On learning strategies

Should our teachers (and future teachers) understand how their students learn? This question seems rhetorical, because if the task of teachers is to promote student learning, then the planning, execution, and evaluation of their lessons will be more effective when teachers themselves know how and when their students learn best. More than a hundred years of cognitive research has provided a wealth of information on effective and efficient learning strategies that are widely used to promote student learning. And most of all, they are inexpensive, easily deployable and immediately applicable, across different subjects, ages, knowledge or skills. The big non-rhetorical question here is now: Why aren’t they being used?

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