What are the basic concepts that provide a foundation for effective studying? What strategies should be taught in a balanced program of study strategies for struggling readers and writers?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Principles: Material is most effectively learned and retained when its basic principles are understood. 
• Organization: Material is easier to understand and retain when students see how the elements to be learned are related to each other. The information is clustered rather than existing as a series of unrelated bits. 
• Association: If the material lacks underlying principles or organization, artificial associations can be made with mnemonic devices, such as rhymes or acrostics. Students do need to know when and how to use these devices.
 Both teacher and students can use these principles:
• Spaced review: Review or study should be spaced. The interval between study or review sessions should be no less than 5 percent nor more than 20 percent of the time that the information has to be retained.
• Interleaving: For learning how to apply strategies or work problems, an effective setup is to alternate or interleave studying of model examples with exercises that have to be completed independently. For instance, interleave exercises for deriving main ideas with exercises involving drawing conclusions rather than presenting all main idea exercises and then all drawing conclusion exercises.
• Test-Enhanced learning: Self-testing or taking quizzes can be highly effective. The act of recalling information to answer a question helps to establish it in memory. 
• Cue-only delayed judgment: After studying material, students wait an hour before testing themselves to see how well they know it. This provides a more accurate estimate than testing immediately after studying.