Learning How to Learn Strategies

Ferris State University

Center for Teaching & Learning
Learning How to Learn Strategies
	Questions to Help Teachers know how to Instruct Students in How to Learn Strategies. The following questions are for teachers to ask themselves as part of their course planning process. The answers should help prepare the teacher to meet the learning needs of their students 1. What background information do my students need to be successful in my course? What prior content should they have? Can I provide ways for students to review this content if they don’t have it? What skills do I assume my students have that are related to being successful in this course? 2. What cognitive levels of thinking do my students need to operate at to be successful in my course? Is my course mostly knowledge and comprehension based information—facts and explanations? Will students need to be able to apply what they learn or evaluated or synthesize? 3. What types of thinking skills/strategies do my students need to use to be successful in my course? Do they need to solve problems? Compare and contrast information? Be creative or inventive in their thinking? 4. What information gathering skills do my students need to be successful in my course? Do they need to know how to use Internet search engines? Library research resources? Certain databases? 5. What types of fix up strategies do students usually need to be successful in my course? What areas of my course are usually really difficult for students? Is there a set of questions students should know to ask when they do not understand the material? Is there a set of steps a student should take to figure out how to solve a problem when they get stuck? 6. What types of study skills do my students need to have to be successful in my course? Do I give objective tests? Do I give essay tests? Are their large amounts of information that must be organized? 7. What types of learning strategies do my students need to have to be successful in my course? Do they need to be good note-takers? Do they need to know how to summarize? Do they need to know how to find important information in the textbook? Do they need to know how to develop example, analogies or metaphors? Learning How to Learn Includes all of the Following Areas: Ways of organizing information Ways of comprehending information / Finding the Important Information Ways of studying information Ways of recalling information Ways of finding information Ways of thinking about information Ways of Organizing Information By topic By concept By theme By unit By time By location By importance Strategies for Organizing Information Outlining Note taking Summarizing Highlighting Note Cards Marginal Notes Graphic Displays/Maps Time lines Ways of Comprehending Information By connecting to background By association By analogy By example By relationship By visualizing By using context By using prediction Finding Important Information in Text Use of Cue and Clues By the organization and structure of the material By using locator questions Strategies for Comprehension Reading Strategies SQR4 Cognitive Maps Modeling Others Discussion Using optimal Learning Style Self-Questioning Brainstorming Ways of Studying Information Daily review/rehearsal/practice Organize the information Practice tests / Test reviews Summarizing Writing Saying aloud Peer questioning Proper time of day Proper location Ways of Recalling Information Semantic memory/ words Episodic memory/location Procedural memory/muscle Automatic memory/conditioned response Emotional memory Strategies for Recalling Information Visualize the information Rehearsal/ practice/review Graphic organizers Explain to others/peer-teaching Summarize Mnemonic devices Music/songs Emotional significance Make it stand out/special Go to the location/retrace your steps Use a systematic approach to Learning and studying/ procedural Memory Use 3X5 cards with practice Automatic memory Ways of Finding Information Using search engines Using the library Ask others/peers/faculty Source books Ways of Thinking about Information Inference/interpretation Application Synthesis Analysis Evaluation Systems thinking Creative thinking Problem solving Strategies for Thinking about Information Modeling comprehension Problem solving approaches Fix up strategies Meta-cognitive strategies Backburner thinking Questioning approaches Out-of-the-box thinking Comparing and Contrasting Deductively Inductively
Faculty wanting further information about any of these topics are encouraged to contact Terry Doyle at doylet@ferris.edu Check back for updates! Website comments? Contact danielsl@ferris.edu