This post will provide you with 4 Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies: (1) providing visual examples, (2) having students practice explain topics, (3) spaced practice, and (4) frequent quizzing.
(1) Providing Visual Examples is less about being a “Visual Learner” and more about leveraging our brain’s verbal (text) and visual (images) input channels. Especially with abstract concepts, well designed images can be very effective in providing learners with models to help understand.
(2) Learners should elaborate and explain concepts, processes, etc. By talking through one’s understanding of a concept or process, he/she can often discover knowledge gaps that need to be addressed.
(3) Research shows that Spaced Practice and Interleaving topics increases retention. Spaced Practice is scheduling time to study almost daily rather than procrastinating towards the last minutes. Interleaving is systematically studying topics from various units or chapters that integrate knowledge or concepts.
(4) Frequent Quizzing is also called the Testing effect, Retrieval practice, or Retrieval-based learning. The goal is to reinforce recall and identify knowledge gaps.
Smith, M. A., Madan, C. R., & Weinstein, Y. Four Simple Strategies from Cognitive Psychology for the Classroom. Excellence in Teaching.
