Your Voice: Make the new school year a remarkable success

At the beginning of each school year, millions of students, educators, and families repeat the same questions: How can we make it a successful year? What are the best ways to study and learn? Are there any techniques, tips, and tricks to learn better?

Here are a few answers from my own 30-year experience as an educator. 

Effective learning; getting knowledge out 

Real learning isn’t just obtaining knowledge; it’s all about getting the gained knowledge and information out of the mind in different ways. To make learning stick, students must reproduce what he or she learns. This can be done by summarizing the content, taking practice tests, teaching the content to someone else, working on a project, and so on.

Long-term learning happens when the brain puts what it gains in action and practice.

Desirable difficulties

Making learning a little bit difficult, helps students to form stronger connections. This can be done through quizzes, tasks, conducting experiments, solving problems, etc. 

What do top students do differently? 

We hear that practice makes perfect, but students who do more practice exams perform better than those who do not

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Study skills/habits

Learning how to learn and proper study habits have as much to do with success as does ability.

Why to study? 

Students should start with clear learning objectives, not the duration of study or the number of pages left to finish. 

Where to study?

The place where a student studies impacts their learning, their ability to recall, and their performance in the exams. Be sure your study area has all the study materials you need, avoid distractions, and try to study in an environment similar to where you will take the exam. 

When to study?

Choose the time that fits your environment and your type (morning person or night person). 

If you study at night, go to bed immediately after you finish studying. Your brain works on what you study while you are sleeping. 

How to study?

The famous “Pyramid of Learning” shows that traditional reading can result in up to 10% retention of what has been read. 

Use your senses. When you read a passage, be audible to yourself, use your finger to point to words. Recite what you read. This will include your eyes, mouth, ears, and even your body. 

Study small amounts of information and test your acquisition before moving on, and use memory aids such as mnemonics, abbreviation, and rhymes to improve memory. 

Study groups 

Study groups can be useful if formed correctly. In forming a group, have a minimum of three students and a maximum of five.

Distribute study materials so that each student has at least one area to master and teach other members. 

Never let caring disrupt learning 

We are sometimes tempted by our emotions to facilitate everything for our kids, but this hampers true learning.

Education is the only weapon that has kept our world improving. It is worth studying more about how we learn and how we can help others to learn.