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http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/journals/pspi/learning-techniques.html
Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology
By John Dunlosky, Katherine A. Rawson, Elizabeth J. Marsh, Mitchell J. Nathan, and Daniel T. Willingham

Some students seem to breeze through their school years, whereas others struggle, putting them at risk for getting lost in our educational system and not reaching their full potential. Parents and teachers want to help students succeed, but there is little guidance on which learning techniques are the most effective for improving educational outcomes. This leads students to implement studying strategies that are often ineffective, resulting in minimal gains in performance. What then are the best strategies to help struggling students learn?
Fortunately for students, parents, and teachers, psychological scientists have developed and evaluated the effectiveness of a wide range of learning techniques meant to enhance academic performance. In this report, Dunlosky (Kent State University), Rawson (Kent State University), Marsh (Duke University), Nathan (University of Wisconsin–Madison), and Willingham (University of Virginia) review the effectiveness of 10 commonly used learning techniques.

The authors describe each learning technique in detail and discuss the conditions under which each technique is most successful. They also describe the students (age, ability level, etc.) for whom each technique is most useful, the materials needed to utilize each technique, and the specific skills each technique promotes. To allow readers to easily identify which methods are the most effective, the authors rate the techniques as having high, medium, or low utility for improving student learning.

Which learning techniques made the grade? According to the authors, some commonly used techniques, such as underlining, rereading material, and using mnemonic devices, were found to be of surprisingly low utility. These techniques were difficult to implement properly and often resulted in inconsistent gains in student performance. Other learning techniques such as taking practice tests and spreading study sessions out over time — known as distributed practice — were found to be of high utility because they benefited students of many different ages and ability levels and enhanced performance in many different areas.

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I liked Willingham's book "Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom" (2011), but my wife found the book subversive because of its title .

Hmmmm-- well, their conclusion definitely mirrors what most educators I know have learned empirically in working with students.

Active techniques work better than passive ones. The addition of some stress actually improves learning-- to a point, anyway (the trouble is that this point seems to be highly variable and individual).

On the other hand, "what works" is so dependent upon individual cognitive strengths and weaknesses and learning mode preferences that I find it nearly impossible to believe that generalities are even possible here.

For DH, he remembers what he hears, and to a lesser extent, what he reads. For me, I remember what I read, and to a greater extent, what I WRITE longhand. For DD, she remembers what she talks about with others, and to a lesser extent, what she reads and writes longhand.

What does that mean? Well, I've known my DH for 20+ years, including the 5y that it took to earn terminal degrees. He really can study by highlighting/re-reading. It's effective. For him. He finds practice tests mostly ineffective other than as a desensitizing exercise (managing anxiety).

For me? I learn by rewriting my own notes, or jotting in margins. Practice tests are effective for me.

DD talks. She's about 95% Socratic-- in the old-school definition, I mean. Practice tests are mostly not very effective for her, either.

HK, your thoughtfulness complicates my grand schemes to improve the world .

I could have written HK's post, particularly how her and her spouse differ in learning and remembering. Substitute my DW for your DH, and so on.

I find note-taking during lectures highly effective, but I need never review those notes. It's the act of taking the note that's important.

This is why DW and I had a discussion about DD's writing processes this week, because I made the recommendation that DW stop allowing DD to use "developmental spelling" in any of her writing assignments. DD has demonstrated in a great many ways that her learning processes match my own, and since I know that writing things incorrectly is the most efficient way to permanently etch wrong information in my brain, the longer this is allowed to continue, the more problematic it will be when she's required to stop.

I, on the other hand, find taking notes actively counterproductive. These days, when I go to a seminar, I know to write down no more than the URL or paper titles I need to know if I want to get more information. I can either listen, or write: not both. This was a big problem when I was an undergraduate before the days of handouts, let alone slides available online, when it was necessary to write full speed through the lecture or else you wouldn't have a record of what had been covered!

I find rereading (while thinking!) extremely effective as a way of learning things, but I'd never highlight, as that interferes: what I'm remembering is the layout on the page, etc., of what I'm trying to remember, so anything that alters what it looks like sets me back.

Interesting-- My DH listens to instruction the same way, Colinsmum. I recall what I read much the way you do, but with jotting my own notes in margins-- and he highlights and remembers the narrative, not the spatial dimensions/layout.

It is so individual!

DH appears not to need to study, because he has a strong linguistic memory, more for written language than spoken, but he can often quote large sections verbatim after one hearing or one reading. He easily picks out what the author or speaker felt was important, and consistently remembers it, again, mostly verbatim. I don't think he even bothers to highlight. He's in math, and I've noticed most mathematicians I know seem to have a similar ability to rack up a lot of data really fast.

I need to study like hell to memorize data. But I have a much better functional sense of the material after one read-through.

He always thinks he's doing something wrong when he starts trying to do the stuff that comes easily to me, because he has to work almost as hard as I do to do what comes easily to him And he has to do many of the same things to get there.

So there's a whole other dimension...
How you intend to USE information is important in how you study it -- but also not necessarily consistent from person to person.

I'm an interpersonal and auditory learner. If I can make a quick summary sheet and discuss the material with others, I'm golden. Likewise if I pick a "soundtrack" to remember content by. I remember studying for a corporate finance exam to Parisian musettes once because the music was so distinctive. I started thinking of the songs as I wrote this and a handful of proofs from years ago flooded my mind.

Aquinas, I didn't know there was a term for that but that is how I studied. Before the test, I would always discuss (mostly unilaterally) the material with my mom. She would listen patiently even when she didn't understand a word ( she is an English major and high school science terms were not her cup of tea). However, she would ask layman questions that would sometimes really force me to dive deeper and understand the material, which helped with retention. Thank you MOM!

Rewording material in my own words is extremely important to my comprehension. Practice tests are great.

I actually really hate lectures. I have great intentions to watch TED talks and never do, because watching somebody talk drives me mad. I also don't really take notes, or not very good ones. I would be that person in work meetings with three lines on the page while everybody elese dutifully scribbled pages.

I love to read, because I can skim, rewind, etc at my own pace. I did highlight very extensively in college, laregly to keep myself from skimming too much/too fast, which is a bad habit. Today, I highlight the studies I read for work, but do so much more discriminatingly--I am intentionally looking for key points. This helps me organize my thinking.