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Recent research shows the importance to teach students the self-regulated use of effective learning strategies at university. However, the effects of such training programs on students’ metacognitive knowledge, use of learning strategies, and academic performance in the longer term are unknown. In the present study, all first-year pharmacology students from one university attended a learning strategy training program, i.e., the ‘Study Smart program’, in their first weeks. The 20% (n = 25) lowest scoring students on the first midterm received further support regarding their learning strategies. Results showed that all students gained accurate metacognitive knowledge about (in)effective learning strategies in the short- and long-term and reported to use less highlighting, less rereading, but more interleaving, elaboration, and distributed practice after the training program. Academic performance was compared to the prior cohort, which had not received the Study Smart program. While in the previous cohort, students in the top, middle, and bottom rank of midterm 1 stayed in these ranks and still differed significantly in the final exam, students in the Study Smart cohort that received the training program improved throughout the year and differences between ranks were significantly reduced. A learning strategy training program including a remediation track for lower performing students can thus support students to study more effectively and enhance equal chances for all students at university.

BackgroundDuring self-study, students need to monitor and regulate mental effort to replete working memory resources and optimize learning results. Taking breaks during self-study could be an effective effort regulation strategy. However, little is known about how breaktaking relates to self-regulated learning. AimsWe investigated the effects of taking systematic or self-regulated breaks on mental effort, task experiences and task completion in real-life study sessions for 1 day. SampleEighty-seven bachelor's and master's students from a Dutch University. MethodsStudents participated in an online intervention during their self-study. In the self-regulated-break condition (n = 35), students self-decided when to take a break; in the systematic break conditions, students took either a 6-min break after every 24-min study block (systematic-long or 'Pomodoro technique', n = 25) or a 3-min break after every 12-min study block (systematic-short, n = 27). ResultsStudents had longer study sessions and breaks when self-regulating. This was associated with higher levels of fatigue and distractedness, and lower levels of concentration and motivation compared to those in the systematic conditions. We found no difference between groups in invested mental effort or task completion. ConclusionsTaking pre-determined, systematic breaks during a study session had mood benefits and appeared to have efficiency benefits (i.e., similar task completion in shorter time) over taking self-regulated breaks. Measuring how mental effort dynamically fluctuates over time and how effort spent on the learning task differs from effort spent on regulating break-taking requires further research.

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 naive 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.

In higher education, 60-90% of the students regularly use ineffective learning strategies such as rereading or highlighting of text. Importantly, students are usually unaware of this issue. These strategies give students a positive feeling of learning, but are in fact very passive and extensive use can have a negative effect on academic achievement. Ample research has shown that active learning strategies, for example testing yourself or spacing out study sessions over time, cost more effort yet improve learning very effectively. To make students aware of what learning strategies are (in)effective and support the use of effective strategies, a cross-faculty design team supported by EDLAB developed the ‘Study Smart’ program. This dissertation examined the effects of the Study Smart program implemented at different faculties at UM. The program increased students’ knowledge about and use of more effective learning strategies. Tackling students’ uncertainty in adapting effective learning strategies to their own context, however, requires further continuous support.

Preservice teachers face the challenge of integrating multiple types of knowledge, such as pedagogical-psychological knowledge and subject-specific pedagogical knowledge. We investigated whether prior instruction emphasizing the importance of knowledge integration (relevance instruction) supports preservice teachers in using both knowledge types simultaneously. Seventy-two preservice music teachers participated in this computer-based study. They worked on two separate lectures about learners' beliefs. One lecture contained pedagogical-psychological knowledge; the other contained music-specific pedagogical knowledge. The preservice teachers received either a relevance instruction before starting a new lecture or a control instruction. We found that the relevance instruction increased the simultaneous use of the two knowledge types in scenario-based tasks. In these tasks, the preservice teachers needed to provide interpretations and decisions for excerpts describing various classroom situations. The relevance instruction increased the time that the preservice teachers spent on the lectures slightly; but it did not increase the perceived task difficulty or mental effort. Furthermore, the effect of the relevance instruction was not moderated by prior knowledge. We conclude that relevance instructions are a promising approach to fostering knowledge integration in teacher education.

During the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, universities had to shift from face-to-face to emergency remote education. Students were forced to study online, with limited access to facilities and less contact with peers and teachers, while at the same time being exposed to more autonomy. This study examined how students adapted to emergency remote learning, specifically focusing on students’ resource-management strategies using an individual differences approach. One thousand eight hundred university students completed a questionnaire on their resource-management strategies and indicators of (un)successful adaptation to emergency remote learning. On average, students reported being less able to regulate their attention, effort, and time and less motivated compared to the situation before the crisis started; they also reported investing more time and effort in their self-study. Using a k-means cluster analysis, we identified four adaptation profiles and labeled them according to the reported changes in their resource-management strategies: the overwhelmed, the surrenderers, the maintainers, and the adapters. Both the overwhelmed and surrenderers appeared to be less able to regulate their effort, attention, and time and reported to be less motivated to study than before the crisis. In contrast, the adapters appreciated the increased level of autonomy and were better able to self-regulate their learning. The resource-management strategies of the maintainers remained relatively stable. Students’ responses to open-answer questions on their educational experience, coded using a thematic analysis, were consistent with the quantitative profiles. Implications about how to support students in adapting to online learning are discussed.

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.