes and by rereading them, editing them, rewriting them, and rereading again, all as a due process of making yourself that much more ingrained into the topic. I read once, to help writers block, the best thing to do is to read like a butterfly, and write like a bee, so keep flapping your wrings and read, read, read!