Put Down That Highlighter!
Important article by cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, on the Scientific American website:
“Most teachers would agree that it is important that students remember much of what they read. Yet one of the most common sights on high school and college campuses across the land is that of students poring over textbooks, yellow marker in hand, highlighting pertinent passages—which often end up including most of the page. Later in the semester, to prepare for their exams, students hit the textbooks again, rereading the yellow blocks of text.
Studies have shown that highlighting and rereading text is among the least effective ways for students to remember the content of what they have read. A far better technique is for students to quiz themselves. In one study, students who read a text once and then tried to recall it on three occasions scored 50 percent higher on exams than students who read the text and then reread it three times. And yet many teachers persist in encouraging—or at least not discouraging—the techniques that science has proved to fall short.
This is just one symptom of a general failure to integrate scientific knowledge of the mind into schooling. Many commonly held ideas about education defy scientific principles of thinking and learning. For example, a common misconception is that teaching content is less important than teaching critical thinking skills or problem-solving strategies.
Scientists have also long known that kids must be explicitly taught the connections between letters and sounds and that they benefit most when such instruction is planned and explicit. Yet some reading programs, even those used in large school districts, teach this information only if an instructor sees the need.”
Willingham concludes, “Teachers need a trusted source to tell fads and fallacies from proved methods.” I’m working on it, Dan 
.
Read more here.
Interesting. I’m a compulsive highlighter when it comes to reading over transcripts and research fodder, but it’s quite true that this is insufficient for really grasping new information. That comes when I have to write it out and explain it to someone else — something about that process forces me to grapple with new material in a far more effective way than merely re-reading and trying to memorize…. Would be interested in whether other methods exist that mimic this process for the actual classroom.
I think this all point to people having to use the information , instaed of just being passive
Quiz is more active than review of highlighted text-Learner needs to serach the brain, make connections
Connections between letters and sounds- actively listening and making the sounds is active.
Jennifer’s comment is bang on, at this moment I am training a new employee on our products. I pointed the employee to the info on our products and in 3 hours she needs to develop a presentation of oour products , how they work and why our customers choose them.
Get the learner working!
I once read another article by Daniel Willingham in which he said: “What you remember, is what you think about”. I have conducted the experiment mentioned in this article several times with both teachers and students (in Belgium) and it worked every time. You can find it here: http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/winter0809/willingham.pdf
Yes, quizzing or testing ourselves is actually the most effective way to learn, at least according to research. Jeffrey Karpicke has done a lot of research on retrieval learning and has shown that retrieval practice beats even advanced learning techniques like concept-mapping (I’ve written a review at http://goo.gl/lMWVB)!
Anyway, good to know that we’ve been taught so inefficient and ineffective learning strategies. It’s time for a change.
Thanks for sharing!
I find that I do not focus on the written word unless I have a physical action to go with it. It isn’t that I remember the highlighted text better nonhighlighted text but that I remember the entire text better for having gone through the activity of highlighting some part of it. I wonder what that’s about?
I don’t totally agree. The issue is the number of times they reread the material, 3 times, I don’t feel, was enough. Also, the ‘reread’ needs to be spaced out in time intervals, so I’m not sure if the study just had them read it concurrently 3 times? I do agree that a combination of the two (rereading and repeated quizzing) is the best way, with repeated testing being the priority. As far as the number of times a learner needs to repeat the above depends on the person. Everyone’s brain is different; for one student, it may take 3 ‘repeat cycles’ to get the information into their long-term memory, whereas another may take several more times than that. I would also add using more ‘senses’ such as re-writing (tactile) the material and verbally repeating aloud (audio) to the mix. In the end, it all comes down to knowing how your own 3 lb. brain works and coming up with the right combination to get the information into your long-term memory!
My personal experience is that reading something can be a good way to learn IF you are interested in it. If you are not interested in it then every reread becomes torturous.
There are many techniques for reading and quizzing yourself, but since it all happens inside the student’s head, it’s a tricky one to teach.
@Tommy Opgenhaffen – Thanks for the link to the pdf. Great stuff.