What’s the key to effective learning? One
intriguing body of research suggests a rather riddle-like answer: It’s
not just what you know. It’s what you know about what you know.
To put it in more straightforward terms, anytime a student learns, he
or she has to bring in two kinds of prior knowledge: knowledge about
the subject at hand (say, mathematics or history) and knowledge about
how learning works. Parents and educators are pretty good at imparting
the first kind of knowledge. We’re comfortable talking about concrete
information: names, dates, numbers, facts. But the guidance we offer on
the act of learning itself—the “metacognitive” aspects of learning—is
more hit-or-miss, and it shows.
In our schools, “the emphasis is on what students need to learn, whereas little emphasis—if any—is placed on training students how
they should go about learning the content and what skills will promote
efficient studying to support robust learning,” writes John Dunlosky,
professor of psychology at Kent State University in Ohio, in an article just published in American Educator.
However, he continues, “teaching students how to learn is as important
as teaching them content, because acquiring both the right learning
strategies and background knowledge is important—if not essential—for
promoting lifelong learning.”
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