A Quora question: What are some effective active learning strategies you can implement as an active student?

Paul Bush
Paul Bush, Associate Professor, trying to teach how to learn.

Quiz yourself. It’s more effective than re-reading your notes or the text because more parts of the brain are involved in retrieving the information than is the case when you’re reminding it of information.

Quiz yourself (study) on a repeating basis – don’t do it just once and certainly don’t do it just the night before the test. The repetition makes the neurons form stronger connections (“cells that fire together, wire together”), which means you have a better chance of building a memory that stays with you beyond the end of the term. After each successful session you can wait an extra day or more between sessions.

When you take notes, write them by hand rather than type them into a laptop, etc. Research indicates that you have to spend more processing power as you decide what to write. Typing seems to run from your ears to your fingers – your brain doesn’t get engaged as much as with writing.

Paul Bush

An associate professor at Franklin Pierce University, teaching journalism in all its forms today.

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