I am sure all of you are deep into mid terms and assignments in this very busy semester. I know that I sure am. This got me thinking about the way our educational institutions are set up in regards to the testing structures. In relation to new age research, the way people learn effectively is not a new idea. As I sit in the library juggling around my studying for different exams, I realize that throughout my university career, I have definitely done the ineffective method of cramming information into my head the day before the exam. I think it is very safe to say that many of you reading this have done this as well and if you have not then good on you. Cramming has been effective for me on some occasions to get good grades but on others it has not been so successful. It has also not been very effective for the long term retention part of my learning. I understand that part of the onus is on the students to be effective at time management but it also brings me to the realization that the way we are taught is extremely flawed. After being in psychology for a few years, I am very disenfranchised with the way we are taught to basically compete in a system that favours the people who can write tests better than others. There is much more to learning than just memorizing statistics or formulas or any other stream that people decide to pursue in their schooling. With the information that is out there about the most effective ways of learning, I can not help but wonder why more professors do not get out of this mentality of testing about recall memory vs. being able to apply concepts in an out of test scenario. Can you think of any reason why institutions still use these methods of testing when the research is out there showing that some testing methods are ineffective for long term retention? Along with this, can you think of any ways that institutions, professors, or students can help spur this shift from standardized testing to other more effective ways of learning so that everyone can benefit from the learning environment instead of just being able to memorize something in the short term for a test?
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Hi Koleton,
It is no secret that our education system is flawed. The way students are taught does not reflect the way we learn best. I do think as post-secondary students we eventually figure out what ways of studying are effective for us and which aren’t. By this I mean we learn by second year, sometimes not even until third year, that cramming and waiting until the last minute does not work.
With this being said, I think we use techniques that we believe are effective but actually aren’t. We have been told of many ways to study and memorize things better that don’t actually work. In one of my classes we had to read a paper that told the truth about study techniques. I found an article that summarizes its findings:
The things we are told that work the best are actually the least effective. Turns out rereading, highlighting, underlining, summarization and keyword mnemonics are the worst ways to study (Strauss, 2013). While they are minimally effective, in some respects, they are not largely beneficial. Practice tests and distributed practice work way better in comparison (Strauss, 2013). Not only is the way we are tested inefficient but we are not taught the basic foundation that we should be: how to learn. I have been told multiple times that I should reread things, highlight them and find phrases to help me remember certain concepts. While I will admit keyword mnemonics have, seemingly, helped me before I cannot say that rereading and highlighting have been more beneficial than practice tests. Not only that but studying material over time, in short sessions, has also seemed to help a lot more than highlighting ever has.
I wish we were taught these things in school so that we knew what methods were effective and which are wastes of our time. In addition, I wish teachers would stop teaching lecture style with memorization tests. While I am good at memorizing, there are many students that simply cannot write tests. Also, memorization is not actually learning. I have found that having discussions about topics and asking questions is the best way to understand something and it also helps me remember it for a lot longer than the few weeks I spend memorizing material for a test only to forget once the test is complete.
Reference:
Strauss, V. (2013). Study techniques that work — and (surprisingly) don’t. retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/08/27/study-techniques-that-work-and-surprisingly-dont/
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Hi Koleton,
Really interesting topic choice this week, I couldn’t agree more with you: the way the educational system is set up and the way we are taught as students is extremely flawed.
This point made me think back to a lecture I had a few weeks ago in a psychopathology class; we were talking about individuals with diagnosed ADHD and how their learning styles are very different from that of a ‘typical student’. The class discussion went on and we were told to think about it really hard (we were first talking about children & ADHD); children with ADHD basically have an intolerance for boredom. These children are interested in activities and have no problem focusing on activities they’re actually interested in, though, just like other kids! As a consequence for not being able to tolerate sitting in a boring classroom, these children are prescribed medications…
How many times (per day, even) do us university students sit in a class room bored? Just because we’re able to tolerate a brutally boring lecture, we’re… normal? University students are ‘fortunate’ to have the ability to keep prolonged attentional focus to things we really don’t care much about in our lectures, and we’re (again) the ‘normal’ ones because we can put up with the boring educational systems teaching set up?
I just think it’s interesting how the educational system is set up, seems like it’s set up to test our tolerance, ability cram and memorize information. But when there are a few people who can’t focus or sit through a boring class, they’re the ‘abnormal’ ones.
I realize this is way off topic, but it’s the first thing that came to mind.
It might be interesting to look into this further 🙂
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Our education system as we know it tries to normalize kids that we see as different. Any outburst is automatically shot down by the teacher which is no fault of the teacher but the system itself. This comment addresses what we were talking about before class with intrinsic motivation. People do learn best with things they are interested in and if we are not fostering this in everyone including students with ADHD, we are setting up our future generations to make the same mistakes that we are making.
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(NM) Very well said! 🙂
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Hi Koleton!
I think this is a very interesting topic to explore! Since it is very prominent to all of our lives, having our institutions foster learning in a different way, may be extremely beneficial for students…if it will change! The reason I think that our educational system hasn’t seen some major revamping is because change is something that we don’t want to do if we have done something a particular way for a very long time. One website I was reading said that we have been learning in the same ways as students from the 1950s (Times Have Changed, n.d.)! Having all students learn the same material, as Janae pointed out, poses challenges for students with learning disabilities, like ADHD, as they learn differently from other students.
While researching some ways that the educational system can ‘revamp’ their method of teaching, one website I found, posed three different ideas: (1) changing the way our teachers teach; (2) address the summer break; and (3) change our views on the role of the student (Orgbon III, 2015). The first change indicates that teachers should not just care about the highest marks in the class, and reward themselves on those, while disregarding the students who did not do well (Orgbon III, 2015). The author notes that the education system should train teachers to teach students in a project-based, service, or cooperative learning strategy, in order to help those students who need more (Orgbon III, 2015). The second change the author stated was to build effective summer reading programs for students to retain information over the summer months (Orgbon III, 2015). The third change is a big one I think. Orgbon III (2015) explores the notion that student’s are what make up the system, so listening to what would make them learn more effectively should be taken in full consideration and implementation.
Orgbon III, C. (June 24, 2015). Three Things that Would Change our Education System. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-orgbon-iii/three-things-that-would-c_b_7523498.html
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