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Applying effective learning strategies during self-study is important to build long-term knowledge. However, students rarely use such strategies, because they lack metacognitive knowledge and believe they are too effortful. To facilitate students use of these so-called desirable difficulties during self-study, we developed the Study Smart program, an intervention geared toward creating awareness of, reflection on, and practice with effective learning strategies. Based on a three-year design and implementation process, we share the problems we encountered and illustrate with student testimonials. Moreover, we reflect on future steps to be taken in research and practice. Among them is the need to debunk nave theories about learning strategies in students and teachers and to support the behavior change needed to develop effective study habits by implementing effective learning strategies in teaching and providing follow-up reflection sessions.

Cognitive psychological research from the last decades has shown that learning strategies that create desirable difficulties during learning, e.g., practice testing, are most effective for long-term learning outcomes. However, there is a paucity of research on how to effectively translate these insights into training students in higher education. Therefore, we designed an intervention program aiming to create awareness about, foster reflection on, and stimulate practice of effective learning strategies. In a first examination of the pilot intervention (N=47), we tested the effects of the intervention on metacognitive knowledge and self-reported use of effective learning strategies during self-study, using a control-group mixed-methods design. The intervention program had positive effects on knowledge about effective learning strategies and increased the use of practice testing. Qualitative interview results suggested that to sustainably change students’ learning strategies, we may consider tackling their uncertainty about effort and time, and increase availability of practice questions.

The positive learning effect of metacognitive strategy instructions based on the cue-utilisation framework (Koriat, 1997) has been shown in memorising word pairs and studying expository text. The present study explored the relevance of this framework in cognitive skill acquisition for learners with and without prior domain knowledge. That is, the quality of metacomprehension and self-regulation of novices and more experienced chess players were compared, when learning an endgame of chess. The experienced chess players not only became more skilled at the endgame, but also exemplified higher metacomprehension accuracy and self-regulation than the novices. The absolute level of metacomprehension accuracy and self-regulation of the novices was close to zero. This is the first study that shows an effect of expertise on metacomprehension accuracy in cognitive skill acquisition. Differences between cognitive skill acquisition and text comprehension that might explain differences in quality of metacognitive processes between these domains are discussed.