teaching research paper in college

Search form

About Faculty Development and Support
Programs and Funding Opportunities

Consultations, Observations, and Services

Strategic Resources & Digital Publications
Canvas @ Yale Support
Learning Environments @ Yale
Teaching Workshops
Teaching Consultations and Classroom Observations
Teaching Programs
Spring Teaching Forum
Written and Oral Communication Workshops and Panels
Writing Resources & Tutorials
About the Graduate Writing Laboratory
Writing and Public Speaking Consultations
Writing Workshops and Panels
Writing Peer-Review Groups
Writing Retreats and All Writes
Online Writing Resources for Graduate Students
About Teaching Development for Graduate and Professional School Students
Teaching Programs and Grants
Teaching Forums
Resources for Graduate Student Teachers
About Undergraduate Writing and Tutoring
Academic Strategies Program
The Writing Center
STEM Tutoring & Programs
Humanities & Social Sciences
Center for Language Study
Online Course Catalog
Antiracist Pedagogy
NECQL 2019: NorthEast Consortium for Quantitative Literacy XXII Meeting
STEMinar Series
Teaching in Context: Troubling Times
Helmsley Postdoctoral Teaching Scholars
Pedagogical Partners
Instructional Materials
Evaluation & Research
STEM Education Job Opportunities
AI Guidance for Faculty and Students
Yale Connect
Online Education Legal Statements

This module is designed to help you teach students to write good papers. You will find useful examples of activities that guide students through the writing process. This resource will be helpful for anyone working with students on research papers, book reviews, and other analytical essays. The Center for Teaching and Learning also has comprehensive writing resources featuring general writing tips, citation guidelines, model papers, and ways to get more help at Yale.

There are several steps TFs and faculty can take to prepare students to write good papers. If you are responsible for making writing assignments, remember that most students need to practice the basic elements of writing — purpose, argument, evidence, style — and that these skills are best practiced in shorter, focused assignments. Opt for shorter essays and papers throughout the semester in lieu of long, end-of-semester research papers. Build opportunities for revision and refinement into your assignments and lesson plans.

For each assignment, there are steps you can take to help students produce better writing . First, use strategies for making sure students understand the assignment. Use individual meetings, short, in-class writing exercises or small-group activities to make sure students can articulate what their paper will accomplish (describe, compare/contrast, explain, argue) and to what standard.

Second, guide students in selecting and analyzing primary and secondary source material. Use in-class activities to teach students: the difference between types of sources and their uses; strategies for evaluating a source and its value in a given argument; and examples of how to incorporate source material into an argument or other text with proper citation .

Finally, teach them to construct strong thesis statements and support their arguments with evidence. Use model documents to introduce students to strong, arguable statements. Give students practice developing statements from scratch and refining statements that lack importance or clarity . Ask students to analyze the relationship between thesis statements and supporting evidence in short essays. Teach them to use the active voice .

Students who have never gone through a thorough revision process are used to handing in and receiving poor grades on first drafts. These students will lack confidence in their ability to produce good writing. Do all you can to let your students experience good writing through revision. Require drafts of papers, or parts of papers, so students can learn to apply the standards of good writing to make their papers better. Have students read and comment on each other’s papers to give them practice reading for clarity, style, persuasiveness, etc.

By focusing on the process of writing, not just the product, you will help students write better papers and gain confidence along the way.

For those of you who work with teaching fellows, we also include an agenda for teaching these skills to others and a workshop evaluation form .

Downloads

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

Writing Consultations

For graduate students looking for expert advice on planning, drafting, and revising their research paper, dissertation, presentation, or any other writing project.

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning routinely supports members of the Yale community with individual instructional consultations and classroom observations.

Reserve a Room

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning partners with departments and groups on-campus throughout the year to share its space. Please review the reservation form and submit a request.

The Daring English Teacher on Teachers Pay Teachers Secondary ELA resources Middle School ELA High School English

Teaching the Research Paper Part 1: Introducing the Research Paper and Preparing Students for the Assignment

There are three things every teacher should do before taking their students to the computer lab to research information for their research papers: teach the difference between reliable and unreliable sources, check to make sure every student has a self-generated research question, and help prepare students with key phrases and words to search.

Whenever I begin teaching the research paper , I always share with my students the story of how I wrote my Master’s thesis paper. It was a 50 page paper with 50 different sources.

I don’t do this to toot my own horn. I don’t do this to scare my students away from post-secondary education. I don’t do this to make the students feel like their research assignment is petty and small. I do this so that I can explain the process of research to them and so that they know I was once in their shoes.

So how exactly do you write a 50-page research paper that has 50 unique, credible sources? One source at a time.

Teaching the Research Paper: 3 Critical Steps to Take

Teaching the research paper: find credible sources.

When teaching the research paper to my secondary ELA students, I first show them about research and credible sources. Before students can even begin looking for their sources, they have to know how to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources. Being able to do so is the first step in finding a reliable source.

Once I feel my students have a firm understanding of the sources they will be looking at, we then dive into the research topic, and the students select their issues related to the main topic.

Teaching the Research Paper: Create Questions

One of the critical parts of teaching the research paper to students is having them come up with their self-generated research questions. To do this, I encourage students to work collaboratively and talk about their research topics.

Students can work in small groups to see what their peers would like to know about that matter.

Working in small groups first provides extra support for EL and struggling students. From there, students come up with their questions to answer. There is also a graphic organizer in my Research Paper Writing resource that is especially helpful during this process.

Teaching the Research Paper: Brainstorm Key Words

Once students have a self-generated question, it is time to get students to think about keywords and phrases they will use in their search for sources. All too often I see students typing precise, wordy questions into a search engine. This only creates frustration for the students as well as the teacher.

Taking half a class to discuss keywords and phrases helps students tremendously, and it even speeds up the research process because students can find credible sources a lot easier. When teaching keywords and phrases to my students, I encourage them to type no more than four words into the search engine. I tell them that they must think of the most important words directly related to their topic.

To help students think about keywords and phrases they can use in the search engine, have them think about hashtags for their research topic. This fun, easy, and engaging strategy will get students thinking about what to research and what is explicitly related to their subject.

Teaching the Research Paper: A Research Paper Writing Instructional Unit

Take the stress out of teaching your students how to write a research paper with this complete research writing unit ! This comprehensive and complete research paper writing unit will help you teach your students how to write a research paper. Now available in print + digital!

This step-by-step resource teaches your students the eight steps of research writing, and it includes every single thing you could need for a successful research writing unit! Plus, it is updated for 9th edition MLA!

The editable teaching presentation (which comes in both PowerPoint and Google Slides®) is ideal for direct instruction and includes multiple days of guided instruction! The research writing presentation introduces students to the eight steps for completing a research project: selecting topics, generating questions, brainstorming, researching and gathering credible information, organizing and outlining, writing the first draft, peer editing, and finalizing the paper.

Research Paper Teaching Unit

SUBSCRIBE NOW

ChatGPT for Teachers

Trauma-informed practices in schools, teacher well-being, cultivating diversity, equity, & inclusion, integrating technology in the classroom, social-emotional development, covid-19 resources, invest in resilience: summer toolkit, civics & resilience, all toolkits, degree programs, trauma-informed professional development, teacher licensure & certification, how to become - career information, classroom management, instructional design, lifestyle & self-care, online higher ed teaching, current events, 5 methods to teach students how to do research papers.

5 Methods to Teach Students How to do Research Papers

When teaching students how to construct research papers, the scaffolding method is an effective option. This method allows students to research and then organize their information. The scaffold provides understandable support for expository papers. Students greatly benefit from having the majority of the research and proper structure in place before even starting the paper.

With well-prepared references, students are able to:

Study informational text
Practice strategies that are genre-specific for expository writing
Use an inquiry-based approach
Work individually
Work collaboratively

The following tips and methodologies build off the initial preparation:

Students formulate a logical thesis that expresses a perspective on their research subject.
Students practice their research skills. This includes evaluating their sources, summarizing and paraphrasing significant information, and properly citing their sources.
The students logically group and then sequence their ideas in expository writing.
They should arrange and then display their information on maps, graphs and charts.
A well-written exposition is focused on the topic and lists events in chronological order.

Formulating a research question

An example research paper scaffold and student research paper should be distributed to students. The teacher should examine these with the students, reading them aloud.

Using the example research paper, discuss briefly how a research paper answers a question. This example should help students see how a question can lead to a literature review, which leads to analysis, research, results and finally, a conclusion.

Give students a blank copy of the research paper Scaffold and explain that the procedures used in writing research papers follow each section of the scaffold. Each of those sections builds on the one before it; describe how each section will be addressed in future sessions.

Consider using Internet research lessons to help students understand how to research using the web.

Have students collect and print at least five articles to help them answer their research question. Students should use a highlighter to mark which sections pertain specifically to their question. This helps students remain focused on their research questions.

The five articles could offer differing options regarding their research questions. Be sure to inform students that their final paper will be much more interesting if it examines several different perspectives instead of just one.

Have students bring their articles to class. For a large class, teachers should have students highlight the relevant information in their articles and then submit them for assessment prior to the beginning of class.

Once identification is determined as accurate, students should complete the Literature Review section of the scaffold and list the important facts from their articles on the lines numbered one through five.

Students need to compare the information they have found to find themes.

Explain that creating a numbered list of potential themes, taken from different aspects proposed in the literature collected, can be used for analysis.

The student’s answer to the research question is the conclusion of the research paper. This section of the research paper needs to be just a few paragraphs. Students should include the facts supporting their answer from the literature review.

Students may want to use the conclusion section of their paper to point out the similarities and/or discrepancies in their findings. They may also want to suggest that further studies be done on the topic.

Empowering Students by Teaching Research-Paper Writing as a Foundational Methods Course

First Online: 16 September 2021

Cite this chapter

Lisa A. Baglione 6

Part of the book series: Political Pedagogies ((PP))

333 Accesses

Teaching research-paper writing in a step-wise and interactive fashion exposes students to methodology and empowers them. Contemporary undergraduates have generally not learned how to write research papers, and teaching methodology has long been a challenge. Seeking to accomplish both simultaneously gives students an applied way to better understand their political science courses and, more importantly, provides them with experiences that transform them as learners. The process includes high-impact educational practices which compel students to (a) integrate across the curriculum; (b) engage in “real” research; (c) experience learning as a social process; and (d) make revising and rethinking habitual. Undergraduates thus become more capable and confident learners with a greater ability to succeed in future endeavors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save.

Get 10 units per month
Download Article/Chapter or eBook
1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
Cancel anytime
Available as PDF
Read on any device
Instant download
Own it forever
Available as EPUB and PDF
Compact, lightweight edition
Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
Free shipping worldwide - see info
Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

The Evolution of a Research Paper Course

Creating Positive Feedback Cycles Between Teaching and Research

Building a Foundation for a Successful Doctoral Student Journey: A Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Investigation

Baglione, L. A. 2020. Writing a Research Paper in Political Science: A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods. Thousand Oaks: CQ/Sage.

Google Scholar

High-Impact Educational Practices . n.d. American Association of Colleges and Universities. Accessed July 25, 2020. https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/HIP_tables.pdf .

Kuh, G. C. 2008. High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter . Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges and Universities.

Levintova, E. M., and A. K. Staudinger, eds. 2018. Gender in the Political Science Classroom . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

National Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and Colleges (NCWASC). 2003. The Neglected R: The Need for a Writing Revolution. New York: College Entrance Examination Board. http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/writingcom/neglectedr.pdf .

Tugend, A. 2017. Who Benefits from the Expansion of A.P. Classes? New York Times, September 7, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/magazine/who-benefits-from-the-expansion-of-ap-classes.html .

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Political Science, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Lisa A. Baglione

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lisa A. Baglione .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Public Policy and Administration, Penn State Harrisburg, Middletown, PA, USA

Daniel J. Mallinson

Political Science, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, USA

Julia Marin Hellwege

Political Science, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, Whitewater, WI, USA

Eric D. Loepp

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Baglione, L.A. (2021). Empowering Students by Teaching Research-Paper Writing as a Foundational Methods Course. In: Mallinson, D.J., Marin Hellwege, J., Loepp, E.D. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Political Research Pedagogy. Political Pedagogies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76955-0_33

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76955-0_33

Published : 16 September 2021

Publisher Name : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-76954-3

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-76955-0

eBook Packages : Political Science and International Studies Political Science and International Studies (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Find a journal
Track your research

Teaching Research

Main navigation.

As part of PWR’s charge related to the WR 1 and WR 2 requirements, PWR 1 and PWR 2 classes (in collaboration with the library) teach first and second-year students research strategies that provide an introduction to important research practices that they will likely use in their coursework at Stanford and then in future academic and professional work.

This charge accepts as a premise that student research at Stanford still focuses in many disciplines on scholarly texts (journal articles and books), though given the evolving communication landscapes, many student research projects might draw on additional sources, such as websites, podcasts, born-digital texts, etc.

More specifically, in PWR 1, the learning objectives related to research are:

Students will develop research skills, including the ability to craft a focused research question and to locate, analyze, and evaluate relevant sources, including both print-based and digital sources.
Students will develop the ability, in research and in writing, to engage a range of sources and perspectives that illuminate a wider conversation about the topic
(see the complete list of PWR 1 learning objectives here)

In PWR 2, the learning objectives related to research are:

Students will continue to develop their ability to construct research-based arguments, including collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing data and scholarly and public articles and texts.
(see the complete list of PWR 2 learning objectives here)

PWR 2, in particular, with its more advanced conversation about research-based arguments, is an appropriate site for inviting students to explore a range of research methods and sources.

In incorporating these research-focused objectives into the foundations of our PWR 1 and PWR 2 curricula, we intend to help students develop an understanding of and experience with research as a means of accessing and analyzing a wide range of sources that will orient them to scholarly and public conversations and ultimately help them create knowledge and contribute to those conversations. In short, we are helping to guide students to conducting research effectively in the context of an R1 university.

That said, PWR classes are not “sources and methods” classes, such as you might find in other departments and programs across campus that foreground specific disciplinary modes of research. As PWR courses teach students from across the disciplines, our goal is not to teach discipline-specific research methodologies. We can certainly encourage students to explore different methodologies and provide context for disciplinary conventions that they will encounter in greater depth later in their studies, but PWR courses are not charged with doing the work of Writing in the Major courses. Our charge is to provide them with an introduction to college-level research and to the ethics of research practice as well as a rhetorical perspective that will help them analyze a wide range of texts.

In keeping with this approach, PWR instructors should be mindful of how they scaffold and encourage research methods in their classrooms. As a program, we are committed to fostering student curiosity, intellectual growth, and purposeful agency in their research process. However, at times students might want to incorporate research methods into their PWR 1 or PWR 2 projects that either do not actually align with the type of project or question under consideration or that present ethical challenges. In most cases, the more problematic methods are associated with research on human subjects. For this reason, we ask instructors to adhere to certain guidelines in teaching research methodologies:

Teaching strategy: if a student is interested in a topic related to vulnerable populations, steer them toward data sets or interviews conducted by others. That way they can still have access to some of the primary research on these individuals without conducting it themselves.
Teaching strategy: Ask your students what they would gain from this sort of method that wouldn’t be gained from finding similar information – probably from a longer-term study with a larger sample size – in secondary research. Ask them to carefully consider and revise their research question to ensure that this methodology best supports generating a productive answer for that question.
Teaching strategy: You might have students who want to conduct interviews or surveys complete the CITI training tutorial .
Teaching strategy: Review drafts of all surveys and interview questions; if not everyone in your class is engaged in this sort of primary research, set up peer consultation groups or special out-of-class group conferences to promote feedback and revision, asking students in these groups to serve as beta-testers/focus groups about the survey and interview questions.
Teaching strategy: Work with students to identify the target demographic and a sample size goal that is appropriate to the scope of the research, the research process timeline, and the resources available.

If you have any questions about a proposed student research topic or methods, please set up an appointment to talk with the Associate Director or one of the Directors for guidance as early in the research process as possible.

Additional resources to help students who are interested in conducting this sort of primary research will be available on Teaching Writing soon.

Research guides

Writing an Educational Research Paper

Next: Choosing a Topic >>
Last Updated: Aug 12, 2024 2:35 PM
Subjects: Education
Tags: education , education_paper , education_research_paper

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

Knowledge Base
Research paper

How to Write a Research Paper | A Beginner's Guide

A research paper is a piece of academic writing that provides analysis, interpretation, and argument based on in-depth independent research.

Research papers are similar to academic essays , but they are usually longer and more detailed assignments, designed to assess not only your writing skills but also your skills in scholarly research. Writing a research paper requires you to demonstrate a strong knowledge of your topic, engage with a variety of sources, and make an original contribution to the debate.

This step-by-step guide takes you through the entire writing process, from understanding your assignment to proofreading your final draft.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Understand the assignment, choose a research paper topic, conduct preliminary research, develop a thesis statement, create a research paper outline, write a first draft of the research paper, write the introduction, write a compelling body of text, write the conclusion, the second draft, the revision process, research paper checklist, free lecture slides.

Completing a research paper successfully means accomplishing the specific tasks set out for you. Before you start, make sure you thoroughly understanding the assignment task sheet:

Read it carefully, looking for anything confusing you might need to clarify with your professor.
Identify the assignment goal, deadline, length specifications, formatting, and submission method.
Make a bulleted list of the key points, then go back and cross completed items off as you’re writing.

Carefully consider your timeframe and word limit: be realistic, and plan enough time to research, write, and edit.

Scribbr Citation Checker New

The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

Missing commas and periods
Incorrect usage of “et al.”
Ampersands (&) in narrative citations
Missing reference entries

There are many ways to generate an idea for a research paper, from brainstorming with pen and paper to talking it through with a fellow student or professor.

You can try free writing, which involves taking a broad topic and writing continuously for two or three minutes to identify absolutely anything relevant that could be interesting.

You can also gain inspiration from other research. The discussion or recommendations sections of research papers often include ideas for other specific topics that require further examination.

Once you have a broad subject area, narrow it down to choose a topic that interests you, m eets the criteria of your assignment, and i s possible to research. Aim for ideas that are both original and specific:

A paper following the chronology of World War II would not be original or specific enough.
A paper on the experience of Danish citizens living close to the German border during World War II would be specific and could be original enough.

Note any discussions that seem important to the topic, and try to find an issue that you can focus your paper around. Use a variety of sources , including journals, books, and reliable websites, to ensure you do not miss anything glaring.

Do not only verify the ideas you have in mind, but look for sources that contradict your point of view.

Is there anything people seem to overlook in the sources you research?
Are there any heated debates you can address?
Do you have a unique take on your topic?
Have there been some recent developments that build on the extant research?

In this stage, you might find it helpful to formulate some research questions to help guide you. To write research questions, try to finish the following sentence: “I want to know how/what/why…”

A thesis statement is a statement of your central argument — it establishes the purpose and position of your paper. If you started with a research question, the thesis statement should answer it. It should also show what evidence and reasoning you’ll use to support that answer.

The thesis statement should be concise, contentious, and coherent. That means it should briefly summarize your argument in a sentence or two, make a claim that requires further evidence or analysis, and make a coherent point that relates to every part of the paper.

You will probably revise and refine the thesis statement as you do more research, but it can serve as a guide throughout the writing process. Every paragraph should aim to support and develop this central claim.

A research paper outline is essentially a list of the key topics, arguments, and evidence you want to include, divided into sections with headings so that you know roughly what the paper will look like before you start writing.

A structure outline can help make the writing process much more efficient, so it’s worth dedicating some time to create one.

Your first draft won’t be perfect — you can polish later on. Your priorities at this stage are as follows:

Maintaining forward momentum — write now, perfect later.
Paying attention to clear organization and logical ordering of paragraphs and sentences, which will help when you come to the second draft.
Expressing your ideas as clearly as possible, so you know what you were trying to say when you come back to the text.

You do not need to start by writing the introduction. Begin where it feels most natural for you — some prefer to finish the most difficult sections first, while others choose to start with the easiest part. If you created an outline, use it as a map while you work.

Do not delete large sections of text. If you begin to dislike something you have written or find it doesn’t quite fit, move it to a different document, but don’t lose it completely — you never know if it might come in useful later.

Paragraph structure

Paragraphs are the basic building blocks of research papers. Each one should focus on a single claim or idea that helps to establish the overall argument or purpose of the paper.

Example paragraph

George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language” has had an enduring impact on thought about the relationship between politics and language. This impact is particularly obvious in light of the various critical review articles that have recently referenced the essay. For example, consider Mark Falcoff’s 2009 article in The National Review Online, “The Perversion of Language; or, Orwell Revisited,” in which he analyzes several common words (“activist,” “civil-rights leader,” “diversity,” and more). Falcoff’s close analysis of the ambiguity built into political language intentionally mirrors Orwell’s own point-by-point analysis of the political language of his day. Even 63 years after its publication, Orwell’s essay is emulated by contemporary thinkers.

Citing sources

It’s also important to keep track of citations at this stage to avoid accidental plagiarism . Each time you use a source, make sure to take note of where the information came from.

You can use our free citation generators to automatically create citations and save your reference list as you go.

APA Citation Generator MLA Citation Generator

The research paper introduction should address three questions: What, why, and how? After finishing the introduction, the reader should know what the paper is about, why it is worth reading, and how you’ll build your arguments.

What? Be specific about the topic of the paper, introduce the background, and define key terms or concepts.

Why? This is the most important, but also the most difficult, part of the introduction. Try to provide brief answers to the following questions: What new material or insight are you offering? What important issues does your essay help define or answer?

How? To let the reader know what to expect from the rest of the paper, the introduction should include a “map” of what will be discussed, briefly presenting the key elements of the paper in chronological order.

The major struggle faced by most writers is how to organize the information presented in the paper, which is one reason an outline is so useful. However, remember that the outline is only a guide and, when writing, you can be flexible with the order in which the information and arguments are presented.

One way to stay on track is to use your thesis statement and topic sentences . Check:

topic sentences against the thesis statement;
topic sentences against each other, for similarities and logical ordering;
and each sentence against the topic sentence of that paragraph.

Be aware of paragraphs that seem to cover the same things. If two paragraphs discuss something similar, they must approach that topic in different ways. Aim to create smooth transitions between sentences, paragraphs, and sections.

The research paper conclusion is designed to help your reader out of the paper’s argument, giving them a sense of finality.

Trace the course of the paper, emphasizing how it all comes together to prove your thesis statement. Give the paper a sense of finality by making sure the reader understands how you’ve settled the issues raised in the introduction.

You might also discuss the more general consequences of the argument, outline what the paper offers to future students of the topic, and suggest any questions the paper’s argument raises but cannot or does not try to answer.

You should not :

Offer new arguments or essential information
Take up any more space than necessary
Begin with stock phrases that signal you are ending the paper (e.g. “In conclusion”)

There are four main considerations when it comes to the second draft.

Check how your vision of the paper lines up with the first draft and, more importantly, that your paper still answers the assignment.
Identify any assumptions that might require (more substantial) justification, keeping your reader’s perspective foremost in mind. Remove these points if you cannot substantiate them further.
Be open to rearranging your ideas. Check whether any sections feel out of place and whether your ideas could be better organized.
If you find that old ideas do not fit as well as you anticipated, you should cut them out or condense them. You might also find that new and well-suited ideas occurred to you during the writing of the first draft — now is the time to make them part of the paper.

The goal during the revision and proofreading process is to ensure you have completed all the necessary tasks and that the paper is as well-articulated as possible. You can speed up the proofreading process by using the AI proofreader .

Global concerns

Confirm that your paper completes every task specified in your assignment sheet.
Check for logical organization and flow of paragraphs.
Check paragraphs against the introduction and thesis statement.

Fine-grained details

Check the content of each paragraph, making sure that:

each sentence helps support the topic sentence.
no unnecessary or irrelevant information is present.
all technical terms your audience might not know are identified.

Next, think about sentence structure , grammatical errors, and formatting . Check that you have correctly used transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas. Look for typos, cut unnecessary words, and check for consistency in aspects such as heading formatting and spellings .

Finally, you need to make sure your paper is correctly formatted according to the rules of the citation style you are using. For example, you might need to include an MLA heading or create an APA title page .

Scribbr’s professional editors can help with the revision process with our award-winning proofreading services.

Discover our paper editing service

Checklist: Research paper

I have followed all instructions in the assignment sheet.

My introduction presents my topic in an engaging way and provides necessary background information.

My introduction presents a clear, focused research problem and/or thesis statement .

My paper is logically organized using paragraphs and (if relevant) section headings .

Each paragraph is clearly focused on one central idea, expressed in a clear topic sentence .

Each paragraph is relevant to my research problem or thesis statement.

I have used appropriate transitions to clarify the connections between sections, paragraphs, and sentences.

My conclusion provides a concise answer to the research question or emphasizes how the thesis has been supported.

My conclusion shows how my research has contributed to knowledge or understanding of my topic.

My conclusion does not present any new points or information essential to my argument.

I have provided an in-text citation every time I refer to ideas or information from a source.

I have included a reference list at the end of my paper, consistently formatted according to a specific citation style .

I have thoroughly revised my paper and addressed any feedback from my professor or supervisor.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (page numbers, headers, spacing, etc.).

You've written a great paper. Make sure it's perfect with the help of a Scribbr editor!

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

Is this article helpful?

Other students also liked.

Writing a Research Paper Introduction | Step-by-Step Guide
Writing a Research Paper Conclusion | Step-by-Step Guide
Research Paper Format | APA, MLA, & Chicago Templates

Get unlimited documents corrected

✔ Free APA citation check included ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

Tutorial Review
Open access
Published: 24 January 2018

Teaching the science of learning

Yana Weinstein ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5144-968X 1 ,
Christopher R. Madan 2 , 3 &
Megan A. Sumeracki 4

Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications volume 3 , Article number: 2 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

273k Accesses

101 Citations

756 Altmetric

Metrics details

The science of learning has made a considerable contribution to our understanding of effective teaching and learning strategies. However, few instructors outside of the field are privy to this research. In this tutorial review, we focus on six specific cognitive strategies that have received robust support from decades of research: spaced practice, interleaving, retrieval practice, elaboration, concrete examples, and dual coding. We describe the basic research behind each strategy and relevant applied research, present examples of existing and suggested implementation, and make recommendations for further research that would broaden the reach of these strategies.

Significance

Education does not currently adhere to the medical model of evidence-based practice (Roediger, 2013 ). However, over the past few decades, our field has made significant advances in applying cognitive processes to education. From this work, specific recommendations can be made for students to maximize their learning efficiency (Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, & Willingham, 2013 ; Roediger, Finn, & Weinstein, 2012 ). In particular, a review published 10 years ago identified a limited number of study techniques that have received solid evidence from multiple replications testing their effectiveness in and out of the classroom (Pashler et al., 2007 ). A recent textbook analysis (Pomerance, Greenberg, & Walsh, 2016 ) took the six key learning strategies from this report by Pashler and colleagues, and found that very few teacher-training textbooks cover any of these six principles – and none cover them all, suggesting that these strategies are not systematically making their way into the classroom. This is the case in spite of multiple recent academic (e.g., Dunlosky et al., 2013 ) and general audience (e.g., Dunlosky, 2013 ) publications about these strategies. In this tutorial review, we present the basic science behind each of these six key principles, along with more recent research on their effectiveness in live classrooms, and suggest ideas for pedagogical implementation. The target audience of this review is (a) educators who might be interested in integrating the strategies into their teaching practice, (b) science of learning researchers who are looking for open questions to help determine future research priorities, and (c) researchers in other subfields who are interested in the ways that principles from cognitive psychology have been applied to education.

While the typical teacher may not be exposed to this research during teacher training, a small cohort of teachers intensely interested in cognitive psychology has recently emerged. These teachers are mainly based in the UK, and, anecdotally (e.g., Dennis (2016), personal communication), appear to have taken an interest in the science of learning after reading Make it Stick (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014 ; see Clark ( 2016 ) for an enthusiastic review of this book on a teacher’s blog, and “Learning Scientists” ( 2016c ) for a collection). In addition, a grassroots teacher movement has led to the creation of “researchED” – a series of conferences on evidence-based education (researchED, 2013 ). The teachers who form part of this network frequently discuss cognitive psychology techniques and their applications to education on social media (mainly Twitter; e.g., Fordham, 2016 ; Penfound, 2016 ) and on their blogs, such as Evidence Into Practice ( https://evidenceintopractice.wordpress.com/ ), My Learning Journey ( http://reflectionsofmyteaching.blogspot.com/ ), and The Effortful Educator ( https://theeffortfuleducator.com/ ). In general, the teachers who write about these issues pay careful attention to the relevant literature, often citing some of the work described in this review.

These informal writings, while allowing teachers to explore their approach to teaching practice (Luehmann, 2008 ), give us a unique window into the application of the science of learning to the classroom. By examining these blogs, we can not only observe how basic cognitive research is being applied in the classroom by teachers who are reading it, but also how it is being misapplied, and what questions teachers may be posing that have gone unaddressed in the scientific literature. Throughout this review, we illustrate each strategy with examples of how it can be implemented (see Table 1 and Figs. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 and 7 ), as well as with relevant teacher blog posts that reflect on its application, and draw upon this work to pin-point fruitful avenues for further basic and applied research.

Spaced practice schedule for one week. This schedule is designed to represent a typical timetable of a high-school student. The schedule includes four one-hour study sessions, one longer study session on the weekend, and one rest day. Notice that each subject is studied one day after it is covered in school, to create spacing between classes and study sessions. Copyright note: this image was produced by the authors

a Blocked practice and interleaved practice with fraction problems. In the blocked version, students answer four multiplication problems consecutively. In the interleaved version, students answer a multiplication problem followed by a division problem and then an addition problem, before returning to multiplication. For an experiment with a similar setup, see Patel et al. ( 2016 ). Copyright note: this image was produced by the authors. b Illustration of interleaving and spacing. Each color represents a different homework topic. Interleaving involves alternating between topics, rather than blocking. Spacing involves distributing practice over time, rather than massing. Interleaving inherently involves spacing as other tasks naturally “fill” the spaces between interleaved sessions. Copyright note: this image was produced by the authors, adapted from Rohrer ( 2012 )

Concept map illustrating the process and resulting benefits of retrieval practice. Retrieval practice involves the process of withdrawing learned information from long-term memory into working memory, which requires effort. This produces direct benefits via the consolidation of learned information, making it easier to remember later and causing improvements in memory, transfer, and inferences. Retrieval practice also produces indirect benefits of feedback to students and teachers, which in turn can lead to more effective study and teaching practices, with a focus on information that was not accurately retrieved. Copyright note: this figure originally appeared in a blog post by the first and third authors ( http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/4/1-1 )

Illustration of “how” and “why” questions (i.e., elaborative interrogation questions) students might ask while studying the physics of flight. To help figure out how physics explains flight, students might ask themselves the following questions: “How does a plane take off?”; “Why does a plane need an engine?”; “How does the upward force (lift) work?”; “Why do the wings have a curved upper surface and a flat lower surface?”; and “Why is there a downwash behind the wings?”. Copyright note: the image of the plane was downloaded from Pixabay.com and is free to use, modify, and share

Three examples of physics problems that would be categorized differently by novices and experts. The problems in ( a ) and ( c ) look similar on the surface, so novices would group them together into one category. Experts, however, will recognize that the problems in ( b ) and ( c ) both relate to the principle of energy conservation, and so will group those two problems into one category instead. Copyright note: the figure was produced by the authors, based on figures in Chi et al. ( 1981 )

Example of how to enhance learning through use of a visual example. Students might view this visual representation of neural communications with the words provided, or they could draw a similar visual representation themselves. Copyright note: this figure was produced by the authors

Example of word properties associated with visual, verbal, and motor coding for the word “SPOON”. A word can evoke multiple types of representation (“codes” in dual coding theory). Viewing a word will automatically evoke verbal representations related to its component letters and phonemes. Words representing objects (i.e., concrete nouns) will also evoke visual representations, including information about similar objects, component parts of the object, and information about where the object is typically found. In some cases, additional codes can also be evoked, such as motor-related properties of the represented object, where contextual information related to the object’s functional intention and manipulation action may also be processed automatically when reading the word. Copyright note: this figure was produced by the authors and is based on Aylwin ( 1990 ; Fig. 2 ) and Madan and Singhal ( 2012a , Fig. 3 )

Spaced practice

The benefits of spaced (or distributed) practice to learning are arguably one of the strongest contributions that cognitive psychology has made to education (Kang, 2016 ). The effect is simple: the same amount of repeated studying of the same information spaced out over time will lead to greater retention of that information in the long run, compared with repeated studying of the same information for the same amount of time in one study session. The benefits of distributed practice were first empirically demonstrated in the 19 th century. As part of his extensive investigation into his own memory, Ebbinghaus ( 1885/1913 ) found that when he spaced out repetitions across 3 days, he could almost halve the number of repetitions necessary to relearn a series of 12 syllables in one day (Chapter 8). He thus concluded that “a suitable distribution of [repetitions] over a space of time is decidedly more advantageous than the massing of them at a single time” (Section 34). For those who want to read more about Ebbinghaus’s contribution to memory research, Roediger ( 1985 ) provides an excellent summary.

Since then, hundreds of studies have examined spacing effects both in the laboratory and in the classroom (Kang, 2016 ). Spaced practice appears to be particularly useful at large retention intervals: in the meta-analysis by Cepeda, Pashler, Vul, Wixted, and Rohrer ( 2006 ), all studies with a retention interval longer than a month showed a clear benefit of distributed practice. The “new theory of disuse” (Bjork & Bjork, 1992 ) provides a helpful mechanistic explanation for the benefits of spacing to learning. This theory posits that memories have both retrieval strength and storage strength. Whereas retrieval strength is thought to measure the ease with which a memory can be recalled at a given moment, storage strength (which cannot be measured directly) represents the extent to which a memory is truly embedded in the mind. When studying is taking place, both retrieval strength and storage strength receive a boost. However, the extent to which storage strength is boosted depends upon retrieval strength, and the relationship is negative: the greater the current retrieval strength, the smaller the gains in storage strength. Thus, the information learned through “cramming” will be rapidly forgotten due to high retrieval strength and low storage strength (Bjork & Bjork, 2011 ), whereas spacing out learning increases storage strength by allowing retrieval strength to wane before restudy.

Teachers can introduce spacing to their students in two broad ways. One involves creating opportunities to revisit information throughout the semester, or even in future semesters. This does involve some up-front planning, and can be difficult to achieve, given time constraints and the need to cover a set curriculum. However, spacing can be achieved with no great costs if teachers set aside a few minutes per class to review information from previous lessons. The second method involves putting the onus to space on the students themselves. Of course, this would work best with older students – high school and above. Because spacing requires advance planning, it is crucial that the teacher helps students plan their studying. For example, teachers could suggest that students schedule study sessions on days that alternate with the days on which a particular class meets (e.g., schedule review sessions for Tuesday and Thursday when the class meets Monday and Wednesday; see Fig. 1 for a more complete weekly spaced practice schedule). It important to note that the spacing effect refers to information that is repeated multiple times, rather than the idea of studying different material in one long session versus spaced out in small study sessions over time. However, for teachers and particularly for students planning a study schedule, the subtle difference between the two situations (spacing out restudy opportunities, versus spacing out studying of different information over time) may be lost. Future research should address the effects of spacing out studying of different information over time, whether the same considerations apply in this situation as compared to spacing out restudy opportunities, and how important it is for teachers and students to understand the difference between these two types of spaced practice.

It is important to note that students may feel less confident when they space their learning (Bjork, 1999 ) than when they cram. This is because spaced learning is harder – but it is this “desirable difficulty” that helps learning in the long term (Bjork, 1994 ). Students tend to cram for exams rather than space out their learning. One explanation for this is that cramming does “work”, if the goal is only to pass an exam. In order to change students’ minds about how they schedule their studying, it might be important to emphasize the value of retaining information beyond a final exam in one course.

Ideas for how to apply spaced practice in teaching have appeared in numerous teacher blogs (e.g., Fawcett, 2013 ; Kraft, 2015 ; Picciotto, 2009 ). In England in particular, as of 2013, high-school students need to be able to remember content from up to 3 years back on cumulative exams (General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and A-level exams; see CIFE, 2012 ). A-levels in particular determine what subject students study in university and which programs they are accepted into, and thus shape the path of their academic career. A common approach for dealing with these exams has been to include a “revision” (i.e., studying or cramming) period of a few weeks leading up to the high-stakes cumulative exams. Now, teachers who follow cognitive psychology are advocating a shift of priorities to spacing learning over time across the 3 years, rather than teaching a topic once and then intensely reviewing it weeks before the exam (Cox, 2016a ; Wood, 2017 ). For example, some teachers have suggested using homework assignments as an opportunity for spaced practice by giving students homework on previous topics (Rose, 2014 ). However, questions remain, such as whether spaced practice can ever be effective enough to completely alleviate the need or utility of a cramming period (Cox, 2016b ), and how one can possibly figure out the optimal lag for spacing (Benney, 2016 ; Firth, 2016 ).

There has been considerable research on the question of optimal lag, and much of it is quite complex; two sessions neither too close together (i.e., cramming) nor too far apart are ideal for retention. In a large-scale study, Cepeda, Vul, Rohrer, Wixted, and Pashler ( 2008 ) examined the effects of the gap between study sessions and the interval between study and test across long periods, and found that the optimal gap between study sessions was contingent on the retention interval. Thus, it is not clear how teachers can apply the complex findings on lag to their own classrooms.

A useful avenue of research would be to simplify the research paradigms that are used to study optimal lag, with the goal of creating a flexible, spaced-practice framework that teachers could apply and tailor to their own teaching needs. For example, an Excel macro spreadsheet was recently produced to help teachers plan for lagged lessons (Weinstein-Jones & Weinstein, 2017 ; see Weinstein & Weinstein-Jones ( 2017 ) for a description of the algorithm used in the spreadsheet), and has been used by teachers to plan their lessons (Penfound, 2017 ). However, one teacher who found this tool helpful also wondered whether the more sophisticated plan was any better than his own method of manually selecting poorly understood material from previous classes for later review (Lovell, 2017 ). This direction is being actively explored within personalized online learning environments (Kornell & Finn, 2016 ; Lindsey, Shroyer, Pashler, & Mozer, 2014 ), but teachers in physical classrooms might need less technologically-driven solutions to teach cohorts of students.

It seems teachers would greatly appreciate a set of guidelines for how to implement spacing in the curriculum in the most effective, but also the most efficient manner. While the cognitive field has made great advances in terms of understanding the mechanisms behind spacing, what teachers need more of are concrete evidence-based tools and guidelines for direct implementation in the classroom. These could include more sophisticated and experimentally tested versions of the software described above (Weinstein-Jones & Weinstein, 2017 ), or adaptable templates of spaced curricula. Moreover, researchers need to evaluate the effectiveness of these tools in a real classroom environment, over a semester or academic year, in order to give pedagogically relevant evidence-based recommendations to teachers.

Interleaving

Another scheduling technique that has been shown to increase learning is interleaving. Interleaving occurs when different ideas or problem types are tackled in a sequence, as opposed to the more common method of attempting multiple versions of the same problem in a given study session (known as blocking). Interleaving as a principle can be applied in many different ways. One such way involves interleaving different types of problems during learning, which is particularly applicable to subjects such as math and physics (see Fig. 2 a for an example with fractions, based on a study by Patel, Liu, & Koedinger, 2016 ). For example, in a study with college students, Rohrer and Taylor ( 2007 ) found that shuffling math problems that involved calculating the volume of different shapes resulted in better test performance 1 week later than when students answered multiple problems about the same type of shape in a row. This pattern of results has also been replicated with younger students, for example 7 th grade students learning to solve graph and slope problems (Rohrer, Dedrick, & Stershic, 2015 ). The proposed explanation for the benefit of interleaving is that switching between different problem types allows students to acquire the ability to choose the right method for solving different types of problems rather than learning only the method itself, and not when to apply it.

Do the benefits of interleaving extend beyond problem solving? The answer appears to be yes. Interleaving can be helpful in other situations that require discrimination, such as inductive learning. Kornell and Bjork ( 2008 ) examined the effects of interleaving in a task that might be pertinent to a student of the history of art: the ability to match paintings to their respective painters. Students who studied different painters’ paintings interleaved at study were more successful on a later identification test than were participants who studied the paintings blocked by painter. Birnbaum, Kornell, Bjork, and Bjork ( 2013 ) proposed the discriminative-contrast hypothesis to explain that interleaving enhances learning by allowing the comparison between exemplars of different categories. They found support for this hypothesis in a set of experiments with bird categorization: participants benefited from interleaving and also from spacing, but not when the spacing interrupted side-by-side comparisons of birds from different categories.

Another type of interleaving involves the interleaving of study and test opportunities. This type of interleaving has been applied, once again, to problem solving, whereby students alternate between attempting a problem and viewing a worked example (Trafton & Reiser, 1993 ); this pattern appears to be superior to answering a string of problems in a row, at least with respect to the amount of time it takes to achieve mastery of a procedure (Corbett, Reed, Hoffmann, MacLaren, & Wagner, 2010 ). The benefits of interleaving study and test opportunities – rather than blocking study followed by attempting to answer problems or questions – might arise due to a process known as “test-potentiated learning”. That is, a study opportunity that immediately follows a retrieval attempt may be more fruitful than when that same studying was not preceded by retrieval (Arnold & McDermott, 2013 ).

For problem-based subjects, the interleaving technique is straightforward: simply mix questions on homework and quizzes with previous materials (which takes care of spacing as well); for languages, mix vocabulary themes rather than blocking by theme (Thomson & Mehring, 2016 ). But interleaving as an educational strategy ought to be presented to teachers with some caveats. Research has focused on interleaving material that is somewhat related (e.g., solving different mathematical equations, Rohrer et al., 2015 ), whereas students sometimes ask whether they should interleave material from different subjects – a practice that has not received empirical support (Hausman & Kornell, 2014 ). When advising students how to study independently, teachers should thus proceed with caution. Since it is easy for younger students to confuse this type of unhelpful interleaving with the more helpful interleaving of related information, it may be best for teachers of younger grades to create opportunities for interleaving in homework and quiz assignments rather than putting the onus on the students themselves to make use of the technique. Technology can be very helpful here, with apps such as Quizlet, Memrise, Anki, Synap, Quiz Champ, and many others (see also “Learning Scientists”, 2017 ) that not only allow instructor-created quizzes to be taken by students, but also provide built-in interleaving algorithms so that the burden does not fall on the teacher or the student to carefully plan which items are interleaved when.

An important point to consider is that in educational practice, the distinction between spacing and interleaving can be difficult to delineate. The gap between the scientific and classroom definitions of interleaving is demonstrated by teachers’ own writings about this technique. When they write about interleaving, teachers often extend the term to connote a curriculum that involves returning to topics multiple times throughout the year (e.g., Kirby, 2014 ; see “Learning Scientists” ( 2016a ) for a collection of similar blog posts by several other teachers). The “interleaving” of topics throughout the curriculum produces an effect that is more akin to what cognitive psychologists call “spacing” (see Fig. 2 b for a visual representation of the difference between interleaving and spacing). However, cognitive psychologists have not examined the effects of structuring the curriculum in this way, and open questions remain: does repeatedly circling back to previous topics throughout the semester interrupt the learning of new information? What are some effective techniques for interleaving old and new information within one class? And how does one determine the balance between old and new information?

Retrieval practice

While tests are most often used in educational settings for assessment, a lesser-known benefit of tests is that they actually improve memory of the tested information. If we think of our memories as libraries of information, then it may seem surprising that retrieval (which happens when we take a test) improves memory; however, we know from a century of research that retrieving knowledge actually strengthens it (see Karpicke, Lehman, & Aue, 2014 ). Testing was shown to strengthen memory as early as 100 years ago (Gates, 1917 ), and there has been a surge of research in the last decade on the mnemonic benefits of testing, or retrieval practice . Most of the research on the effectiveness of retrieval practice has been done with college students (see Roediger & Karpicke, 2006 ; Roediger, Putnam, & Smith, 2011 ), but retrieval-based learning has been shown to be effective at producing learning for a wide range of ages, including preschoolers (Fritz, Morris, Nolan, & Singleton, 2007 ), elementary-aged children (e.g., Karpicke, Blunt, & Smith, 2016 ; Karpicke, Blunt, Smith, & Karpicke, 2014 ; Lipko-Speed, Dunlosky, & Rawson, 2014 ; Marsh, Fazio, & Goswick, 2012 ; Ritchie, Della Sala, & McIntosh, 2013 ), middle-school students (e.g., McDaniel, Thomas, Agarwal, McDermott, & Roediger, 2013 ; McDermott, Agarwal, D’Antonio, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014 ), and high-school students (e.g., McDermott et al., 2014 ). In addition, the effectiveness of retrieval-based learning has been extended beyond simple testing to other activities in which retrieval practice can be integrated, such as concept mapping (Blunt & Karpicke, 2014 ; Karpicke, Blunt, et al., 2014 ; Ritchie et al., 2013 ).

A debate is currently ongoing as to the effectiveness of retrieval practice for more complex materials (Karpicke & Aue, 2015 ; Roelle & Berthold, 2017 ; Van Gog & Sweller, 2015 ). Practicing retrieval has been shown to improve the application of knowledge to new situations (e.g., Butler, 2010 ; Dirkx, Kester, & Kirschner, 2014 ); McDaniel et al., 2013 ; Smith, Blunt, Whiffen, & Karpicke, 2016 ); but see Tran, Rohrer, and Pashler ( 2015 ) and Wooldridge, Bugg, McDaniel, and Liu ( 2014 ), for retrieval practice studies that showed limited or no increased transfer compared to restudy. Retrieval practice effects on higher-order learning may be more sensitive than fact learning to encoding factors, such as the way material is presented during study (Eglington & Kang, 2016 ). In addition, retrieval practice may be more beneficial for higher-order learning if it includes more scaffolding (Fiechter & Benjamin, 2017 ; but see Smith, Blunt, et al., 2016 ) and targeted practice with application questions (Son & Rivas, 2016 ).

How does retrieval practice help memory? Figure 3 illustrates both the direct and indirect benefits of retrieval practice identified by the literature. The act of retrieval itself is thought to strengthen memory (Karpicke, Blunt, et al., 2014 ; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006 ; Smith, Roediger, & Karpicke, 2013 ). For example, Smith et al. ( 2013 ) showed that if students brought information to mind without actually producing it (covert retrieval), they remembered the information just as well as if they overtly produced the retrieved information (overt retrieval). Importantly, both overt and covert retrieval practice improved memory over control groups without retrieval practice, even when feedback was not provided. The fact that bringing information to mind in the absence of feedback or restudy opportunities improves memory leads researchers to conclude that it is the act of retrieval – thinking back to bring information to mind – that improves memory of that information.

The benefit of retrieval practice depends to a certain extent on successful retrieval (see Karpicke, Lehman, et al., 2014 ). For example, in Experiment 4 of Smith et al. ( 2013 ), students successfully retrieved 72% of the information during retrieval practice. Of course, retrieving 72% of the information was compared to a restudy control group, during which students were re-exposed to 100% of the information, creating a bias in favor of the restudy condition. Yet retrieval led to superior memory later compared to the restudy control. However, if retrieval success is extremely low, then it is unlikely to improve memory (e.g., Karpicke, Blunt, et al., 2014 ), particularly in the absence of feedback. On the other hand, if retrieval-based learning situations are constructed in such a way that ensures high levels of success, the act of bringing the information to mind may be undermined, thus making it less beneficial. For example, if a student reads a sentence and then immediately covers the sentence and recites it out loud, they are likely not retrieving the information but rather just keeping the information in their working memory long enough to recite it again (see Smith, Blunt, et al., 2016 for a discussion of this point). Thus, it is important to balance success of retrieval with overall difficulty in retrieving the information (Smith & Karpicke, 2014 ; Weinstein, Nunes, & Karpicke, 2016 ). If initial retrieval success is low, then feedback can help improve the overall benefit of practicing retrieval (Kang, McDermott, & Roediger, 2007 ; Smith & Karpicke, 2014 ). Kornell, Klein, and Rawson ( 2015 ), however, found that it was the retrieval attempt and not the correct production of information that produced the retrieval practice benefit – as long as the correct answer was provided after an unsuccessful attempt, the benefit was the same as for a successful retrieval attempt in this set of studies. From a practical perspective, it would be helpful for teachers to know when retrieval attempts in the absence of success are helpful, and when they are not. There may also be additional reasons beyond retrieval benefits that would push teachers towards retrieval practice activities that produce some success amongst students; for example, teachers may hesitate to give students retrieval practice exercises that are too difficult, as this may negatively affect self-efficacy and confidence.

In addition to the fact that bringing information to mind directly improves memory for that information, engaging in retrieval practice can produce indirect benefits as well (see Roediger et al., 2011 ). For example, research by Weinstein, Gilmore, Szpunar, and McDermott ( 2014 ) demonstrated that when students expected to be tested, the increased test expectancy led to better-quality encoding of new information. Frequent testing can also serve to decrease mind-wandering – that is, thoughts that are unrelated to the material that students are supposed to be studying (Szpunar, Khan, & Schacter, 2013 ).

Practicing retrieval is a powerful way to improve meaningful learning of information, and it is relatively easy to implement in the classroom. For example, requiring students to practice retrieval can be as simple as asking students to put their class materials away and try to write out everything they know about a topic. Retrieval-based learning strategies are also flexible. Instructors can give students practice tests (e.g., short-answer or multiple-choice, see Smith & Karpicke, 2014 ), provide open-ended prompts for the students to recall information (e.g., Smith, Blunt, et al., 2016 ) or ask their students to create concept maps from memory (e.g., Blunt & Karpicke, 2014 ). In one study, Weinstein et al. ( 2016 ) looked at the effectiveness of inserting simple short-answer questions into online learning modules to see whether they improved student performance. Weinstein and colleagues also manipulated the placement of the questions. For some students, the questions were interspersed throughout the module, and for other students the questions were all presented at the end of the module. Initial success on the short-answer questions was higher when the questions were interspersed throughout the module. However, on a later test of learning from that module, the original placement of the questions in the module did not matter for performance. As with spaced practice, where the optimal gap between study sessions is contingent on the retention interval, the optimum difficulty and level of success during retrieval practice may also depend on the retention interval. Both groups of students who answered questions performed better on the delayed test compared to a control group without question opportunities during the module. Thus, the important thing is for instructors to provide opportunities for retrieval practice during learning. Based on previous research, any activity that promotes the successful retrieval of information should improve learning.

Retrieval practice has received a lot of attention in teacher blogs (see “Learning Scientists” ( 2016b ) for a collection). A common theme seems to be an emphasis on low-stakes (Young, 2016 ) and even no-stakes (Cox, 2015 ) testing, the goal of which is to increase learning rather than assess performance. In fact, one well-known charter school in the UK has an official homework policy grounded in retrieval practice: students are to test themselves on subject knowledge for 30 minutes every day in lieu of standard homework (Michaela Community School, 2014 ). The utility of homework, particularly for younger children, is often a hotly debated topic outside of academia (e.g., Shumaker, 2016 ; but see Jones ( 2016 ) for an opposing viewpoint and Cooper ( 1989 ) for the original research the blog posts were based on). Whereas some research shows clear links between homework and academic achievement (Valle et al., 2016 ), other researchers have questioned the effectiveness of homework (Dettmers, Trautwein, & Lüdtke, 2009 ). Perhaps amending homework to involve retrieval practice might make it more effective; this remains an open empirical question.

One final consideration is that of test anxiety. While retrieval practice can be very powerful at improving memory, some research shows that pressure during retrieval can undermine some of the learning benefit. For example, Hinze and Rapp ( 2014 ) manipulated pressure during quizzing to create high-pressure and low-pressure conditions. On the quizzes themselves, students performed equally well. However, those in the high-pressure condition did not perform as well on a criterion test later compared to the low-pressure group. Thus, test anxiety may reduce the learning benefit of retrieval practice. Eliminating all high-pressure tests is probably not possible, but instructors can provide a number of low-stakes retrieval opportunities for students to help increase learning. The use of low-stakes testing can serve to decrease test anxiety (Khanna, 2015 ), and has recently been shown to negate the detrimental impact of stress on learning (Smith, Floerke, & Thomas, 2016 ). This is a particularly important line of inquiry to pursue for future research, because many teachers who are not familiar with the effectiveness of retrieval practice may be put off by the implied pressure of “testing”, which evokes the much maligned high-stakes standardized tests (e.g., McHugh, 2013 ).

Elaboration

Elaboration involves connecting new information to pre-existing knowledge. Anderson ( 1983 , p.285) made the following claim about elaboration: “One of the most potent manipulations that can be performed in terms of increasing a subject’s memory for material is to have the subject elaborate on the to-be-remembered material.” Postman ( 1976 , p. 28) defined elaboration most parsimoniously as “additions to nominal input”, and Hirshman ( 2001 , p. 4369) provided an elaboration on this definition (pun intended!), defining elaboration as “A conscious, intentional process that associates to-be-remembered information with other information in memory.” However, in practice, elaboration could mean many different things. The common thread in all the definitions is that elaboration involves adding features to an existing memory.

One possible instantiation of elaboration is thinking about information on a deeper level. The levels (or “depth”) of processing framework, proposed by Craik and Lockhart ( 1972 ), predicts that information will be remembered better if it is processed more deeply in terms of meaning, rather than shallowly in terms of form. The leves of processing framework has, however, received a number of criticisms (Craik, 2002 ). One major problem with this framework is that it is difficult to measure “depth”. And if we are not able to actually measure depth, then the argument can become circular: is it that something was remembered better because it was studied more deeply, or do we conclude that it must have been studied more deeply because it is remembered better? (See Lockhart & Craik, 1990 , for further discussion of this issue).

Another mechanism by which elaboration can confer a benefit to learning is via improvement in organization (Bellezza, Cheesman, & Reddy, 1977 ; Mandler, 1979 ). By this view, elaboration involves making information more integrated and organized with existing knowledge structures. By connecting and integrating the to-be-learned information with other concepts in memory, students can increase the extent to which the ideas are organized in their minds, and this increased organization presumably facilitates the reconstruction of the past at the time of retrieval.

Elaboration is such a broad term and can include so many different techniques that it is hard to claim that elaboration will always help learning. There is, however, a specific technique under the umbrella of elaboration for which there is relatively strong evidence in terms of effectiveness (Dunlosky et al., 2013 ; Pashler et al., 2007 ). This technique is called elaborative interrogation, and involves students questioning the materials that they are studying (Pressley, McDaniel, Turnure, Wood, & Ahmad, 1987 ). More specifically, students using this technique would ask “how” and “why” questions about the concepts they are studying (see Fig. 4 for an example on the physics of flight). Then, crucially, students would try to answer these questions – either from their materials or, eventually, from memory (McDaniel & Donnelly, 1996 ). The process of figuring out the answer to the questions – with some amount of uncertainty (Overoye & Storm, 2015 ) – can help learning. When using this technique, however, it is important that students check their answers with their materials or with the teacher; when the content generated through elaborative interrogation is poor, it can actually hurt learning (Clinton, Alibali, & Nathan, 2016 ).

Students can also be encouraged to self-explain concepts to themselves while learning (Chi, De Leeuw, Chiu, & LaVancher, 1994 ). This might involve students simply saying out loud what steps they need to perform to solve an equation. Aleven and Koedinger ( 2002 ) conducted two classroom studies in which students were either prompted by a “cognitive tutor” to provide self-explanations during a problem-solving task or not, and found that the self-explanations led to improved performance. According to the authors, this approach could scale well to real classrooms. If possible and relevant, students could even perform actions alongside their self-explanations (Cohen, 1981 ; see also the enactment effect, Hainselin, Picard, Manolli, Vankerkore-Candas, & Bourdin, 2017 ). Instructors can scaffold students in these types of activities by providing self-explanation prompts throughout to-be-learned material (O’Neil et al., 2014 ). Ultimately, the greatest potential benefit of accurate self-explanation or elaboration is that the student will be able to transfer their knowledge to a new situation (Rittle-Johnson, 2006 ).

The technical term “elaborative interrogation” has not made it into the vernacular of educational bloggers (a search on https://educationechochamberuncut.wordpress.com , which consolidates over 3,000 UK-based teacher blogs, yielded zero results for that term). However, a few teachers have blogged about elaboration more generally (e.g., Hobbiss, 2016 ) and deep questioning specifically (e.g., Class Teaching, 2013 ), just without using the specific terminology. This strategy in particular may benefit from a more open dialog between researchers and teachers to facilitate the use of elaborative interrogation in the classroom and to address possible barriers to implementation. In terms of advancing the scientific understanding of elaborative interrogation in a classroom setting, it would be informative to conduct a larger-scale intervention to see whether having students elaborate during reading actually helps their understanding. It would also be useful to know whether the students really need to generate their own elaborative interrogation (“how” and “why”) questions, versus answering questions provided by others. How long should students persist to find the answers? When is the right time to have students engage in this task, given the levels of expertise required to do it well (Clinton et al., 2016 )? Without knowing the answers to these questions, it may be too early for us to instruct teachers to use this technique in their classes. Finally, elaborative interrogation takes a long time. Is this time efficiently spent? Or, would it be better to have the students try to answer a few questions, pool their information as a class, and then move to practicing retrieval of the information?

Concrete examples

Providing supporting information can improve the learning of key ideas and concepts. Specifically, using concrete examples to supplement content that is more conceptual in nature can make the ideas easier to understand and remember. Concrete examples can provide several advantages to the learning process: (a) they can concisely convey information, (b) they can provide students with more concrete information that is easier to remember, and (c) they can take advantage of the superior memorability of pictures relative to words (see “Dual Coding”).

Words that are more concrete are both recognized and recalled better than abstract words (Gorman, 1961 ; e.g., “button” and “bound,” respectively). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that information that is more concrete and imageable enhances the learning of associations, even with abstract content (Caplan & Madan, 2016 ; Madan, Glaholt, & Caplan, 2010 ; Paivio, 1971 ). Following from this, providing concrete examples during instruction should improve retention of related abstract concepts, rather than the concrete examples alone being remembered better. Concrete examples can be useful both during instruction and during practice problems. Having students actively explain how two examples are similar and encouraging them to extract the underlying structure on their own can also help with transfer. In a laboratory study, Berry ( 1983 ) demonstrated that students performed well when given concrete practice problems, regardless of the use of verbalization (akin to elaborative interrogation), but that verbalization helped students transfer understanding from concrete to abstract problems. One particularly important area of future research is determining how students can best make the link between concrete examples and abstract ideas.

Since abstract concepts are harder to grasp than concrete information (Paivio, Walsh, & Bons, 1994 ), it follows that teachers ought to illustrate abstract ideas with concrete examples. However, care must be taken when selecting the examples. LeFevre and Dixon ( 1986 ) provided students with both concrete examples and abstract instructions and found that when these were inconsistent, students followed the concrete examples rather than the abstract instructions, potentially constraining the application of the abstract concept being taught. Lew, Fukawa-Connelly, Mejí-Ramos, and Weber ( 2016 ) used an interview approach to examine why students may have difficulty understanding a lecture. Responses indicated that some issues were related to understanding the overarching topic rather than the component parts, and to the use of informal colloquialisms that did not clearly follow from the material being taught. Both of these issues could have potentially been addressed through the inclusion of a greater number of relevant concrete examples.

One concern with using concrete examples is that students might only remember the examples – especially if they are particularly memorable, such as fun or gimmicky examples – and will not be able to transfer their understanding from one example to another, or more broadly to the abstract concept. However, there does not seem to be any evidence that fun relevant examples actually hurt learning by harming memory for important information. Instead, fun examples and jokes tend to be more memorable, but this boost in memory for the joke does not seem to come at a cost to memory for the underlying concept (Baldassari & Kelley, 2012 ). However, two important caveats need to be highlighted. First, to the extent that the more memorable content is not relevant to the concepts of interest, learning of the target information can be compromised (Harp & Mayer, 1998 ). Thus, care must be taken to ensure that all examples and gimmicks are, in fact, related to the core concepts that the students need to acquire, and do not contain irrelevant perceptual features (Kaminski & Sloutsky, 2013 ).

The second issue is that novices often notice and remember the surface details of an example rather than the underlying structure. Experts, on the other hand, can extract the underlying structure from examples that have divergent surface features (Chi, Feltovich, & Glaser, 1981 ; see Fig. 5 for an example from physics). Gick and Holyoak ( 1983 ) tried to get students to apply a rule from one problem to another problem that appeared different on the surface, but was structurally similar. They found that providing multiple examples helped with this transfer process compared to only using one example – especially when the examples provided had different surface details. More work is also needed to determine how many examples are sufficient for generalization to occur (and this, of course, will vary with contextual factors and individual differences). Further research on the continuum between concrete/specific examples and more abstract concepts would also be informative. That is, if an example is not concrete enough, it may be too difficult to understand. On the other hand, if the example is too concrete, that could be detrimental to generalization to the more abstract concept (although a diverse set of very concrete examples may be able to help with this). In fact, in a controversial article, Kaminski, Sloutsky, and Heckler ( 2008 ) claimed that abstract examples were more effective than concrete examples. Later rebuttals of this paper contested whether the abstract versus concrete distinction was clearly defined in the original study (see Reed, 2008 , for a collection of letters on the subject). This ideal point along the concrete-abstract continuum might also interact with development.

Finding teacher blog posts on concrete examples proved to be more difficult than for the other strategies in this review. One optimistic possibility is that teachers frequently use concrete examples in their teaching, and thus do not think of this as a specific contribution from cognitive psychology; the one blog post we were able to find that discussed concrete examples suggests that this might be the case (Boulton, 2016 ). The idea of “linking abstract concepts with concrete examples” is also covered in 25% of teacher-training textbooks used in the US, according to the report by Pomerance et al. ( 2016 ); this is the second most frequently covered of the six strategies, after “posing probing questions” (i.e., elaborative interrogation). A useful direction for future research would be to establish how teachers are using concrete examples in their practice, and whether we can make any suggestions for improvement based on research into the science of learning. For example, if two examples are better than one (Bauernschmidt, 2017 ), are additional examples also needed, or are there diminishing returns from providing more examples? And, how can teachers best ensure that concrete examples are consistent with prior knowledge (Reed, 2008 )?

Dual coding

Both the memory literature and folk psychology support the notion of visual examples being beneficial—the adage of “a picture is worth a thousand words” (traced back to an advertising slogan from the 1920s; Meider, 1990 ). Indeed, it is well-understood that more information can be conveyed through a simple illustration than through several paragraphs of text (e.g., Barker & Manji, 1989 ; Mayer & Gallini, 1990 ). Illustrations can be particularly helpful when the described concept involves several parts or steps and is intended for individuals with low prior knowledge (Eitel & Scheiter, 2015 ; Mayer & Gallini, 1990 ). Figure 6 provides a concrete example of this, illustrating how information can flow through neurons and synapses.

In addition to being able to convey information more succinctly, pictures are also more memorable than words (Paivio & Csapo, 1969 , 1973 ). In the memory literature, this is referred to as the picture superiority effect , and dual coding theory was developed in part to explain this effect. Dual coding follows from the notion of text being accompanied by complementary visual information to enhance learning. Paivio ( 1971 , 1986 ) proposed dual coding theory as a mechanistic account for the integration of multiple information “codes” to process information. In this theory, a code corresponds to a modal or otherwise distinct representation of a concept—e.g., “mental images for ‘book’ have visual, tactual, and other perceptual qualities similar to those evoked by the referent objects on which the images are based” (Clark & Paivio, 1991 , p. 152). Aylwin ( 1990 ) provides a clear example of how the word “dog” can evoke verbal, visual, and enactive representations (see Fig. 7 for a similar example for the word “SPOON”, based on Aylwin, 1990 (Fig. 2 ) and Madan & Singhal, 2012a (Fig. 3 )). Codes can also correspond to emotional properties (Clark & Paivio, 1991 ; Paivio, 2013 ). Clark and Paivio ( 1991 ) provide a thorough review of dual coding theory and its relation to education, while Paivio ( 2007 ) provides a comprehensive treatise on dual coding theory. Broadly, dual coding theory suggests that providing multiple representations of the same information enhances learning and memory, and that information that more readily evokes additional representations (through automatic imagery processes) receives a similar benefit.

Paivio and Csapo ( 1973 ) suggest that verbal and imaginal codes have independent and additive effects on memory recall. Using visuals to improve learning and memory has been particularly applied to vocabulary learning (Danan, 1992 ; Sadoski, 2005 ), but has also shown success in other domains such as in health care (Hartland, Biddle, & Fallacaro, 2008 ). To take advantage of dual coding, verbal information should be accompanied by a visual representation when possible. However, while the studies discussed all indicate that the use of multiple representations of information is favorable, it is important to acknowledge that each representation also increases cognitive load and can lead to over-saturation (Mayer & Moreno, 2003 ).

Given that pictures are generally remembered better than words, it is important to ensure that the pictures students are provided with are helpful and relevant to the content they are expected to learn. McNeill, Uttal, Jarvin, and Sternberg ( 2009 ) found that providing visual examples decreased conceptual errors. However, McNeill et al. also found that when students were given visually rich examples, they performed more poorly than students who were not given any visual example, suggesting that the visual details can at times become a distraction and hinder performance. Thus, it is important to consider that images used in teaching are clear and not ambiguous in their meaning (Schwartz, 2007 ).

Further broadening the scope of dual coding theory, Engelkamp and Zimmer ( 1984 ) suggest that motor movements, such as “turning the handle,” can provide an additional motor code that can improve memory, linking studies of motor actions (enactment) with dual coding theory (Clark & Paivio, 1991 ; Engelkamp & Cohen, 1991 ; Madan & Singhal, 2012c ). Indeed, enactment effects appear to primarily occur during learning, rather than during retrieval (Peterson & Mulligan, 2010 ). Along similar lines, Wammes, Meade, and Fernandes ( 2016 ) demonstrated that generating drawings can provide memory benefits beyond what could otherwise be explained by visual imagery, picture superiority, and other memory enhancing effects. Providing convergent evidence, even when overt motor actions are not critical in themselves, words representing functional objects have been shown to enhance later memory (Madan & Singhal, 2012b ; Montefinese, Ambrosini, Fairfield, & Mammarella, 2013 ). This indicates that motoric processes can improve memory similarly to visual imagery, similar to memory differences for concrete vs. abstract words. Further research suggests that automatic motor simulation for functional objects is likely responsible for this memory benefit (Madan, Chen, & Singhal, 2016 ).

When teachers combine visuals and words in their educational practice, however, they may not always be taking advantage of dual coding – at least, not in the optimal manner. For example, a recent discussion on Twitter centered around one teacher’s decision to have 7 th Grade students replace certain words in their science laboratory report with a picture of that word (e.g., the instructions read “using a syringe …” and a picture of a syringe replaced the word; Turner, 2016a ). Other teachers argued that this was not dual coding (Beaven, 2016 ; Williams, 2016 ), because there were no longer two different representations of the information. The first teacher maintained that dual coding was preserved, because this laboratory report with pictures was to be used alongside the original, fully verbal report (Turner, 2016b ). This particular implementation – having students replace individual words with pictures – has not been examined in the cognitive literature, presumably because no benefit would be expected. In any case, we need to be clearer about implementations for dual coding, and more research is needed to clarify how teachers can make use of the benefits conferred by multiple representations and picture superiority.

Critically, dual coding theory is distinct from the notion of “learning styles,” which describe the idea that individuals benefit from instruction that matches their modality preference. While this idea is pervasive and individuals often subjectively feel that they have a preference, evidence indicates that the learning styles theory is not supported by empirical findings (e.g., Kavale, Hirshoren, & Forness, 1998 ; Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork, 2008 ; Rohrer & Pashler, 2012 ). That is, there is no evidence that instructing students in their preferred learning style leads to an overall improvement in learning (the “meshing” hypothesis). Moreover, learning styles have come to be described as a myth or urban legend within psychology (Coffield, Moseley, Hall, & Ecclestone, 2004 ; Hattie & Yates, 2014 ; Kirschner & van Merriënboer, 2013 ; Kirschner, 2017 ); skepticism about learning styles is a common stance amongst evidence-informed teachers (e.g., Saunders, 2016 ). Providing evidence against the notion of learning styles, Kraemer, Rosenberg, and Thompson-Schill ( 2009 ) found that individuals who scored as “verbalizers” and “visualizers” did not perform any better on experimental trials matching their preference. Instead, it has recently been shown that learning through one’s preferred learning style is associated with elevated subjective judgements of learning, but not objective performance (Knoll, Otani, Skeel, & Van Horn, 2017 ). In contrast to learning styles, dual coding is based on providing additional, complementary forms of information to enhance learning, rather than tailoring instruction to individuals’ preferences.

Genuine educational environments present many opportunities for combining the strategies outlined above. Spacing can be particularly potent for learning if it is combined with retrieval practice. The additive benefits of retrieval practice and spacing can be gained by engaging in retrieval practice multiple times (also known as distributed practice; see Cepeda et al., 2006 ). Interleaving naturally entails spacing if students interleave old and new material. Concrete examples can be both verbal and visual, making use of dual coding. In addition, the strategies of elaboration, concrete examples, and dual coding all work best when used as part of retrieval practice. For example, in the concept-mapping studies mentioned above (Blunt & Karpicke, 2014 ; Karpicke, Blunt, et al., 2014 ), creating concept maps while looking at course materials (e.g., a textbook) was not as effective for later memory as creating concept maps from memory. When practicing elaborative interrogation, students can start off answering the “how” and “why” questions they pose for themselves using class materials, and work their way up to answering them from memory. And when interleaving different problem types, students should be practicing answering them rather than just looking over worked examples.

But while these ideas for strategy combinations have empirical bases, it has not yet been established whether the benefits of the strategies to learning are additive, super-additive, or, in some cases, incompatible. Thus, future research needs to (a) better formalize the definition of each strategy (particularly critical for elaboration and dual coding), (b) identify best practices for implementation in the classroom, (c) delineate the boundary conditions of each strategy, and (d) strategically investigate interactions between the six strategies we outlined in this manuscript.

Aleven, V. A., & Koedinger, K. R. (2002). An effective metacognitive strategy: learning by doing and explaining with a computer-based cognitive tutor. Cognitive Science, 26 , 147–179.

Article Google Scholar

Anderson, J. R. (1983). A spreading activation theory of memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22 , 261–295.

Arnold, K. M., & McDermott, K. B. (2013). Test-potentiated learning: distinguishing between direct and indirect effects of tests. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39 , 940–945.

PubMed Google Scholar

Aylwin, S. (1990). Imagery and affect: big questions, little answers. In P. J. Thompson, D. E. Marks, & J. T. E. Richardson (Eds.), Imagery: Current developments . New York: International Library of Psychology.

Google Scholar

Baldassari, M. J., & Kelley, M. (2012). Make’em laugh? The mnemonic effect of humor in a speech. Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 17 , 2–9.

Barker, P. G., & Manji, K. A. (1989). Pictorial dialogue methods. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 31 , 323–347.

Bauernschmidt, A. (2017). GUEST POST: two examples are better than one. [Blog post]. The Learning Scientists Blog . Retrieved from http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/5/30-1 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Beaven, T. (2016). @doctorwhy @FurtherEdagogy @doc_kristy Right, I thought the whole point of dual coding was to use TWO codes: pics + words of the SAME info? [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TitaBeaven/status/807504041341308929 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Bellezza, F. S., Cheesman, F. L., & Reddy, B. G. (1977). Organization and semantic elaboration in free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 3 , 539–550.

Benney, D. (2016). (Trying to apply) spacing in a content heavy subject [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://mrbenney.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/trying-to-apply-spacing-in-science/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Berry, D. C. (1983). Metacognitive experience and transfer of logical reasoning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 35A , 39–49.

Birnbaum, M. S., Kornell, N., Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2013). Why interleaving enhances inductive learning: the roles of discrimination and retrieval. Memory & Cognition, 41 , 392–402.

Bjork, R. A. (1999). Assessing our own competence: heuristics and illusions. In D. Gopher & A. Koriat (Eds.), Attention and peformance XVII. Cognitive regulation of performance: Interaction of theory and application (pp. 435–459). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Bjork, R. A. (1994). Memory and metamemory considerations in the training of human beings. In J. Metcalfe & A. Shimamura (Eds.), Metacognition: Knowing about knowing (pp. 185–205). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (1992). A new theory of disuse and an old theory of stimulus fluctuation. From learning processes to cognitive processes: Essays in honor of William K. Estes, 2 , 35–67.

Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. Psychology and the real world: Essays illustrating fundamental contributions to society , 56–64.

Blunt, J. R., & Karpicke, J. D. (2014). Learning with retrieval-based concept mapping. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106 , 849–858.

Boulton, K. (2016). What does cognitive overload look like in the humanities? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://educationechochamberuncut.wordpress.com/2016/03/05/what-does-cognitive-overload-look-like-in-the-humanities-kris-boulton-2/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Book Google Scholar

Butler, A. C. (2010). Repeated testing produces superior transfer of learning relative to repeated studying. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36 , 1118–1133.

Caplan, J. B., & Madan, C. R. (2016). Word-imageability enhances association-memory by recruiting hippocampal activity. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28 , 1522–1538.

Article PubMed Google Scholar

Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: a review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132 , 354–380.

Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T., & Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing effects in learning a temporal ridgeline of optimal retention. Psychological Science, 19 , 1095–1102.

Chi, M. T., De Leeuw, N., Chiu, M. H., & LaVancher, C. (1994). Eliciting self-explanations improves understanding. Cognitive Science, 18 , 439–477.

Chi, M. T., Feltovich, P. J., & Glaser, R. (1981). Categorization and representation of physics problems by experts and novices. Cognitive Science, 5 , 121–152.

CIFE. (2012). No January A level and other changes. Retrieved from http://www.cife.org.uk/cife-general-news/no-january-a-level-and-other-changes/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Clark, D. (2016). One book on learning that every teacher, lecturer & trainer should read (7 reasons) [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2016/03/one-book-on-learning-that-every-teacher.html . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Clark, J. M., & Paivio, A. (1991). Dual coding theory and education. Educational Psychology Review, 3 , 149–210.

Class Teaching. (2013). Deep questioning [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/deep-questioning/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Clinton, V., Alibali, M. W., & Nathan, M. J. (2016). Learning about posterior probability: do diagrams and elaborative interrogation help? The Journal of Experimental Education, 84 , 579–599.

Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E., & Ecclestone, K. (2004). Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: a systematic and critical review . London: Learning & Skills Research Centre.

Cohen, R. L. (1981). On the generality of some memory laws. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 22 , 267–281.

Cooper, H. (1989). Synthesis of research on homework. Educational Leadership, 47 , 85–91.

Corbett, A. T., Reed, S. K., Hoffmann, R., MacLaren, B., & Wagner, A. (2010). Interleaving worked examples and cognitive tutor support for algebraic modeling of problem situations. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Second Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2882–2887).

Cox, D. (2015). No stakes testing – not telling students their results [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://missdcoxblog.wordpress.com/2015/06/06/no-stakes-testing-not-telling-students-their-results/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Cox, D. (2016a). Ditch revision. Teach it well [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://missdcoxblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/09/ditch-revision-teach-it-well/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Cox, D. (2016b). ‘They need to remember this in three years time’: spacing & interleaving for the new GCSEs [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://missdcoxblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/25/they-need-to-remember-this-in-three-years-time-spacing-interleaving-for-the-new-gcses/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Craik, F. I. (2002). Levels of processing: past, present… future? Memory, 10 , 305–318.

Craik, F. I., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: a framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11 , 671–684.

Danan, M. (1992). Reversed subtitling and dual coding theory: new directions for foreign language instruction. Language Learning, 42 , 497–527.

Dettmers, S., Trautwein, U., & Lüdtke, O. (2009). The relationship between homework time and achievement is not universal: evidence from multilevel analyses in 40 countries. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 20 , 375–405.

Dirkx, K. J., Kester, L., & Kirschner, P. A. (2014). The testing effect for learning principles and procedures from texts. The Journal of Educational Research, 107 , 357–364.

Dunlosky, J. (2013). Strengthening the student toolbox: study strategies to boost learning. American Educator, 37 (3), 12–21.

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14 , 4–58.

Ebbinghaus, H. (1913). Memory (HA Ruger & CE Bussenius, Trans.). New York: Columbia University, Teachers College. (Original work published 1885) . Retrieved from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Ebbinghaus/memory8.htm . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Eglington, L. G., & Kang, S. H. (2016). Retrieval practice benefits deductive inference. Educational Psychology Review , 1–14.

Eitel, A., & Scheiter, K. (2015). Picture or text first? Explaining sequential effects when learning with pictures and text. Educational Psychology Review, 27 , 153–180.

Engelkamp, J., & Cohen, R. L. (1991). Current issues in memory of action events. Psychological Research, 53 , 175–182.

Engelkamp, J., & Zimmer, H. D. (1984). Motor programme information as a separable memory unit. Psychological Research, 46 , 283–299.

Fawcett, D. (2013). Can I be that little better at……using cognitive science/psychology/neurology to plan learning? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://reflectionsofmyteaching.blogspot.com/2013/09/can-i-be-that-little-better-atusing.html . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Fiechter, J. L., & Benjamin, A. S. (2017). Diminishing-cues retrieval practice: a memory-enhancing technique that works when regular testing doesn’t. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review , 1–9.

Firth, J. (2016). Spacing in teaching practice [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/4/12-1 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Fordham, M. [mfordhamhistory]. (2016). Is there a meaningful distinction in psychology between ‘thinking’ & ‘critical thinking’? [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/mfordhamhistory/status/809525713623781377 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Fritz, C. O., Morris, P. E., Nolan, D., & Singleton, J. (2007). Expanding retrieval practice: an effective aid to preschool children’s learning. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60 , 991–1004.

Gates, A. I. (1917). Recitation as a factory in memorizing. Archives of Psychology, 6.

Gick, M. L., & Holyoak, K. J. (1983). Schema induction and analogical transfer. Cognitive Psychology, 15 , 1–38.

Gorman, A. M. (1961). Recognition memory for nouns as a function of abstractedness and frequency. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61 , 23–39.

Hainselin, M., Picard, L., Manolli, P., Vankerkore-Candas, S., & Bourdin, B. (2017). Hey teacher, don’t leave them kids alone: action is better for memory than reading. Frontiers in Psychology , 8 .

Harp, S. F., & Mayer, R. E. (1998). How seductive details do their damage. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90 , 414–434.

Hartland, W., Biddle, C., & Fallacaro, M. (2008). Audiovisual facilitation of clinical knowledge: A paradigm for dispersed student education based on Paivio’s dual coding theory. AANA Journal, 76 , 194–198.

Hattie, J., & Yates, G. (2014). Visible learning and the science of how we learn . New York: Routledge.

Hausman, H., & Kornell, N. (2014). Mixing topics while studying does not enhance learning. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3 , 153–160.

Hinze, S. R., & Rapp, D. N. (2014). Retrieval (sometimes) enhances learning: performance pressure reduces the benefits of retrieval practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28 , 597–606.

Hirshman, E. (2001). Elaboration in memory. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (pp. 4369–4374). Oxford: Pergamon.

Chapter Google Scholar

Hobbiss, M. (2016). Make it meaningful! Elaboration [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://hobbolog.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/make-it-meaningful-elaboration/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Jones, F. (2016). Homework – is it really that useless? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/4/5-1 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Kaminski, J. A., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2013). Extraneous perceptual information interferes with children’s acquisition of mathematical knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105 (2), 351–363.

Kaminski, J. A., Sloutsky, V. M., & Heckler, A. F. (2008). The advantage of abstract examples in learning math. Science, 320 , 454–455.

Kang, S. H. (2016). Spaced repetition promotes efficient and effective learning policy implications for instruction. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3 , 12–19.

Kang, S. H. K., McDermott, K. B., & Roediger, H. L. (2007). Test format and corrective feedback modify the effects of testing on long-term retention. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19 , 528–558.

Karpicke, J. D., & Aue, W. R. (2015). The testing effect is alive and well with complex materials. Educational Psychology Review, 27 , 317–326.

Karpicke, J. D., Blunt, J. R., Smith, M. A., & Karpicke, S. S. (2014). Retrieval-based learning: The need for guided retrieval in elementary school children. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3 , 198–206.

Karpicke, J. D., Lehman, M., & Aue, W. R. (2014). Retrieval-based learning: an episodic context account. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), Psychology of Learning and Motivation (Vol. 61, pp. 237–284). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.

Karpicke, J. D., Blunt, J. R., & Smith, M. A. (2016). Retrieval-based learning: positive effects of retrieval practice in elementary school children. Frontiers in Psychology, 7 .

Kavale, K. A., Hirshoren, A., & Forness, S. R. (1998). Meta-analytic validation of the Dunn and Dunn model of learning-style preferences: a critique of what was Dunn. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 13 , 75–80.

Khanna, M. M. (2015). Ungraded pop quizzes: test-enhanced learning without all the anxiety. Teaching of Psychology, 42 , 174–178.

Kirby, J. (2014). One scientific insight for curriculum design [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://pragmaticreform.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/scientificcurriculumdesign/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Kirschner, P. A. (2017). Stop propagating the learning styles myth. Computers & Education, 106 , 166–171.

Kirschner, P. A., & van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2013). Do learners really know best? Urban legends in education. Educational Psychologist, 48 , 169–183.

Knoll, A. R., Otani, H., Skeel, R. L., & Van Horn, K. R. (2017). Learning style, judgments of learning, and learning of verbal and visual information. British Journal of Psychology, 108 , 544-563.

Kornell, N., & Bjork, R. A. (2008). Learning concepts and categories is spacing the “enemy of induction”? Psychological Science, 19 , 585–592.

Kornell, N., & Finn, B. (2016). Self-regulated learning: an overview of theory and data. In J. Dunlosky & S. Tauber (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Metamemory (pp. 325–340). New York: Oxford University Press.

Kornell, N., Klein, P. J., & Rawson, K. A. (2015). Retrieval attempts enhance learning, but retrieval success (versus failure) does not matter. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41 , 283–294.

Kraemer, D. J. M., Rosenberg, L. M., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2009). The neural correlates of visual and verbal cognitive styles. Journal of Neuroscience, 29 , 3792–3798.

Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Kraft, N. (2015). Spaced practice and repercussions for teaching. Retrieved from http://nathankraft.blogspot.com/2015/08/spaced-practice-and-repercussions-for.html . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Learning Scientists. (2016a). Weekly Digest #3: How teachers implement interleaving in their curriculum [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/3/28/weekly-digest-3 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Learning Scientists. (2016b). Weekly Digest #13: how teachers implement retrieval in their classrooms [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/6/5/weekly-digest-13 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Learning Scientists. (2016c). Weekly Digest #40: teachers’ implementation of principles from “Make It Stick” [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/12/18-1 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Learning Scientists. (2017). Weekly Digest #54: is there an app for that? Studying 2.0 [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/4/9/weekly-digest-54 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

LeFevre, J.-A., & Dixon, P. (1986). Do written instructions need examples? Cognition and Instruction, 3 , 1–30.

Lew, K., Fukawa-Connelly, T., Mejí-Ramos, J. P., & Weber, K. (2016). Lectures in advanced mathematics: Why students might not understand what the mathematics professor is trying to convey. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, 47 , 162–198.

Lindsey, R. V., Shroyer, J. D., Pashler, H., & Mozer, M. C. (2014). Improving students’ long-term knowledge retention through personalized review. Psychological Science, 25 , 639–647.

Lipko-Speed, A., Dunlosky, J., & Rawson, K. A. (2014). Does testing with feedback help grade-school children learn key concepts in science? Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3 , 171–176.

Lockhart, R. S., & Craik, F. I. (1990). Levels of processing: a retrospective commentary on a framework for memory research. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 44 , 87–112.

Lovell, O. (2017). How do we know what to put on the quiz? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://www.ollielovell.com/olliesclassroom/know-put-quiz/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Luehmann, A. L. (2008). Using blogging in support of teacher professional identity development: a case study. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17 , 287–337.

Madan, C. R., Glaholt, M. G., & Caplan, J. B. (2010). The influence of item properties on association-memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 63 , 46–63.

Madan, C. R., & Singhal, A. (2012a). Motor imagery and higher-level cognition: four hurdles before research can sprint forward. Cognitive Processing, 13 , 211–229.

Madan, C. R., & Singhal, A. (2012b). Encoding the world around us: motor-related processing influences verbal memory. Consciousness and Cognition, 21 , 1563–1570.

Madan, C. R., & Singhal, A. (2012c). Using actions to enhance memory: effects of enactment, gestures, and exercise on human memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 3 .

Madan, C. R., Chen, Y. Y., & Singhal, A. (2016). ERPs differentially reflect automatic and deliberate processing of the functional manipulability of objects. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10 .

Mandler, G. (1979). Organization and repetition: organizational principles with special reference to rote learning. In L. G. Nilsson (Ed.), Perspectives on Memory Research (pp. 293–327). New York: Academic Press.

Marsh, E. J., Fazio, L. K., & Goswick, A. E. (2012). Memorial consequences of testing school-aged children. Memory, 20 , 899–906.

Mayer, R. E., & Gallini, J. K. (1990). When is an illustration worth ten thousand words? Journal of Educational Psychology, 82 , 715–726.

Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (2003). Nine ways to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning. Educational Psychologist, 38 , 43–52.

McDaniel, M. A., & Donnelly, C. M. (1996). Learning with analogy and elaborative interrogation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88 , 508–519.

McDaniel, M. A., Thomas, R. C., Agarwal, P. K., McDermott, K. B., & Roediger, H. L. (2013). Quizzing in middle-school science: successful transfer performance on classroom exams. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27 , 360–372.

McDermott, K. B., Agarwal, P. K., D’Antonio, L., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Both multiple-choice and short-answer quizzes enhance later exam performance in middle and high school classes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 20 , 3–21.

McHugh, A. (2013). High-stakes tests: bad for students, teachers, and education in general [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://teacherbiz.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/high-stakes-tests-bad-for-students-teachers-and-education-in-general/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

McNeill, N. M., Uttal, D. H., Jarvin, L., & Sternberg, R. J. (2009). Should you show me the money? Concrete objects both hurt and help performance on mathematics problems. Learning and Instruction, 19 , 171–184.

Meider, W. (1990). “A picture is worth a thousand words”: from advertising slogan to American proverb. Southern Folklore, 47 , 207–225.

Michaela Community School. (2014). Homework. Retrieved from http://mcsbrent.co.uk/homework-2/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Montefinese, M., Ambrosini, E., Fairfield, B., & Mammarella, N. (2013). The “subjective” pupil old/new effect: is the truth plain to see? International Journal of Psychophysiology, 89 , 48–56.

O’Neil, H. F., Chung, G. K., Kerr, D., Vendlinski, T. P., Buschang, R. E., & Mayer, R. E. (2014). Adding self-explanation prompts to an educational computer game. Computers In Human Behavior, 30 , 23–28.

Overoye, A. L., & Storm, B. C. (2015). Harnessing the power of uncertainty to enhance learning. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 1 , 140–148.

Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes . New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations: a dual coding approach . New York: Oxford University Press.

Paivio, A. (2007). Mind and its evolution: a dual coding theoretical approach . Mahwah: Erlbaum.

Paivio, A. (2013). Dual coding theory, word abstractness, and emotion: a critical review of Kousta et al. (2011). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142 , 282–287.

Paivio, A., & Csapo, K. (1969). Concrete image and verbal memory codes. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 80 , 279–285.

Paivio, A., & Csapo, K. (1973). Picture superiority in free recall: imagery or dual coding? Cognitive Psychology, 5 , 176–206.

Paivio, A., Walsh, M., & Bons, T. (1994). Concreteness effects on memory: when and why? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20 , 1196–1204.

Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9 , 105–119.

Pashler, H., Bain, P. M., Bottge, B. A., Graesser, A., Koedinger, K., McDaniel, M., & Metcalfe, J. (2007). Organizing instruction and study to improve student learning. IES practice guide. NCER 2007–2004. National Center for Education Research .

Patel, R., Liu, R., & Koedinger, K. (2016). When to block versus interleave practice? Evidence against teaching fraction addition before fraction multiplication. In Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Philadelphia, PA .

Penfound, B. (2017). Journey to interleaved practice #2 [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://fullstackcalculus.com/2017/02/03/journey-to-interleaved-practice-2/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Penfound, B. [BryanPenfound]. (2016). Does blocked practice/learning lessen cognitive load? Does interleaved practice/learning provide productive struggle? [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/BryanPenfound/status/808759362244087808 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Peterson, D. J., & Mulligan, N. W. (2010). Enactment and retrieval. Memory & Cognition, 38 , 233–243.

Picciotto, H. (2009). Lagging homework [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://blog.mathedpage.org/2013/06/lagging-homework.html . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Pomerance, L., Greenberg, J., & Walsh, K. (2016). Learning about learning: what every teacher needs to know. Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Learning_About_Learning_Report . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Postman, L. (1976). Methodology of human learning. In W. K. Estes (Ed.), Handbook of learning and cognitive processes (Vol. 3). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

Pressley, M., McDaniel, M. A., Turnure, J. E., Wood, E., & Ahmad, M. (1987). Generation and precision of elaboration: effects on intentional and incidental learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13 , 291–300.

Reed, S. K. (2008). Concrete examples must jibe with experience. Science, 322 , 1632–1633.

researchED. (2013). How it all began. Retrieved from http://www.researched.org.uk/about/our-story/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Ritchie, S. J., Della Sala, S., & McIntosh, R. D. (2013). Retrieval practice, with or without mind mapping, boosts fact learning in primary school children. PLoS One, 8 (11), e78976.

Rittle-Johnson, B. (2006). Promoting transfer: effects of self-explanation and direct instruction. Child Development, 77 , 1–15.

Roediger, H. L. (1985). Remembering Ebbinghaus. [Retrospective review of the book On Memory , by H. Ebbinghaus]. Contemporary Psychology, 30 , 519–523.

Roediger, H. L. (2013). Applying cognitive psychology to education translational educational science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14 , 1–3.

Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). The power of testing memory: basic research and implications for educational practice. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1 , 181–210.

Roediger, H. L., Putnam, A. L., & Smith, M. A. (2011). Ten benefits of testing and their applications to educational practice. In J. Mester & B. Ross (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation: cognition in education (pp. 1–36). Oxford: Elsevier.

Roediger, H. L., Finn, B., & Weinstein, Y. (2012). Applications of cognitive science to education. In Della Sala, S., & Anderson, M. (Eds.), Neuroscience in education: the good, the bad, and the ugly . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Roelle, J., & Berthold, K. (2017). Effects of incorporating retrieval into learning tasks: the complexity of the tasks matters. Learning and Instruction, 49 , 142–156.

Rohrer, D. (2012). Interleaving helps students distinguish among similar concepts. Educational Psychology Review, 24(3), 355–367.

Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. F., & Stershic, S. (2015). Interleaved practice improves mathematics learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107 , 900–908.

Rohrer, D., & Pashler, H. (2012). Learning styles: Where’s the evidence? Medical Education, 46 , 34–35.

Rohrer, D., & Taylor, K. (2007). The shuffling of mathematics problems improves learning. Instructional Science, 35 , 481–498.

Rose, N. (2014). Improving the effectiveness of homework [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://evidenceintopractice.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/improving-the-effectiveness-of-homework/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Sadoski, M. (2005). A dual coding view of vocabulary learning. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 21 , 221–238.

Saunders, K. (2016). It really is time we stopped talking about learning styles [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://martingsaunders.com/2016/10/it-really-is-time-we-stopped-talking-about-learning-styles/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Schwartz, D. (2007). If a picture is worth a thousand words, why are you reading this essay? Social Psychology Quarterly, 70 , 319–321.

Shumaker, H. (2016). Homework is wrecking our kids: the research is clear, let’s ban elementary homework. Salon. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2016/03/05/homework_is_wrecking_our_kids_the_research_is_clear_lets_ban_elementary_homework . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Smith, A. M., Floerke, V. A., & Thomas, A. K. (2016). Retrieval practice protects memory against acute stress. Science, 354 , 1046–1048.

Smith, M. A., Blunt, J. R., Whiffen, J. W., & Karpicke, J. D. (2016). Does providing prompts during retrieval practice improve learning? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 30 , 784–802.

Smith, M. A., & Karpicke, J. D. (2014). Retrieval practice with short-answer, multiple-choice, and hybrid formats. Memory, 22 , 784–802.

Smith, M. A., Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2013). Covert retrieval practice benefits retention as much as overt retrieval practice. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39 , 1712–1725.

Son, J. Y., & Rivas, M. J. (2016). Designing clicker questions to stimulate transfer. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 2 , 193–207.

Szpunar, K. K., Khan, N. Y., & Schacter, D. L. (2013). Interpolated memory tests reduce mind wandering and improve learning of online lectures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110 , 6313–6317.

Thomson, R., & Mehring, J. (2016). Better vocabulary study strategies for long-term learning. Kwansei Gakuin University Humanities Review, 20 , 133–141.

Trafton, J. G., & Reiser, B. J. (1993). Studying examples and solving problems: contributions to skill acquisition . Technical report, Naval HCI Research Lab, Washington, DC, USA.

Tran, R., Rohrer, D., & Pashler, H. (2015). Retrieval practice: the lack of transfer to deductive inferences. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22 , 135–140.

Turner, K. [doc_kristy]. (2016a). My dual coding (in red) and some y8 work @AceThatTest they really enjoyed practising the technique [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/doc_kristy/status/807220355395977216 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Turner, K. [doc_kristy]. (2016b). @FurtherEdagogy @doctorwhy their work is revision work, they already have the words on a different page, to compliment not replace [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/doc_kristy/status/807360265100599301 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Valle, A., Regueiro, B., Núñez, J. C., Rodríguez, S., Piñeiro, I., & Rosário, P. (2016). Academic goals, student homework engagement, and academic achievement in elementary school. Frontiers in Psychology, 7 .

Van Gog, T., & Sweller, J. (2015). Not new, but nearly forgotten: the testing effect decreases or even disappears as the complexity of learning materials increases. Educational Psychology Review, 27 , 247–264.

Wammes, J. D., Meade, M. E., & Fernandes, M. A. (2016). The drawing effect: evidence for reliable and robust memory benefits in free recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69 , 1752–1776.

Weinstein, Y., Gilmore, A. W., Szpunar, K. K., & McDermott, K. B. (2014). The role of test expectancy in the build-up of proactive interference in long-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40 , 1039–1048.

Weinstein, Y., Nunes, L. D., & Karpicke, J. D. (2016). On the placement of practice questions during study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 22 , 72–84.

Weinstein, Y., & Weinstein-Jones, F. (2017). Topic and quiz spacing spreadsheet: a planning tool for teachers [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/5/11-1 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Weinstein-Jones, F., & Weinstein, Y. (2017). Topic spacing spreadsheet for teachers [Excel macro]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.573764 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Williams, D. [FurtherEdagogy]. (2016). @doctorwhy @doc_kristy word accompanying the visual? I’m unclear how removing words benefit? Would a flow chart better suit a scientific exp? [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/FurtherEdagogy/status/807356800509104128 . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Wood, B. (2017). And now for something a little bit different….[Blog post]. Retrieved from https://justateacherstandinginfrontofaclass.wordpress.com/2017/04/20/and-now-for-something-a-little-bit-different/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Wooldridge, C. L., Bugg, J. M., McDaniel, M. A., & Liu, Y. (2014). The testing effect with authentic educational materials: a cautionary note. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3 , 214–221.

Young, C. (2016). Mini-tests. Retrieved from https://colleenyoung.wordpress.com/revision-activities/mini-tests/ . Accessed 25 Dec 2017.

Download references

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

YW and MAS were partially supported by a grant from The IDEA Center.

Availability of data and materials

Author information, authors and affiliations.

Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA

Yana Weinstein

Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

Christopher R. Madan

School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Department of Psychology, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI, USA

Megan A. Sumeracki

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

YW took the lead on writing the “Spaced practice”, “Interleaving”, and “Elaboration” sections. CRM took the lead on writing the “Concrete examples” and “Dual coding” sections. MAS took the lead on writing the “Retrieval practice” section. All authors edited each others’ sections. All authors were involved in the conception and writing of the manuscript. All authors gave approval of the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yana Weinstein .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate, consent for publication, competing interests.

YW and MAS run a blog, “The Learning Scientists Blog”, which is cited in the tutorial review. The blog does not make money. Free resources on the strategies described in this tutorial review are provided on the blog. Occasionally, YW and MAS are invited by schools/school districts to present research findings from cognitive psychology applied to education.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Weinstein, Y., Madan, C.R. & Sumeracki, M.A. Teaching the science of learning. Cogn. Research 3 , 2 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0087-y

Download citation

Received : 20 December 2016

Accepted : 02 December 2017

Published : 24 January 2018

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0087-y

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Teaching Research in the First-Year Writing Classroom in the U.S.

By Sritama Chatterjee

You have / 5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in.

Sritama Chatterjee is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh. You can find her on Twitter @SritamaBarna .

I’ll start with a confession: I have never taken a writing class in my entire life. This is because writing courses are not part of the curriculum in India. Teaching writing in public universities in India is a huge challenge given the number of students in a classroom, plurality of languages (India has so many languages. In what language does one teach writing in India?) and a government that spends less than 4 percent of its national budget on higher education . The latter makes it very difficult to bring about the major infrastructural shift that would be required if teaching writing was made compulsory in India. However, what did happen in the two very supposedly elite and urban universities (Jadavpur University and Presidency University) that I went to in India was a more organic way of building writing within the literature classes that I took and allocating professor as mentors who would read your writing very closely and provide feedback . I am aware of my own privileges here, because such mentoring was possible only because the university where I went for my undergrad had significantly better student-teacher ratios than most public universities in India.

Given this situation, it may be challenging to think that someone who has never been taught writing in a formal writing classroom has gone on to teach writing in a different country in a completely different setting (well, ask international graduate students how they feel about it). Interestingly, despite my lack of formal training, I was not scared. Instead I was very excited (I am still excited!) to have the opportunity to teach writing, especially research writing, one of my favorite things. I have been imagining how to teach research in a writing classroom since 2016, when I started working with an E.U.-funded collaborative research project on online learning called E-QUAL and encountered an online writing class titled Academic Writing that one of the institutional partners had designed. I was very dissatisfied when I saw the course structure because I felt that students were extremely restricted in their choices of what and how to write. I understand that teaching academic writing is not necessarily equivalent to teaching research, though it is an important aspect of it and I do realize that not all of my students are going to pursue research. But for me, teaching research in the first-year writing classroom was a powerful way to offer a space to my students where they could imagine possibilities that a normative discourse might not necessarily offer them.

While in some universities in the U.S., first-year writing has a fixed syllabus that instructors are required to follow, Pitt has a fairly flexible structure, and I am grateful that this flexibility allows me the scope to work out some of the things that I have been envisioning for the last three years. It goes without saying that there’s no one way to teach research, but here are some ways (and I don’t claim that they are unique) that I approached teaching research and which I think worked.

Use midterm conferences: One of my goals during the midterm conferences was that I would get to know where my students stand in relation to research writing and if they have done any amount of research in high school. This was especially important for me to be able to scaffold the assignment depending on what the students needed. I had a class of varied individual strengths, and I had to be mindful that I had students who had written five-page research papers in high school, students who did not have any research experience and students who had done research as group projects but not as individual assignments. Therefore, my goal was to ensure that research did not end up overwhelming them so that they could enjoy the process and approach research in terms of a collaborative and communal process. The midterm conference helped me to design the research unit better after hearing input from the students.

Scaffolding the research unit: The task of scaffolding the unit or breaking it down into small segments began right when I started thinking of the intricacies of the assignment sheet . I wanted to be able to give my students options in terms of what they could do for the research unit, but I also wanted to keep it manageable for me in terms of what could be accomplished within a time frame. Furthermore, one of the assumptions that my students had about research writing was that they could not put their personal selves into research assignments, a myth that needed dismantling through selection of readings (described later in this piece!).

While I was grappling with these competing objectives, I turned to my brilliant colleagues and dear friends Christine Case and Celena Marie Todora, who generously shared their assignment sheets and materials for the unit that helped me to think through some of these issues. Borrowing from some of their ideas, I decided to give my students the opportunity to choose between two options: one was a conventional research paper and the second a creative-critical paper where they could retell a historical event/myth in their own way. So before providing options, it is important to be honest with oneself about how much one can scaffold the unit from one option to another, without overpowering oneself or first-year students who might end up baffled. Furthermore, the unit was divided into several small sections: a topic proposal, annotated bibliography, literature review (for those who went with the creative-critical piece, two to three ways in which they want to retell the story), a draft, research presentation and final draft.

Library day: It’s important not to automatically assume that students are familiar with the resources/databases available in the library and how to streamline searches in terms of looking up credible scholarly sources, databases or what constitutes credible sources in the first place. Librarians are wonderful people and always enthusiastic in doing a session with students. After my students had turned in their topic proposals, I made it a point to reach out to our departmental library liaison, Robin Kear. I shared my assignment sheet with her to give her an idea of what I was looking for and the broad topics that my students were interested in researching. As a result, during the library day, she was able to get students started in looking up for credible sources, and my students were really thankful for that. Some of my students were also pleasantly surprised that each subject has its own librarian or contact person whom they could reach out to, something that they were not used to at their high school.

Selection of readings: While one of the expectations for this unit was that focus would be more on the readings, related to their area of research, it was also important to give an idea of what a conventional research paper or a creative-critical piece might look like. What fundamentally guided my selection of readings were the methodologies that my students might need to use in their papers, the kind of research paper that I would be expecting from first-year students and finally a piece that would be able to communicate that it is possible to blend the personal with the research that one is involved in (I chose Christina Sharpe’s “The Wake”).

In-class exercises and activities: During the midterm conferences, a common difficulty that students shared with me was how to go about thinking about what they wanted to research, since they are interested in so many things and it was difficult for them to focus on something specific. While I am not claiming that all activities were useful, my students told me that they found some activities specifically helpful to their research. One of them was a keywords exercise, in which after they had come up with a topic they had to come up with a few words relevant to that topic, often anchored to a specific time, place or texts. Keywords also helped them in their literature review and looking up sources. The second activity was more to do with research questions that I found here . On a piece of paper, they were required to write two questions that they were interested in finding out more about. Then they kept on passing the paper until I told them to stop. The idea is that the students would have someone else’s broad topic and two questions. They had one minute to add at least one question to the existing set of questions. This was repeated two times till every student had at least two more questions added to their list. This was followed by a discussion with students sharing questions that they had not considered earlier.

Research buddies: One of my goals for this unit was to be able to communicate to my students that research is not done in a solitary way inside libraries and archives, but it is important to have a community of people around you who would be supportive about your work. So while peer reviews were an integral aspect of the class, the concept of a research buddy was particularly interesting for my students because they could reach out to their research buddies or share reading materials/drafts. The students chose their own research buddies, and it happened very organically that every student had a buddy. While some chose their buddies based on shared research interests, some chose them on the basis of their already existing friendships. The one important responsibility that a research buddy had was to provide their peers with feedback on their research presentations and ways to move forward. Honestly, the thoughtfulness and the generosity with which they responded to their peers was something that filled me with great hope for the future.

When I was reading their research papers, I felt so much joy, because I could see their growth, and I was humbled to see how bold and yet thoughtful my students were. It was a deeply satisfying moment for me as a teacher.

What are some of the ways in which you approached teaching research in your writing classroom? We would love to know. Please let us know in your comments below.

(Image courtesy Sritama Chatterjee)

Teacher at whiteboard with math problems

Louisiana’s Corequisite Math Courses Boost Completion

In its first year of implementation, the new course structure—which replaces remedial classes with credit-bearing sup

Share This Article

5 Productivity Practices That Helped Me Finish My Dissertation

Summer Planning Strategies

Holding Pattern

Become a Member
Sign up for Newsletters
Learning & Assessment
Diversity & Equity
Career Development
Labor & Unionization
Shared Governance
Academic Freedom
Books & Publishing
Financial Aid
Residential Life
Free Speech
Physical & Mental Health
Race & Ethnicity
Sex & Gender
Socioeconomics
Traditional-Age
Adult & Post-Traditional
Teaching & Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Digital Publishing
Data Analytics
Administrative Tech
Alternative Credentials
Financial Health
Cost-Cutting
Revenue Strategies
Academic Programs
Physical Campuses
Mergers & Collaboration
Fundraising
Research Universities
Regional Public Universities
Community Colleges
Private Nonprofit Colleges
Minority-Serving Institutions
Religious Colleges
Women's Colleges
Specialized Colleges
For-Profit Colleges
Executive Leadership
Trustees & Regents
State Oversight
Accreditation
Politics & Elections
Supreme Court
Student Aid Policy
Science & Research Policy
State Policy
Colleges & Localities
Employee Satisfaction
Remote & Flexible Work
Staff Issues
Study Abroad
International Students in U.S.
U.S. Colleges in the World
Intellectual Affairs
Seeking a Faculty Job
Advancing in the Faculty
Seeking an Administrative Job
Advancing as an Administrator
Beyond Transfer
Call to Action
Confessions of a Community College Dean
Higher Ed Gamma
Higher Ed Policy
Just Explain It to Me!
Just Visiting
Law, Policy—and IT?
Leadership & StratEDgy
Leadership in Higher Education
Learning Innovation
Online: Trending Now
Resident Scholar
University of Venus
Student Voice
Academic Life
Health & Wellness
The College Experience
Life After College
Academic Minute
Weekly Wisdom
Reports & Data
Quick Takes
Advertising & Marketing
Consulting Services
Data & Insights
Hiring & Jobs
Event Partnerships

4 /5 Articles remaining this month.

Sign up for a free account or log in.

The Journal for Research and Practice in College Teaching (JRPCT) promotes scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning. We publish articles focused on enhancing student learning based on reflective and evidence-based practice. Articles should address themes around fostering effective practices in teaching and learning. Types of articles include personal reflective essays, literature reviews, case studies, and empirical studies.

For past issues, please click on Archives in the menu above.

Announcements

The journal for research and practice in college teaching submission dates for volume 10 number 1, 2025.

Manuscript submission for consideration, December 16, 2024

Notification of acceptance and peer review February 2025

Publication, May 2025

Click Here to access the authors area of the journal

If you have any questions about the journal, please email the General Editor, Ruth Benander, at [email protected] .

Current Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2024): Creating Social Learning Spaces for Problem Solving: Case Clinics and Design Clinics

In the spirit of social learning spaces, we present a special issue of the Journal for Research and Practice in College Teaching that showcases both the process and the product of the case clinic. In Communities of Practice within and across Organizations: A guidebook , Wenger-Trayner et al (2023) describe a case clinic as, “A member brings a real-life challenge to the community and members struggle with it together. Because it is triggered by a need emerging from practice, the case clinic is the quintessential social learning activity” (145). These articles based on case clinics document the collaborative process of this method of exploring the complexity of problems that groups are engaged in solving.

Published: 2024-08-30

An Introduction to Case and Design Clinics A social learning alternative for group problem-solving

The evolution and practice of design clinics an interview with travis tennessen, the child development associate (cda) as a viable stepping stone in the early childhood education classroom, teaching on days after a case clinic approach to understanding more humanizing pedagogies in early childhood-elementary teaching education, paper or plastic a community-engaged design clinic as common intellectual experience (cie), ai faculty burnout fostering wellbeing through social learning, student team dynamics and developmental feedback a common challenge from a year-long, multi-disciplinary engineering community of practice, using the case clinic as a brainstorming session.

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Publications
Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

Advanced Search
Journal List
J Adv Med Educ Prof
v.4(4); 2016 Oct

Effective Teaching Methods in Higher Education: Requirements and Barriers

Nahid shirani bidabadi.

1 Psychology and Educational Sciences School, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran;

AHMMADREZA NASR ISFAHANI

Amir rouhollahi.

2 Department of English, Management and Information School, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Isfahan, Iran;

ROYA KHALILI

3 Quality Improvement in Clinical Education Research Center, Education Development Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Introduction:

Teaching is one of the main components in educational planning which is a key factor in conducting educational plans. Despite the importance of good teaching, the outcomes are far from ideal. The present qualitative study aimed to investigate effective teaching in higher education in Iran based on the experiences of best professors in the country and the best local professors of Isfahan University of Technology.

This qualitative content analysis study was conducted through purposeful sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten faculty members (3 of them from the best professors in the country and 7 from the best local professors). Content analysis was performed by MAXQDA software. The codes, categories and themes were explored through an inductive process that began from semantic units or direct quotations to general themes.

According to the results of this study, the best teaching approach is the mixed method (student-centered together with teacher-centered) plus educational planning and previous readiness. But whenever the teachers can teach using this method confront with some barriers and requirements; some of these requirements are prerequisite in professors' behavior and some of these are prerequisite in professors’ outlook. Also, there are some major barriers, some of which are associated with the professors’ operation and others are related to laws and regulations. Implications of these findings for teachers’ preparation in education are discussed.

Conclusion:

In the present study, it was illustrated that a good teaching method helps the students to question their preconceptions, and motivates them to learn, by putting them in a situation in which they come to see themselves as the authors of answers, as the agents of responsibility for change. But training through this method has some barriers and requirements. To have an effective teaching; the faculty members of the universities should be awarded of these barriers and requirements as a way to improve teaching quality. The nationally and locally recognized professors are good leaders in providing ideas, insight, and the best strategies to educators who are passionate for effective teaching in the higher education. Finally, it is supposed that there is an important role for nationally and locally recognized professors in higher education to become more involved in the regulation of teaching rules.

Introduction

Rapid changes of modern world have caused the Higher Education System to face a great variety of challenges. Therefore, training more eager, thoughtful individuals in interdisciplinary fields is required ( 1 ). Thus, research and exploration to figure out useful and effective teaching and learning methods are one of the most important necessities of educational systems ( 2 ); Professors have a determining role in training such people in the mentioned field ( 3 ). A university is a place where new ideas germinate; roots strike and grow tall and sturdy. It is a unique space, which covers the entire universe of knowledge. It is a place where creative minds converge, interact with each other and construct visions of new realities. Established notions of truth are challenged in the pursuit of knowledge. To be able to do all this, getting help from experienced teachers can be very useful and effective.

Given the education quality, attention to students’ education as a main product that is expected from education quality system is of much greater demand in comparison to the past. There has always been emphasis on equal attention to research and teaching quality and establishing a bond between these two before making any decision; however, studies show that the already given attention to research in universities does not meet the educational quality requirements.

Attention to this task in higher education is considered as a major one, so in their instruction, educators must pay attention to learners and learning approach; along with these two factors, the educators should move forward to attain new teaching approaches. In the traditional system, instruction was teacher-centered and the students’ needs and interests were not considered. This is when students’ instruction must change into a method in which their needs are considered and as a result of the mentioned method active behavior change occurs in them ( 4 ). Moreover, a large number of graduated students especially bachelor holders do not feel ready enough to work in their related fields ( 5 ). Being dissatisfied with the status quo at any academic institution and then making decision to improve it require much research and assistance from the experts and pioneers of that institute. Giving the aforementioned are necessary, especially in present community of Iran; it seems that no qualitative study has ever been carried out in this area drawing on in-depth reports of recognized university faculties; therefore, in the present study the new global student-centered methods are firstly studied and to explore the ideas of experienced university faculties, some class observations and interviews were done. Then, efficient teaching method and its barriers and requirements were investigated because the faculty ideas about teaching method could be itemized just through a qualitative study.

The study was conducted with a qualitative method using content analysis approach. The design is appropriate for this study because it allows the participants to describe their experiences focusing on factors that may improve the quality of teaching in their own words. Key participants in purposeful sampling consist of three nationally recognized professors introduced based on the criteria of Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (based on education, research, executive and cultural qualifications) and seven other locally recognized professors according to Isfahan University of Technology standards and students votes. The purposive sampling continued until the saturation was reached, i.e. no further information was obtained for the given concept. All the participants had a teaching experience of above 10 years ( Table 1 ). They were first identified and after making appointments, they were briefed about the purpose of the study and they expressed their consent for the interview to be performed. The lack of female nationally recognized professors among respondents (due to lack of them) are restrictions of this research.

The participants’ characteristics

Participants	Age (years)	Gender	Working history (years)	Working fields
1	68	Male	27	Agriculture
2	46	Male	14	Agriculture
3	62	Male	25	Civil engineering
4	45	Male	14	Chemistry
5	45	Male	12	Chemistry
6	49	Male	18	Chemistry
7	63	Male	23	Physics
8	65	Male	26	Physics
9	62	Male	24	Materials engineering
10	48	Male	16	Mathematics

The data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews. Interviews began with general topics, such as “Talk about your experiences in effective teaching” and then the participants were asked to describe their perceptions of their expertise. Probing questions were also used to deeply explore conditions, processes, and other factors that the participants recognized as significant. The interview process was largely dependent on the questions that arose in the interaction between the interviewer and interviewees.

In the process of the study, informed consent was obtained from all the participants and they were ensured of the anonymity of their responses and that the audio files will be removed after use; then, after obtaining permission from the participants, the interview was recorded and transcribed verbatim immediately. The interviews were conducted in a private and quiet place and in convenient time. Then, verification of documents and coordination for subsequent interviews were done. The interviews lasted for one hour on average and each interview was conducted in one session with the interviewer’s notes or memos and field notes. Another method of data collection in this study was an unstructured observation in the educational setting. The investigator observed the method of interactions among faculty members and students. The interviews were conducted from November 2014 to April 2015. Each participant was interviewed for one or two sessions. The mean duration of the interviews was 60 minutes. To analyze the data, we used MAXQDA software (version 10, package series) for indexing and charting. Also, we used qualitative content analysis with a conventional approach to analyze the data. The data of the study were directly collected from the experiences of the study participants. The codes, categories and themes were explored through an inductive process, in which the researchers moved from specific to general. The consequently formulated concepts or categories were representative of the participants’ experiences. In content analysis at first, semantic units should be specified, and then the related codes should be extracted and categorized based on their similarities. Finally, in the case of having a high degree of abstraction, the themes can be determined. In the conventional approach, the use of predetermined classes is avoided and classes and their names are allowed to directly come out of the data. To do so, we read the manuscripts and listened to the recorded data for several times until an overall sense was attained. Then, the manuscript was read word by word and the codes were extracted. At the same time, the interviews were continued with other participants and coding of the texts was continued and sub-codes were categorized within the general topics. Then, the codes were classified in categories based on their similarities ( 6 ). Finally, by providing a comprehensive description about the topics, participants, data collection and analysis procedures and limitations of the study, we intend to create transferability so that other researchers clearly follow the research process taken by the researchers.

To improve the accuracy and the rigor of the findings, Lincoln and Cuba’s criteria, including credibility, dependability, conformability, and transferability, were used ( 7 ). To ensure the accuracy of the data, peer review, the researchers’ acceptability, and the long and continuing evaluation through in-depth, prolonged, and repeated interviews and the colleague’s comments must be used ( 8 ). In addition, the findings were repeatedly assessed and checked by supervisors (expert checking) ( 9 ). In this research, the researcher tried to increase the credibility of the data by keeping prolonged engagement in the process of data collection. Then, the accuracy of data analysis was confirmed by one specialist in the field of qualitative research and original codes were checked by some participants to compare the findings with the participants’ experiences. To increase the dependability and conformability of data, maximum variation was observed in the sampling. In addition, to increase the power of data transferability, adequate description of the data was provided in the study for critical review of the findings by other researchers.

Ethical considerations

The aim of the research and interview method was explained to the participants and in the process of the study, informed consent was obtained from all the participants and they were ensured of the anonymity of their responses and that audio files were removed after use. Informed consent for interview and its recording was obtained.

The mean age of faculty members in this study was 54.8 years and all of them were married. According to the results of the study, the best teaching approach was the mixed method one (student-centered with teacher-centered) plus educational planning and previous readiness. Meaning units expressed by professors were divided into 19 codes, 4 categories and 2 themes. In the present study, regarding the Effective Teaching Method in Higher Education, Requirements and Barriers, the experiences and perceptions of general practitioners were explored. As presented in Table 2 , according to data analysis, two themes containing several major categories and codes were extracted. Each code and category is described in more details below.

Examples of extracting codes, categories and themes from raw data

Code	Category	Theme
•Alignment with organizational strategies	Pre-requisite in professors outlook	Requirements
•Interest in students and trust in their ability	Pre-requisite in professors outlook	Requirements
•Systemic approach in higher education	Pre-requisite in professors outlook	Requirements
•Interest in their study field	Pre-requisite in professors outlook	Requirements
•Having lesson plan, using appropriate educational strategies	Pre-requisite in professors outlook	Requirements
•Meta cognition training and self-assessment of students during teaching	Pre-requisite in professors outlook	Requirements
•Using concept maps and pre organizer of teaching	Pre-requisite in professors outlook	Requirements
•Knowledge and explanation of how to resolve problems in professional career through teaching topics	Pre-requisite in professors outlook	Requirements
•Documenting experiences	Pre-requisite in professors' behavior	Requirements
•Having satisfactory interaction with students	Pre-requisite in professors' behavior	Requirements
•Masters' lack of notice from the benefits and how to implement accurate and complete student-centered methods	Associated with the professor	Barriers
•The lack of having a predetermined program and, if possible, creative presentation by masters	Associated with the professor	Barriers
•Do not use of educational assistants	Associated with the professor	Barriers
•Lack of interest and lack of motivation among students	Associated with the professor	Barriers
•Masters' lack of notice from meta cognition importance and necessity of teaching it to students	Associated with the professor	Barriers
•The requirements defined curriculum and resources in the teaching. The large number of students in classes.High volume theoretical principles	Associated with laws and regulations	Barriers
•Do not take a problem-based learning and student-centered learning in their evaluation as a bonus for teachers	Associated with laws and regulations	Barriers

New teaching methods and barriers to the use of these methods

Teachers participating in this study believed that teaching and learning in higher education is a shared process, with responsibilities on both student and teacher to contribute to their success. Within this shared process, higher education must engage the students in questioning their preconceived ideas and their models of how the world works, so that they can reach a higher level of understanding. But students are not always equipped with this challenge, nor are all of them driven by a desire to understand and apply knowledge, but all too often aspire merely to survive the course, or to learn only procedurally in order to get the highest possible marks before rapidly moving on to the next subject. The best teaching helps the students to question their preconceptions, and motivates them to learn, by putting them in a situation in which their existing model does not work and in which they come to see themselves as authors of answers, as agents of responsibility for change. That means, the students need to be faced with problems which they think are important. Also, they believed that most of the developed countries are attempting to use new teaching methods, such as student-centered active methods, problem-based and project-based approaches in education. For example, the faculty number 3 said:

“In a project called EPS (European Project Semester), students come together and work on interdisciplinary issues in international teams. It is a very interesting technique to arouse interest, motivate students, and enhance their skills (Faculty member No. 3).”

The faculty number 8 noted another project-based teaching method that is used nowadays especially to promote education in software engineering and informatics is FLOSS (Free/Liber Open Source Software). In recent years, this project was used to empower the students. They will be allowed to accept the roles in a project and, therefore, deeply engage in the process of software development.

In Iran, many studies have been conducted about new teaching methods. For example, studies by Momeni Danaie ( 10 ), Noroozi ( 11 ), and Zarshenas ( 12 ), have shown various required methods of teaching. They have also concluded that pure lecture, regardless of any feedback ensuring the students learning, have lost their effectiveness. The problem-oriented approach in addition to improving communication skills among students not only increased development of critical thinking but also promoted study skills and an interest in their learning ( 12 ).

In this study, the professors noted that there are some barriers to effective teaching that are mentioned below:

As to the use of new methods of training such as problem-based methods or project-based approach, faculty members No. 4 and 9 remarked that "The need for student-centered teaching is obvious but for some reasons, such as the requirement in the teaching curriculum and the large volume of materials and resources, using these methods is not feasible completely" (Faculty member No. 9).

"If at least in the form of teacher evaluation, some questions were allocated to the use of project-based and problem-based approaches, teachers would try to use them further" (Faculty member No. 2).

The faculty members No. 6 and 7 believed that the lack of motivation in students and the lack of access to educational assistants are considered the reasons for neglecting these methods.

"I think one of the ways that can make student-centered education possible is employing educational assistants (Faculty member No. 6).”

"If each professor could attend crowded classes with two or three assistants, they could divide the class into some groups and assign more practical teamwork while they were carefully supervised (Faculty member No. 7).”

Requirements related to faculty outlook in an effective teaching

Having a successful and effective teaching that creates long-term learning on the part of the students will require certain feelings and attitudes of the teachers. These attitudes and emotions strongly influence their behavior and teaching. In this section, the attitudes of successful teachers are discussed.

Coordination with the overall organizational strategies will allow the educational system to move toward special opportunities for innovation based on the guidelines ( 13 ). The participants, 4, 3, 5 and 8 know that teaching effectively makes sense if the efforts of the professors are aligned with the goals of university.

"If faculty members know themselves as an inseparable part of the university, and proud of their employment in the university and try to promote the aim of training educated people with a high level of scientific expertise of university, it will become their goal, too. Thus, they will try as much as possible to attain this goal" (Faculty member No.9).

When a person begins to learn, according to the value of hope theory, he must feel this is an important learning and believe that he will succeed. Since the feeling of being successful will encourage individuals to learn, you should know that teachers have an important role in this sense ( 14 ). The interviewees’ number 1, 2, 3 and 10 considered factors like interest in youth, trust in ability and respect, as motivating factors for students.

Masters 7 and 8 signified that a master had a holistic and systematic view, determined the position of the teaching subject in a field or in the entire course, know general application of issues and determines them for students, and try to teach interdisciplinary topics. Interviewee No. 5 believed that: "Masters should be aware of the fact that these students are the future of the country and in addition to knowledge, they should provide them with the right attitude and vision" (Faculty member No.5).

Participants No. 2, 4 and 8 considered the faculty members’ passion to teach a lesson as responsible and believed that: "If the a teacher is interested in his field, he/she devotes more time to study the scriptures of his field and regularly updates his information; this awareness in his teaching and its influence on students is also very effective" (Faculty member No. 8).

Requirements related to the behavior and performance of faculty members in effective teaching

Teachers have to focus on mental differences, interest, and sense of belonging, emotional stability, practical experience and scientific level of students in training. Class curriculum planning includes preparation, effective transition of content, and the use of learning and evaluating teaching ( 15 ).

Given the current study subjects’ ideas, the following functional requirements for successful teaching in higher education can be proposed.

According to Choi and Pucker, the most important role of teachers is planning and controlling the educational process for students to be able to achieve a comprehensive learning ( 16 ).

"The fact that many teachers don’t have a predetermined plan on how to teach, and just collect what they should teach in a meeting is one reason for the lack of creativity in teaching" Faculty member No.4).

Klug and colleagues in an article entitled “teaching and learning in education” raise some questions and want the faculty members to ask themselves these questions regularly.

1- How to increase the students' motivation.

2- How to help students feel confident in solving problems.

3- How to teach students to plan their learning activities.

4- How to help them to carry out self-assessment at the end of each lesson.

5- How to encourage the students to motivate them for future work.

6- How I can give feedback to the students and inform them about their individual learning ( 14 ).

Every five faculty members who were interviewed cited the need to explain the lessons in plain language, give feedback to students, and explain the causes and reasons of issues.

"I always pay attention to my role as a model with regular self-assessment; I'm trying to teach this main issue to my students" (Faculty member No. 9).

Improving the quality of learning through the promotion of education, using pre-organizers and conceptual map, emphasizing the student-centered learning and developing the skills needed for employment are the strategies outlined in lifelong learning, particularly in higher education ( 17 ).

"I always give a five to ten-minute summary of the last topic to students at first; if possible, I build up the new lesson upon the previous one" (Faculty member No. 4).

The belief that creative talent is universal and it will be strengthened with appropriate programs is a piece of evidence to prove that innovative features of the programs should be attended to continually ( 18 ). Certainly, in addition to the enumerated powers, appropriate fields should be provided to design new ideas with confidence and purposeful orientation. Otherwise, in the absence of favorable conditions and lack of proper motivations, it will be difficult to apply new ideas ( 19 ). Teacher’s No. 3, 5 and 7 emphasized encouraging the students for creativity: "I always encourage the students to be creative when I teach a topic; for example, after teaching, I express some vague hints and undiscovered issues and ask them what the second move is to improve that process" (Faculty member No.3).

Senior instructors try to engage in self-management and consultation, tracking their usage of classroom management skills and developing action plans to modify their practices based on data. Through consultation, instructors work with their colleagues to collect and implement data to gauge the students’ strengths and weaknesses, and then use protocols to turn the weaknesses into strengths. The most effective teachers monitor progress and assess how their changed practices have impacted the students’ outcomes ( 20 ).

"It is important that what is taught be relevant to the students' career; however, in the future with the same information they have learned in university, they want to work in the industry of their country" (Faculty member No.1).

Skills in documenting the results of the process of teaching-learning cannot only facilitate management in terms of studying the records, but also provides easier access to up to date information ( 21 ). Faculty members No. 7 and 3 stressed the need for documenting learning experiences by faculty.

"I have a notebook in my office that I usually refer to after each class. Then, I write down every successful strategy that was highly regarded by students that day" (Faculty member No.3).

Developing a satisfactory interaction with students

To connect with students and impact their lives personally and professionally, teachers must be student-centered and demonstrate respect for their background, ideologies, beliefs, and learning styles. The best instructors use differentiated instruction, display cultural sensitivity, accentuate open communication, offer positive feedback on the students’ academic performance ( 20 ), and foster student growth by allowing them to resubmit assignments prior to assigning a grade ( 22 ).

"I pay attention to every single student in my class and every time when I see a student in class is not focused on a few consecutive sessions, I ask about his lack of focus and I help him solve his problem" (Faculty member No. 5).

The limitation in this research was little access to other nationally recognized university faculty members; also their tight schedule was among other limitations in this study that kept us several times from interviewing such faculties. To overcome such a problem, they were briefed about the importance of this study and then some appointments were set with them.

This study revealed the effective teaching methods, requirements and barriers in Iranian Higher Education. Teachers participating in this study believed that teaching and learning in higher education is a shared process, with responsibilities on both student and teacher to contribute to their success. Within this shared process, higher education must engage the students in questioning their preconceived ideas and their models of how the world works, so that they can reach a higher level of understanding. They believed that to grow successful people to deal with the challenges in evolving the society, most developed countries are attempting to use new teaching methods in higher education. All these methods are student-centered and are the result of pivotal projects. Research conducted by Momeni Danaei and colleagues also showed that using a combination of various teaching methods together will lead to more effective learning while implementing just one teaching model cannot effectively promote learning ( 10 ). However, based on the faculty member’s experiences, effective teaching methods in higher education have some requirements and barriers.

In this study, barriers according to codes were divided two major categories: professor-related barriers and regulation-related ones; for these reasons, the complete use of these methods is not possible. However, teachers who are aware of the necessity of engaging the student for a better understanding of their content try to use this method as a combination that is class speech presentation and involving students in teaching and learning. This result is consistent with the research findings of Momeni Danaei and colleagues ( 10 ), Zarshenas et al. ( 12 ) and Noroozi ( 11 ).

Using student-centered methods in higher education needs some requirements that according to faculty members who were interviewed, and according to the codes, such requirements for effective teaching can be divided into two categories: First, things to exist in the outlook of faculties about the students and faculties' responsibility towards them, to guide them towards effective teaching methods, the most important of which are adaptation to the organizational strategies, interest in the students and trust in their abilities, systemic approach in higher education, and interest in their discipline.

Second, the necessary requirements should exist in the faculties’ behavior to make their teaching methods more effective. This category emerged from some codes, including having lesson plan; using appropriate educational strategies and metacognition training and self-assessment of students during teaching; using concept and pre-organizer maps in training, knowledge; and explaining how to resolve problems in professional career through teaching discussion, documenting of experience and having satisfactory interaction with the students. This result is consistent with the findings of Klug et al., Byun et al., and Khanyfr et al. ( 14 , 17 , 18 ).

In addition and according to the results, we can conclude that a major challenge for universities, especially at a time of resource constraints, is to organize teaching so as to maximize learning effectiveness. As mentioned earlier, a major barrier to change is the fact that most faculty members are not trained for their teaching role and are largely ignorant of the research literature on effective pedagogy. These findings are in agreement with the research of Knapper, indicating that the best ideas for effective teaching include: Teaching methods that focus on the students’ activity and task performance rather than just acquisition of facts; Opportunities for meaningful personal interaction between the students and teachers; Opportunities for collaborative team learning; More authentic methods of assessment that stress task performance in naturalistic situations, preferably including elements of peer and self-assessment; Making learning processes more explicit, and encouraging the students to reflect on the way they learn; Learning tasks that encourage integration of information and skills from different fields ( 23 ).

In the present study, it was illustrated that a good teaching method helps the students to question their preconceptions, and motivates them to learn, by putting them in a situation in which they come to see themselves as the authors of answers and the agents of responsibility for change. But whenever the teachers can teach by this method, they are faced with some barriers and requirements. Some of these requirements are prerequisite of the professors' behavior and some of these are prerequisite of the professors’ outlook. Also, there are some major barriers some of which are associated with the professors’ behavior and others are related to laws and regulations. Therefore, to have an effective teaching, the faculty members of universities should be aware of these barriers and requirements as a way to improve the teaching quality.

Effective teaching also requires structural changes that can only be brought about by academic leaders. These changes include hiring practices reward structures that recognize the importance of teaching expertise, quality assurance approaches that measure learning processes, outcomes in a much more sophisticated way than routine methods, and changing the way of attaining university accreditation.

The nationally and locally recognized professors are good leaders in providing ideas, insight, and the best strategies to educators who are passionate for effective teaching in the higher education. Finally, it is supposed that there is an important role for nationally and locally recognized professors in higher education to become more involved in the regulation of teaching rules. This will help other university teachers to be familiar with effective teaching and learning procedures. Therefore, curriculum planners and faculty members can improve their teaching methods.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank all research participants of Isfahan University of Technology (faculties) who contributed to this study and spent their time to share their experiences through interviews.

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Teaching Research Papers with High School Students

Teaching research papers with high school students? Teaching students how to write a research paper is an important part of an ELA class. Here are guidelines to make this writing unit a success.

Teaching research papers with high school students requires teaching ethical research. Teaching students how to write a research paper includes following the writing process, organizing student essays, & connecting gramamr to writing. Conferencing with students makes teaching research papers easier. This process of how to teach research to high school students walks through research paper lesson plans. Teaching the research paper in high school English classes meets writing standards.

Lawyers, political organizers, advertisers, real estate agents: most jobs require ethical research and then a written report. As a citizen, I research concepts important to my community and family. As knowledge in our world grows, student will only have more reasons to be ethical digital citizens.

Providing students with a sustainable foundation is a humbling responsibility. Teachers know that teaching students how to write a research paper is important. While teaching students how to research, I share those sentiments with them. I want students to know I take research seriously, and my expectation is that they will as well. My research paper lesson plans take into account the seriousness of ethical research.

What is the best way to teach research papers to students?

The best way to teach research papers to students is by breaking down the process into manageable steps. Start with teaching them how to choose a topic, conduct research, and create an outline/list/graphic organizer. Then guide them in writing drafts, revising and editing their papers, and properly citing sources.

Even after teaching for a decade, I sometimes overwhelm myself with this duty. I handle teaching research papers with four ideas in my mind.

outline expectations for high school writers

Provide clear expectations.

Idea one, be clear.

A feeling I always hated as a student was the unknown . Sure, part of the learning process is not knowing everything and making mistakes. I, as the teacher, don’t want to be the source of frustration though. I never want my classes to wander down a path that won’t advance them toward our end goal: a well-researched paper. Part of teaching research skills to high school students is providing clear expectations.

As writing in the ELA classroom becomes more digital, I simply give writers tools on our online learning platform. That way, I can remind them to check a certain section or page as we collaborate on their writing.

Research lesson plans high school: include a writing overview for expectations.

Give a writing overview.

Idea two, provide an overview.

Every teacher grades a little differently. Sometimes, terminology differs. Throw in the stress of research, and you might have a classroom of overwhelmed students. An overview before teaching research papers can relax everyone!

I start every writing unit with clear expectations, terminology, and goals. I cover a presentation with students, and then I upload it to Google Classroom. Students know to consult that presentation for clarity. Initially, covering the basics may seem wasteful, but it saves all of us time because students know my expectations.

Furthermore, parents and tutors appreciate my sharing that information. As students work independently (inside or outside of class), they can take it upon themselves to consult expectations. Their responsibility with this prepares them for their futures. Finally, having established that overview with students during virtual classes was invaluable.

Research lesson plans high school: give students an overview.

Show an overview of research.

Idea three, clearly explain research.

Before you begin teaching students how to research, outline what strong research looks like. You might consider these questions:

What (if any) secondary sources will I accept? What about Wikipedia?
Should students use a balance of books and online material? Do they have access to books?
Are dates for certain topics important? Will I not accept research from before a certain date?

I’m not answering these questions for you, but I’ve seen teachers provide such guidelines while teaching research skills to high school students. Whatever parameters you have for teaching the research paper, share those with students.

Define domain-specific vocabulary.

Idea four, don’t assume classes share the same domain-specific vocabulary.

High school classes are likely familiar with the writing process, yet the research process brings more vocabulary with which they might not be familiar.

Providing definitions for the most basic concepts enables me to walk through expectations and clarify concepts. Examples might include:

Informational text
Search engine
Credible sources
Claim, counterclaim
Research question
Journal articles

Plus, by providing definitions to terms, scaffolding occurs naturally. Academic writing has terms we teachers might use casually, but some students maybe have not heard of them.

Add this revision and editing sheet to your high school writing unit. Perfect addition to any Writing curriculum high school.

How can we model ethical research?

After outlining expectations to young writers, we begin research. Some schools rely on Google Scholar, and others use Explora or EBSCO. Sign students into your databases, and run them through the program.

I stress to young writers that conducting oneself with honesty and integrity is crucial to writing. When teaching research papers with high school students, I connect these ethics to their very near futures. Aside from the basics of documenting and citing, I highlight these two points.

Teaching the research paper will require teaching thorough research.

Citing material. This includes direct quotes and paraphrasing. I review both of those concepts throughout our research and writing. The majority of a paper should be the writer’s thoughts, supported by research. Students need those concepts repeated, and they are important, so I spend time emphasizing them.

Often, I turn the basics of research into a writing mini lesson . Modeling ethical research is a very specific part of ELA classes. I understand that other classes require research and that parents might teach research skills as well.

Still, to have a functioning society, students must view relevant information with critical eyes. Teaching young citizens how to write a research paper includes clear guidelines for research and one-on-one conferencing.

How can we encourage strong writing?

Hopefully, students write with passion. Hopefully, they want to show or prove their statements. Teaching students how to write a research paper is easier when students enjoy their topics.

I cover grammar with students (all year), and I always make the connection for them to implement those lessons. Teaching them to write a research paper requires some focus on writing skills. Primarily, they will work on strong verbs and syntax.

Teaching research papers will require a discussion of verb use

Look at verbs.

Students possess strong verbs in their vocabularies. Sometimes in writing, humans create a fast rough draft, myself included. Every verb is a linking verb, and every sentence reads subject + linking verb + predicate adjective. (Nothing is wrong with a linking verb, but writers should break from the mold.) When I see that a paper can be improved with strong verbs, we conference about ways to improve the verbs without thesaurus abuse.

Ask students to pick their least favorite paragraph in a research paper and to highlight every verb . Chances are, they are not conveying their message because of weak verbs. Help them turn the predicate adjectives into verbs or think of an action that will convey their meaning. Additionally as you continue teaching students how to research, you’ll cross strong verbs in research. Point out those verbs to your classes.

Teaching students how to write a research paper requires sentence structure lessons.

Examine syntax.

Just as every sentence shouldn’t contain a linking verb, not every sentence should be a simple sentence. Sentence syntax takes practice, and often teamwork! Ask students to provide a sentence that needs improvement. Break the sentence down into phrases and clauses. (If it is a simple sentence, ask for another sentence to attach.) What is the best arrangement? What is the student’s goal? Would a conjunctive adverb lead readers to a conclusion? What if a subordinating conjunction started the sentence, or, should the dependent clause come second in the complex sentence? Play with the language of papers! By connecting grammar to writing, you have empowered learners to improve their writing.

Sentence structure is also part of teaching students how to write a research paper because the information must be factual. Sometimes students report information incorrectly, and sometimes, their sentence structure is to blame. Focus on a return to simple syntax for ethical research, and then work on sentence diversity if possible.

All parts of an ELA classroom fit together like puzzle pieces, and when teaching research papers, that neatly assembled puzzle sits on display. By giving classes clear expectations, you are ready to guide them through ethical research and through strengthening their writing. Teaching the research paper is a large task, so you should know what you want to accomplish.

Is scaffolding teaching research papers possible?

Overall, a research unit takes me 2-3 weeks with high school students. Every teacher has different methodologies, but if I allow writing research papers for about a month, writers become bored. Fifteen working days for research, revision, and publishing is my average time frame. Going longer, and different aspects fall apart, and we lose momentum.

Scaffolding is built into our days. Outline the writing process with your calendar, and add days that follow the writing process. Pieces to consider:

Scaffold writing errors.

Overall, writing errors are an inevitable part of the learning process. As teachers, it is crucial that we address these errors in a way that not only corrects them but also helps students understand why they occurred in the first place. When it comes to research papers, grammatical errors can significantly affect the credibility and clarity of the information presented.

One effective way to scaffold writing errors is by focusing on the actual problems that classes have in their papers. When we conference, I jot down common errors and then cover them as a class.

Include revising and editing days.

Young writers should take ownership of the writing process which includes revising and editing. This can be achieved by dedicating specific days in the research unit for revising and editing. By allotting time for these crucial steps, writers will learn to critically analyze their work and make necessary improvements.

During the revision phase, students can focus on the overall structure and organization of their research paper. They should evaluate if their arguments are clear and logical, if the evidence supports their claims effectively, and if there is a smooth flow of ideas throughout the paper. This stage allows them to refine their content and ensure that it aligns with their desired objectives.

After revising, students should move toward publishing and sharing with their peers.

Your turn, writing teachers: What questions do you have left?

All activities mentioned in this post (except the common errors bundle) are included in my writing bundle for freshmen and sophomores .

What questions remain? Do you have different advice to offer teachers?

What do you focus on with when teaching research papers? Read how Melissa from Reading and Writing Haven differentiates when teaching research writing .

Subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates about new blog posts, freebies, and teaching resources!

Marketing Permissions We will send you emails, but we will never sell your address.

You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at [email protected] . We will treat your information with respect. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our website. By clicking below, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.

This writing unit contains everything needed for a successful research unit or writing unit.

ethical research writing activities writing lessons writing process

Research Topics & Ideas: Education

170+ Research Ideas To Fast-Track Your Dissertation, Thesis Or Research Project

I f you’re just starting out exploring education-related topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research topic ideation process by providing a hearty list of research topics and ideas , including examples from actual dissertations and theses..

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . To develop a suitable education-related research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Education Research Topics

How to find a research topic (video)
List of 50+ education-related research topics/ideas
List of 120+ level-specific research topics
Examples of actual dissertation topics in education
Tips to fast-track your topic ideation (video)
Where to get extra help

Education-Related Research Topics & Ideas

Below you’ll find a list of education-related research topics and idea kickstarters. These are fairly broad and flexible to various contexts, so keep in mind that you will need to refine them a little. Nevertheless, they should inspire some ideas for your project.

The impact of school funding on student achievement
The effects of social and emotional learning on student well-being
The effects of parental involvement on student behaviour
The impact of teacher training on student learning
The impact of classroom design on student learning
The impact of poverty on education
The use of student data to inform instruction
The role of parental involvement in education
The effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom
The use of technology in the classroom
The role of critical thinking in education
The use of formative and summative assessments in the classroom
The use of differentiated instruction in the classroom
The use of gamification in education
The effects of teacher burnout on student learning
The impact of school leadership on student achievement
The effects of teacher diversity on student outcomes
The role of teacher collaboration in improving student outcomes
The implementation of blended and online learning
The effects of teacher accountability on student achievement
The effects of standardized testing on student learning
The effects of classroom management on student behaviour
The effects of school culture on student achievement
The use of student-centred learning in the classroom
The impact of teacher-student relationships on student outcomes
The achievement gap in minority and low-income students
The use of culturally responsive teaching in the classroom
The impact of teacher professional development on student learning
The use of project-based learning in the classroom
The effects of teacher expectations on student achievement
The use of adaptive learning technology in the classroom
The impact of teacher turnover on student learning
The effects of teacher recruitment and retention on student learning
The impact of early childhood education on later academic success
The impact of parental involvement on student engagement
The use of positive reinforcement in education
The impact of school climate on student engagement
The role of STEM education in preparing students for the workforce
The effects of school choice on student achievement
The use of technology in the form of online tutoring

Free Webinar: How To Find A Dissertation Research Topic

Level-Specific Research Topics

Looking for research topics for a specific level of education? We’ve got you covered. Below you can find research topic ideas for primary, secondary and tertiary-level education contexts. Click the relevant level to view the respective list.

Research Topics: Pick An Education Level

Primary education.

Investigating the effects of peer tutoring on academic achievement in primary school
Exploring the benefits of mindfulness practices in primary school classrooms
Examining the effects of different teaching strategies on primary school students’ problem-solving skills
The use of storytelling as a teaching strategy in primary school literacy instruction
The role of cultural diversity in promoting tolerance and understanding in primary schools
The impact of character education programs on moral development in primary school students
Investigating the use of technology in enhancing primary school mathematics education
The impact of inclusive curriculum on promoting equity and diversity in primary schools
The impact of outdoor education programs on environmental awareness in primary school students
The influence of school climate on student motivation and engagement in primary schools
Investigating the effects of early literacy interventions on reading comprehension in primary school students
The impact of parental involvement in school decision-making processes on student achievement in primary schools
Exploring the benefits of inclusive education for students with special needs in primary schools
Investigating the effects of teacher-student feedback on academic motivation in primary schools
The role of technology in developing digital literacy skills in primary school students
Effective strategies for fostering a growth mindset in primary school students
Investigating the role of parental support in reducing academic stress in primary school children
The role of arts education in fostering creativity and self-expression in primary school students
Examining the effects of early childhood education programs on primary school readiness
Examining the effects of homework on primary school students’ academic performance
The role of formative assessment in improving learning outcomes in primary school classrooms
The impact of teacher-student relationships on academic outcomes in primary school
Investigating the effects of classroom environment on student behavior and learning outcomes in primary schools
Investigating the role of creativity and imagination in primary school curriculum
The impact of nutrition and healthy eating programs on academic performance in primary schools
The impact of social-emotional learning programs on primary school students’ well-being and academic performance
The role of parental involvement in academic achievement of primary school children
Examining the effects of classroom management strategies on student behavior in primary school
The role of school leadership in creating a positive school climate Exploring the benefits of bilingual education in primary schools
The effectiveness of project-based learning in developing critical thinking skills in primary school students
The role of inquiry-based learning in fostering curiosity and critical thinking in primary school students
The effects of class size on student engagement and achievement in primary schools
Investigating the effects of recess and physical activity breaks on attention and learning in primary school
Exploring the benefits of outdoor play in developing gross motor skills in primary school children
The effects of educational field trips on knowledge retention in primary school students
Examining the effects of inclusive classroom practices on students’ attitudes towards diversity in primary schools
The impact of parental involvement in homework on primary school students’ academic achievement
Investigating the effectiveness of different assessment methods in primary school classrooms
The influence of physical activity and exercise on cognitive development in primary school children
Exploring the benefits of cooperative learning in promoting social skills in primary school students

Secondary Education

Investigating the effects of school discipline policies on student behavior and academic success in secondary education
The role of social media in enhancing communication and collaboration among secondary school students
The impact of school leadership on teacher effectiveness and student outcomes in secondary schools
Investigating the effects of technology integration on teaching and learning in secondary education
Exploring the benefits of interdisciplinary instruction in promoting critical thinking skills in secondary schools
The impact of arts education on creativity and self-expression in secondary school students
The effectiveness of flipped classrooms in promoting student learning in secondary education
The role of career guidance programs in preparing secondary school students for future employment
Investigating the effects of student-centered learning approaches on student autonomy and academic success in secondary schools
The impact of socio-economic factors on educational attainment in secondary education
Investigating the impact of project-based learning on student engagement and academic achievement in secondary schools
Investigating the effects of multicultural education on cultural understanding and tolerance in secondary schools
The influence of standardized testing on teaching practices and student learning in secondary education
Investigating the effects of classroom management strategies on student behavior and academic engagement in secondary education
The influence of teacher professional development on instructional practices and student outcomes in secondary schools
The role of extracurricular activities in promoting holistic development and well-roundedness in secondary school students
Investigating the effects of blended learning models on student engagement and achievement in secondary education
The role of physical education in promoting physical health and well-being among secondary school students
Investigating the effects of gender on academic achievement and career aspirations in secondary education
Exploring the benefits of multicultural literature in promoting cultural awareness and empathy among secondary school students
The impact of school counseling services on student mental health and well-being in secondary schools
Exploring the benefits of vocational education and training in preparing secondary school students for the workforce
The role of digital literacy in preparing secondary school students for the digital age
The influence of parental involvement on academic success and well-being of secondary school students
The impact of social-emotional learning programs on secondary school students’ well-being and academic success
The role of character education in fostering ethical and responsible behavior in secondary school students
Examining the effects of digital citizenship education on responsible and ethical technology use among secondary school students
The impact of parental involvement in school decision-making processes on student outcomes in secondary schools
The role of educational technology in promoting personalized learning experiences in secondary schools
The impact of inclusive education on the social and academic outcomes of students with disabilities in secondary schools
The influence of parental support on academic motivation and achievement in secondary education
The role of school climate in promoting positive behavior and well-being among secondary school students
Examining the effects of peer mentoring programs on academic achievement and social-emotional development in secondary schools
Examining the effects of teacher-student relationships on student motivation and achievement in secondary schools
Exploring the benefits of service-learning programs in promoting civic engagement among secondary school students
The impact of educational policies on educational equity and access in secondary education
Examining the effects of homework on academic achievement and student well-being in secondary education
Investigating the effects of different assessment methods on student performance in secondary schools
Examining the effects of single-sex education on academic performance and gender stereotypes in secondary schools
The role of mentoring programs in supporting the transition from secondary to post-secondary education

Tertiary Education

The role of student support services in promoting academic success and well-being in higher education
The impact of internationalization initiatives on students’ intercultural competence and global perspectives in tertiary education
Investigating the effects of active learning classrooms and learning spaces on student engagement and learning outcomes in tertiary education
Exploring the benefits of service-learning experiences in fostering civic engagement and social responsibility in higher education
The influence of learning communities and collaborative learning environments on student academic and social integration in higher education
Exploring the benefits of undergraduate research experiences in fostering critical thinking and scientific inquiry skills
Investigating the effects of academic advising and mentoring on student retention and degree completion in higher education
The role of student engagement and involvement in co-curricular activities on holistic student development in higher education
The impact of multicultural education on fostering cultural competence and diversity appreciation in higher education
The role of internships and work-integrated learning experiences in enhancing students’ employability and career outcomes
Examining the effects of assessment and feedback practices on student learning and academic achievement in tertiary education
The influence of faculty professional development on instructional practices and student outcomes in tertiary education
The influence of faculty-student relationships on student success and well-being in tertiary education
The impact of college transition programs on students’ academic and social adjustment to higher education
The impact of online learning platforms on student learning outcomes in higher education
The impact of financial aid and scholarships on access and persistence in higher education
The influence of student leadership and involvement in extracurricular activities on personal development and campus engagement
Exploring the benefits of competency-based education in developing job-specific skills in tertiary students
Examining the effects of flipped classroom models on student learning and retention in higher education
Exploring the benefits of online collaboration and virtual team projects in developing teamwork skills in tertiary students
Investigating the effects of diversity and inclusion initiatives on campus climate and student experiences in tertiary education
The influence of study abroad programs on intercultural competence and global perspectives of college students
Investigating the effects of peer mentoring and tutoring programs on student retention and academic performance in tertiary education
Investigating the effectiveness of active learning strategies in promoting student engagement and achievement in tertiary education
Investigating the effects of blended learning models and hybrid courses on student learning and satisfaction in higher education
The role of digital literacy and information literacy skills in supporting student success in the digital age
Investigating the effects of experiential learning opportunities on career readiness and employability of college students
The impact of e-portfolios on student reflection, self-assessment, and showcasing of learning in higher education
The role of technology in enhancing collaborative learning experiences in tertiary classrooms
The impact of research opportunities on undergraduate student engagement and pursuit of advanced degrees
Examining the effects of competency-based assessment on measuring student learning and achievement in tertiary education
Examining the effects of interdisciplinary programs and courses on critical thinking and problem-solving skills in college students
The role of inclusive education and accessibility in promoting equitable learning experiences for diverse student populations
The role of career counseling and guidance in supporting students’ career decision-making in tertiary education
The influence of faculty diversity and representation on student success and inclusive learning environments in higher education

Education-Related Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic in education, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses in the education space to see how this all comes together in practice.

Below, we’ve included a selection of education-related research projects to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

From Rural to Urban: Education Conditions of Migrant Children in China (Wang, 2019)
Energy Renovation While Learning English: A Guidebook for Elementary ESL Teachers (Yang, 2019)
A Reanalyses of Intercorrelational Matrices of Visual and Verbal Learners’ Abilities, Cognitive Styles, and Learning Preferences (Fox, 2020)
A study of the elementary math program utilized by a mid-Missouri school district (Barabas, 2020)
Instructor formative assessment practices in virtual learning environments : a posthumanist sociomaterial perspective (Burcks, 2019)
Higher education students services: a qualitative study of two mid-size universities’ direct exchange programs (Kinde, 2020)
Exploring editorial leadership : a qualitative study of scholastic journalism advisers teaching leadership in Missouri secondary schools (Lewis, 2020)
Selling the virtual university: a multimodal discourse analysis of marketing for online learning (Ludwig, 2020)
Advocacy and accountability in school counselling: assessing the use of data as related to professional self-efficacy (Matthews, 2020)
The use of an application screening assessment as a predictor of teaching retention at a midwestern, K-12, public school district (Scarbrough, 2020)
Core values driving sustained elite performance cultures (Beiner, 2020)
Educative features of upper elementary Eureka math curriculum (Dwiggins, 2020)
How female principals nurture adult learning opportunities in successful high schools with challenging student demographics (Woodward, 2020)
The disproportionality of Black Males in Special Education: A Case Study Analysis of Educator Perceptions in a Southeastern Urban High School (McCrae, 2021)

As you can see, these research topics are a lot more focused than the generic topic ideas we presented earlier. So, in order for you to develop a high-quality research topic, you’ll need to get specific and laser-focused on a specific context with specific variables of interest. In the video below, we explore some other important things you’ll need to consider when crafting your research topic.

Get 1-On-1 Help

If you’re still unsure about how to find a quality research topic within education, check out our Research Topic Kickstarter service, which is the perfect starting point for developing a unique, well-justified research topic.

Find The Perfect Research Topic

How To Choose A Research Topic: 5 Key Criteria

How To Choose A Research Topic Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + Free Topic...

Research Topics & Ideas: Automation & Robotics

Research Topics & Ideas: Robotics 50 Topic Ideas To Kickstart Your Research...

Research Topics & Ideas: Sociology

Research Topics & Ideas: Sociology 50 Topic Ideas To Kickstart Your Research...

Research Topics & Ideas: Public Health & Epidemiology

Research Topics & Ideas: Public Health 50 Topic Ideas To Kickstart Your Research...

Research Topics & Ideas: Neuroscience

Research Topics & Ideas: Neuroscience 50 Topic Ideas To Kickstart Your Research...

📄 FREE TEMPLATES

Research Topic Ideation

Proposal Writing

Literature Review

Methodology & Analysis

Academic Writing

Referencing & Citing

Apps, Tools & Tricks

The Grad Coach Podcast

70 Comments

This is an helpful tool 🙏

Special education

Really appreciated by this . It is the best platform for research related items

Research title related to school of students

How are you

I think this platform is actually good enough.

Research title related to students

My field is research measurement and evaluation. Need dissertation topics in the field

Assalam o Alaikum I’m a student Bs educational Resarch and evaluation I’m confused to choose My thesis title please help me in choose the thesis title

Good idea I’m going to teach my colleagues

You can find our list of nursing-related research topic ideas here: https://gradcoach.com/research-topics-nursing/

Write on action research topic, using guidance and counseling to address unwanted teenage pregnancy in school

Thanks a lot

I learned a lot from this site, thank you so much!

Thank you for the information.. I would like to request a topic based on school major in social studies

parental involvement and students academic performance

Science education topics?

plz tell me if you got some good topics, im here for finding research topic for masters degree

How about School management and supervision pls.?

Hi i am an Deputy Principal in a primary school. My wish is to srudy foe Master’s degree in Education.Please advice me on which topic can be relevant for me. Thanks.

Thank you so much for the information provided. I would like to get an advice on the topic to research for my masters program. My area of concern is on teacher morale versus students achievement.

Every topic proposed above on primary education is a starting point for me. I appreciate immensely the team that has sat down to make a detail of these selected topics just for beginners like us. Be blessed.

Kindly help me with the research questions on the topic” Effects of workplace conflict on the employees’ job performance”. The effects can be applicable in every institution,enterprise or organisation.

Greetings, I am a student majoring in Sociology and minoring in Public Administration. I’m considering any recommended research topic in the field of Sociology.

I’m a student pursuing Mphil in Basic education and I’m considering any recommended research proposal topic in my field of study

Research Defense for students in senior high

Kindly help me with a research topic in educational psychology. Ph.D level. Thank you.

Project-based learning is a teaching/learning type,if well applied in a classroom setting will yield serious positive impact. What can a teacher do to implement this in a disadvantaged zone like “North West Region of Cameroon ( hinterland) where war has brought about prolonged and untold sufferings on the indegins?

I wish to get help on topics of research on educational administration

I wish to get help on topics of research on educational administration PhD level

I am also looking for such type of title

I am a student of undergraduate, doing research on how to use guidance and counseling to address unwanted teenage pregnancy in school

the topics are very good regarding research & education .

Am an undergraduate student carrying out a research on the impact of nutritional healthy eating programs on academic performance in primary schools

Can i request your suggestion topic for my Thesis about Teachers as an OFW. thanx you

Would like to request for suggestions on a topic in Economics of education,PhD level

Would like to request for suggestions on a topic in Economics of education

Hi 👋 I request that you help me with a written research proposal about education the format

Am offering degree in education senior high School Accounting. I want a topic for my project work

l would like to request suggestions on a topic in managing teaching and learning, PhD level (educational leadership and management)

request suggestions on a topic in managing teaching and learning, PhD level (educational leadership and management)

I would to inquire on research topics on Educational psychology, Masters degree

I am PhD student, I am searching my Research topic, It should be innovative,my area of interest is online education,use of technology in education

request suggestion on topic in masters in medical education .

Look at British Library as they keep a copy of all PhDs in the UK Core.ac.uk to access Open University and 6 other university e-archives, pdf downloads mostly available, all free.

May I also ask for a topic based on mathematics education for college teaching, please?

Please I am a masters student of the department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education Please I am in need of proposed project topics to help with my final year thesis

Am a PhD student in Educational Foundations would like a sociological topic. Thank

please i need a proposed thesis project regardging computer science

Greetings and Regards I am a doctoral student in the field of philosophy of education. I am looking for a new topic for my thesis. Because of my work in the elementary school, I am looking for a topic that is from the field of elementary education and is related to the philosophy of education.

Masters student in the field of curriculum, any ideas of a research topic on low achiever students

In the field of curriculum any ideas of a research topic on deconalization in contextualization of digital teaching and learning through in higher education

Amazing guidelines

I am a graduate with two masters. 1) Master of arts in religious studies and 2) Master in education in foundations of education. I intend to do a Ph.D. on my second master’s, however, I need to bring both masters together through my Ph.D. research. can I do something like, ” The contribution of Philosophy of education for a quality religion education in Kenya”? kindly, assist and be free to suggest a similar topic that will bring together the two masters. thanks in advance

Hi, I am an Early childhood trainer as well as a researcher, I need more support on this topic: The impact of early childhood education on later academic success.

I’m a student in upper level secondary school and I need your support in this research topics: “Impact of incorporating project -based learning in teaching English language skills in secondary schools”.

Although research activities and topics should stem from reflection on one’s practice, I found this site valuable as it effectively addressed many issues we have been experiencing as practitioners.

Your style is unique in comparison to other folks I’ve read stuff from. Thanks for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I will just book mark this site.

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Submit Comment

Print Friendly

Choose Your Test

Search Blogs By Category
College Admissions
AP and IB Exams
GPA and Coursework

113 Great Research Paper Topics

General Education

One of the hardest parts of writing a research paper can be just finding a good topic to write about. Fortunately we've done the hard work for you and have compiled a list of 113 interesting research paper topics. They've been organized into ten categories and cover a wide range of subjects so you can easily find the best topic for you.

In addition to the list of good research topics, we've included advice on what makes a good research paper topic and how you can use your topic to start writing a great paper.

What Makes a Good Research Paper Topic?

Not all research paper topics are created equal, and you want to make sure you choose a great topic before you start writing. Below are the three most important factors to consider to make sure you choose the best research paper topics.

#1: It's Something You're Interested In

A paper is always easier to write if you're interested in the topic, and you'll be more motivated to do in-depth research and write a paper that really covers the entire subject. Even if a certain research paper topic is getting a lot of buzz right now or other people seem interested in writing about it, don't feel tempted to make it your topic unless you genuinely have some sort of interest in it as well.

#2: There's Enough Information to Write a Paper

Even if you come up with the absolute best research paper topic and you're so excited to write about it, you won't be able to produce a good paper if there isn't enough research about the topic. This can happen for very specific or specialized topics, as well as topics that are too new to have enough research done on them at the moment. Easy research paper topics will always be topics with enough information to write a full-length paper.

Trying to write a research paper on a topic that doesn't have much research on it is incredibly hard, so before you decide on a topic, do a bit of preliminary searching and make sure you'll have all the information you need to write your paper.

#3: It Fits Your Teacher's Guidelines

Don't get so carried away looking at lists of research paper topics that you forget any requirements or restrictions your teacher may have put on research topic ideas. If you're writing a research paper on a health-related topic, deciding to write about the impact of rap on the music scene probably won't be allowed, but there may be some sort of leeway. For example, if you're really interested in current events but your teacher wants you to write a research paper on a history topic, you may be able to choose a topic that fits both categories, like exploring the relationship between the US and North Korea. No matter what, always get your research paper topic approved by your teacher first before you begin writing.

113 Good Research Paper Topics

Below are 113 good research topics to help you get you started on your paper. We've organized them into ten categories to make it easier to find the type of research paper topics you're looking for.

Arts/Culture

Discuss the main differences in art from the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance .
Analyze the impact a famous artist had on the world.
How is sexism portrayed in different types of media (music, film, video games, etc.)? Has the amount/type of sexism changed over the years?
How has the music of slaves brought over from Africa shaped modern American music?
How has rap music evolved in the past decade?
How has the portrayal of minorities in the media changed?

Current Events

What have been the impacts of China's one child policy?
How have the goals of feminists changed over the decades?
How has the Trump presidency changed international relations?
Analyze the history of the relationship between the United States and North Korea.
What factors contributed to the current decline in the rate of unemployment?
What have been the impacts of states which have increased their minimum wage?
How do US immigration laws compare to immigration laws of other countries?
How have the US's immigration laws changed in the past few years/decades?
How has the Black Lives Matter movement affected discussions and view about racism in the US?
What impact has the Affordable Care Act had on healthcare in the US?
What factors contributed to the UK deciding to leave the EU (Brexit)?
What factors contributed to China becoming an economic power?
Discuss the history of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies (some of which tokenize the S&P 500 Index on the blockchain) .
Do students in schools that eliminate grades do better in college and their careers?
Do students from wealthier backgrounds score higher on standardized tests?
Do students who receive free meals at school get higher grades compared to when they weren't receiving a free meal?
Do students who attend charter schools score higher on standardized tests than students in public schools?
Do students learn better in same-sex classrooms?
How does giving each student access to an iPad or laptop affect their studies?
What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Montessori Method ?
Do children who attend preschool do better in school later on?
What was the impact of the No Child Left Behind act?
How does the US education system compare to education systems in other countries?
What impact does mandatory physical education classes have on students' health?
Which methods are most effective at reducing bullying in schools?
Do homeschoolers who attend college do as well as students who attended traditional schools?
Does offering tenure increase or decrease quality of teaching?
How does college debt affect future life choices of students?
Should graduate students be able to form unions?

What are different ways to lower gun-related deaths in the US?
How and why have divorce rates changed over time?
Is affirmative action still necessary in education and/or the workplace?
Should physician-assisted suicide be legal?
How has stem cell research impacted the medical field?
How can human trafficking be reduced in the United States/world?
Should people be able to donate organs in exchange for money?
Which types of juvenile punishment have proven most effective at preventing future crimes?
Has the increase in US airport security made passengers safer?
Analyze the immigration policies of certain countries and how they are similar and different from one another.
Several states have legalized recreational marijuana. What positive and negative impacts have they experienced as a result?
Do tariffs increase the number of domestic jobs?
Which prison reforms have proven most effective?
Should governments be able to censor certain information on the internet?
Which methods/programs have been most effective at reducing teen pregnancy?
What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Keto diet?
How effective are different exercise regimes for losing weight and maintaining weight loss?
How do the healthcare plans of various countries differ from each other?
What are the most effective ways to treat depression ?
What are the pros and cons of genetically modified foods?
Which methods are most effective for improving memory?
What can be done to lower healthcare costs in the US?
What factors contributed to the current opioid crisis?
Analyze the history and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic .
Are low-carbohydrate or low-fat diets more effective for weight loss?
How much exercise should the average adult be getting each week?
Which methods are most effective to get parents to vaccinate their children?
What are the pros and cons of clean needle programs?
How does stress affect the body?
Discuss the history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
What were the causes and effects of the Salem Witch Trials?
Who was responsible for the Iran-Contra situation?
How has New Orleans and the government's response to natural disasters changed since Hurricane Katrina?
What events led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
What were the impacts of British rule in India ?
Was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary?
What were the successes and failures of the women's suffrage movement in the United States?
What were the causes of the Civil War?
How did Abraham Lincoln's assassination impact the country and reconstruction after the Civil War?
Which factors contributed to the colonies winning the American Revolution?
What caused Hitler's rise to power?
Discuss how a specific invention impacted history.
What led to Cleopatra's fall as ruler of Egypt?
How has Japan changed and evolved over the centuries?
What were the causes of the Rwandan genocide ?

Why did Martin Luther decide to split with the Catholic Church?
Analyze the history and impact of a well-known cult (Jonestown, Manson family, etc.)
How did the sexual abuse scandal impact how people view the Catholic Church?
How has the Catholic church's power changed over the past decades/centuries?
What are the causes behind the rise in atheism/ agnosticism in the United States?
What were the influences in Siddhartha's life resulted in him becoming the Buddha?
How has media portrayal of Islam/Muslims changed since September 11th?

Science/Environment

How has the earth's climate changed in the past few decades?
How has the use and elimination of DDT affected bird populations in the US?
Analyze how the number and severity of natural disasters have increased in the past few decades.
Analyze deforestation rates in a certain area or globally over a period of time.
How have past oil spills changed regulations and cleanup methods?
How has the Flint water crisis changed water regulation safety?
What are the pros and cons of fracking?
What impact has the Paris Climate Agreement had so far?
What have NASA's biggest successes and failures been?
How can we improve access to clean water around the world?
Does ecotourism actually have a positive impact on the environment?
Should the US rely on nuclear energy more?
What can be done to save amphibian species currently at risk of extinction?
What impact has climate change had on coral reefs?
How are black holes created?
Are teens who spend more time on social media more likely to suffer anxiety and/or depression?
How will the loss of net neutrality affect internet users?
Analyze the history and progress of self-driving vehicles.
How has the use of drones changed surveillance and warfare methods?
Has social media made people more or less connected?
What progress has currently been made with artificial intelligence ?
Do smartphones increase or decrease workplace productivity?
What are the most effective ways to use technology in the classroom?
How is Google search affecting our intelligence?
When is the best age for a child to begin owning a smartphone?
Has frequent texting reduced teen literacy rates?

How to Write a Great Research Paper

Even great research paper topics won't give you a great research paper if you don't hone your topic before and during the writing process. Follow these three tips to turn good research paper topics into great papers.

#1: Figure Out Your Thesis Early

Before you start writing a single word of your paper, you first need to know what your thesis will be. Your thesis is a statement that explains what you intend to prove/show in your paper. Every sentence in your research paper will relate back to your thesis, so you don't want to start writing without it!

As some examples, if you're writing a research paper on if students learn better in same-sex classrooms, your thesis might be "Research has shown that elementary-age students in same-sex classrooms score higher on standardized tests and report feeling more comfortable in the classroom."

If you're writing a paper on the causes of the Civil War, your thesis might be "While the dispute between the North and South over slavery is the most well-known cause of the Civil War, other key causes include differences in the economies of the North and South, states' rights, and territorial expansion."

#2: Back Every Statement Up With Research

Remember, this is a research paper you're writing, so you'll need to use lots of research to make your points. Every statement you give must be backed up with research, properly cited the way your teacher requested. You're allowed to include opinions of your own, but they must also be supported by the research you give.

#3: Do Your Research Before You Begin Writing

You don't want to start writing your research paper and then learn that there isn't enough research to back up the points you're making, or, even worse, that the research contradicts the points you're trying to make!

Get most of your research on your good research topics done before you begin writing. Then use the research you've collected to create a rough outline of what your paper will cover and the key points you're going to make. This will help keep your paper clear and organized, and it'll ensure you have enough research to produce a strong paper.

What's Next?

Are you also learning about dynamic equilibrium in your science class? We break this sometimes tricky concept down so it's easy to understand in our complete guide to dynamic equilibrium .

Thinking about becoming a nurse practitioner? Nurse practitioners have one of the fastest growing careers in the country, and we have all the information you need to know about what to expect from nurse practitioner school .

Want to know the fastest and easiest ways to convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius? We've got you covered! Check out our guide to the best ways to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit (or vice versa).

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Trending Now

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

ACT vs. SAT: Which Test Should You Take?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Get Your Free

Find Your Target SAT Score

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect SAT Score, by an Expert Full Scorer

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading and Writing

How to Improve Your Low SAT Score

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading and Writing

Find Your Target ACT Score

Complete Official Free ACT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect ACT Score, by a 36 Full Scorer

Get a 36 on ACT English

Get a 36 on ACT Math

Get a 36 on ACT Reading

Get a 36 on ACT Science

How to Improve Your Low ACT Score

Get a 24 on ACT English

Get a 24 on ACT Math

Get a 24 on ACT Reading

Get a 24 on ACT Science

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Unclaimed Property
Local Government Local Government collapsed link
State and Authority Finance State and Authority Finance collapsed link
Reports & Legal Reports & Legal collapsed link
Contact Contact collapsed link
Press Releases
Community Services Division
Local Audit and Finance Division
Property Tax Division
School Review and Fiscal Accountability Division
Revenue Sharing
Local Fiscal Health
Local Retirement Reporting

School Review and Fiscal Accountability

information on the Michigan State Revenue Sharing Program.

Financial Emergency Information
Detroit Financial Review Commission
Finance Programs
School Bond Qualification & Loan
State Building Authority
Michigan Finance Authority
Additional Information

financing programs to meet the needs of local units of government including: Cities, Villages, Townships, Counties, and various special purpose units.

the bond process, finance teams, lost bonds and links to other resources.

Revenue Administrative Bulletins
Internal Policy Directives
Letter Rulings
Technical Advice Letter

Reports on the various taxes that the Department of Treasury administers as well as Treasury's annual reports and other revenue and budget reports.

ADRP Semi Annual Reports
Reports Archive

A Revenue Administrative Bulletin (RAB) is a directive issued by the Bureau of Tax Policy. Its purpose is to promote uniform application of tax laws throughout the State by the Bureau of Tax Policy personnel and provide information and guidance to taxpayers.

Internal Policy Directives are prepared to provide guidance to department staff to insure uniformity in tax administration.

The various Divisions of the Department of Treasury are guided by State statutes, Administrative Rules, Court cases, Revenue Administrative Bureau Bulletins, Property Tax Commission Bulletins and Letter Rulings.

Relief Available Upon Request in Counties Impacted by Severe Storms and Tornadoes
Notice Regarding Firearms Safety Devices
Homestead Property Tax Credit and Adjacent and Contiguous Property
Bottle Deposit Dealer Disbursements Form Deadline Beginning in 2024
Tax Rate for Flow-Through Entity Tax Years Beginning in 2024
Court of Appeals Concludes Reduction to Income Tax Rate for Tax Year 2023 Was Temporary
Sales and Use Tax Exemption for Firearm Safety Devices to Take Effect May 13 2024
Tax Year 2023 Income Tax Rate
2024 Tax Year Income Tax Rate for Individuals and Fiduciaries
Change in Tax Treatment for Prepared Food
Changes in the Taxability of Delivery and Installation Charges for SU
Extensions Due to Federal Disaster Declaration in Michigan
Notice Flow-Through Entity Tax Rate Reduced for Tax Years Beginning in 2023
Notice Regarding Amendment of the City Income Tax Act
Notice Regarding Industrial Process Exemption for Aggregates
Notice to Taxpayers Regarding IRS Form 1098 F
Revisions to Michigan Sales and Use Tax Rules
Tax Rate Calculation on Gross Premiums Attributable to Qualified Health Plans for Tax Year 2023
Notice Regarding Amendment to Michigan Beverage Container Law
Notice to Taxpayers Regarding Public Act 207 of 2022
Hearings Taxpayer Portal
Notice First Time Home Buyers
Notice of Tax Rate Calculation on Gross Premiums 2021
Notice Regarding the Implementation of 2022 Public Act 148
Notice Regarding the MI Catastrophic Claims Association Surplus For Insurers
Student Loan Forgiveness Not Subject to Income Tax in Michigan
Tax Rate Calculation on Gross Premiums Attributable to Qualified Health Plans for Tax Year 2022
REMINDER NOTICE FTE TAX PAYMENTS DUE BY MARCH 15 2022
Notice FTE Tax Payments Delayed Due to MTO Registration Will Be Treated as Timely for TPs
Notice to Taxpayers Regarding Income Tax Deduction for Income Attributed to Cancellation
Treasury Directory
Local Government
State and Authority Finance
Reports & Legal

Search is currently unavailable. Please try again later.

Popular on michigan.gov

Agriculture and Rural Development
Civil Rights
Environment
Health and Human Services
Natural Resources
Secretary of State

How Do I...

Register to Vote
Renew My License Plate
View assistance programs

The web Browser you are currently using is unsupported, and some features of this site may not work as intended. Please update to a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox or Edge to experience all features Michigan.gov has to offer.

Google Chrome
Microsoft Edge

Michigan Education Trust celebrates September as National College Savings Month

September 04, 2024

As National College Savings Month returns this September, and with a proclamation from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declaring Michigan College Savings Month , the Michigan Education Trust (MET) is amplifying its efforts encouraging families to plan for their children’s future education.

New for 2024, the prepaid tuition program administered by the Michigan Department of Treasury is offering fresh incentives, including the 2024 College Savings Month Bonus , making saving for college more accessible than ever. Purchasers who open new Pay-As-You-Go contracts for qualified beneficiaries by Sept. 30, 2024, will receive a $100 College Savings Month Bonus.*

The bonus represents MET’s ongoing work to reduce financial barriers to postsecondary education. Families are encouraged to visit here and use the coupon code CSM24 to take advantage of this offer and to waive the $25 online enrollment fee.

“This initiative is part of our unwavering commitment to breaking down the financial barriers that too often stand as obstacles for families in achieving their educational goals,” said Diane Brewer , executive director of MET. “We want to make sure that more students can begin and complete their education without the overwhelming burden of student debt.”

Highlighting the value of early college savings, MET is looking back to early investors like Karen and David Janer-Hanson of South Lyon, who were “MET originals” and are now calling their MET investment the best financial decision they ever made.

They recently reflected on how MET has paid off for their family.

Back in 1988, as young professionals with a daughter and limited funds, they knew they had to prioritize their child’s future. The newly introduced MET program allowed them to purchase future college credits at 1988 prices, and they knew they couldn’t miss out.

“It was the smartest financial move we’ve ever made,” said Karen, a former school counselor.

Thanks to MET, their daughter, Cara, graduated from Michigan Technological University with an environmental engineering degree. Now, she works as an environmental engineer for the Grand Valley Metro Council in Kent County. Their son, Philip, also benefited from MET, earning a political science degree from James Madison College at Michigan State University.

Brewer highlighted the enduring impact of MET.

“Like the Janer-Hansons, every Michigan family should have the opportunity to secure their child’s future,” she said. “We’re enhancing our offerings this year to ensure more students can achieve their dreams without the shadow of student debt.”

Since its inception in 1988 as the nation’s first 529 prepaid education savings plan, MET has been a cornerstone for Michigan families. With rising concerns about student debt, MET’s role has never been more crucial in providing a pathway to a debt-free future.

The benefits of a MET plan extend beyond savings, with contributions being tax-deductible for Michigan residents and distributions for qualified education expenses being tax-free. Additionally, MET offers the flexibility of year-round contributions, making it easy for anyone — parents, grandparents, friends and even community organizations — to invest in a child’s future.

Brewer also emphasized MET’s ongoing efforts to educate families about the advantages of MET through a series of webinars scheduled throughout the year. These sessions cover various topics, including the features and benefits of MET contracts and the broader tax advantages of 529 plans.

“This College Savings Month, we want to remind everyone that MET is more than a savings plan — it’s a pledge to the future success of our children,” Brewer noted. “MET is better equipped than ever to help Michigan students reach their goals.”

For more information about MET, visit SetWithMET.com .

*View eligibility requirements for the College Savings Month bonus.

Media Contact:

[email protected]

(517) 335-2167

CBSE Class 10 Sample Papers 2025 OUT For Skill Subjects: Download FREE PDFs

Cbse class 10 skill subject sample papers 2025: cbse class 10 skill subjects’ sample papers are available here. check and download free subject-wise free pdfs here for it, data science, artificial intelligence, etc..

2025 CBSE Skill Education Sample Papers for Class 10: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has released the 2025 sample papers for skill subjects. These sample papers are provided for Classes 9 to 12 to help students understand the latest question paper format and typology of questions that will be asked in the final board examination.

CBSE Class 10 Skill Subject Sample Papers 2025

CBSE Class 10 Sample Papers 2024-25

CBSE 2025 Exam Dates

Cbse class 10 mock test series.

To prepare better for the 2025 board exams check out the mock tests and video series provided here. Click on the link and explore the online content for effective exam preparation.

CBSE Class 10 - Online Mock Tests and Video Courses
CBSE Class 10 Syllabus 2024-25 (All Subject PDFs)
CBSE Class 10 Deleted Syllabus 2024-25 (All Subject PDFs)
NCERT Class 10 Revised Textbooks (All Subject PDFs)
CBSE Board Exams Twice A Year: Check Updates Here
CBSE Additional Practice Questions for CBSE Board Exam 2024

Get here latest School , CBSE and Govt Jobs notification and articles in English and Hindi for Sarkari Naukari , Sarkari Result and Exam Preparation . Download the Jagran Josh Sarkari Naukri App .

India Post GDS Merit List 2024
TNPSC Group 2 Hall Ticket 2024
RBI Grade B Admit Card 2024
UP Police Constable Admit Card 2024
SSC CGL Admit Card 2024
UP Police Constable Question Paper 2024 PDF
CDS Question Paper 2024
RRB NTPC Recruitment 2024
Teachers Day Speech
Teachers Day 2024
Education News
CBSE Class 10

Latest Education News

SSC GD Recruitment Notification 2025 Live: Online Application Link Today at ssc.gov.in, Check Constable Exam Details

Unified Pension Scheme: लाभ, पात्रता, न्यूनतम पेंशन राशि, पेंशन कैलकुलेटर सहित सभी डिटेल्स यहां देखें

Paris Paralympics 2024 India Medals list: हरविंदर सिंह पैरालंपिक में स्वर्ण पदक जीतने वाले पहले भारतीय तीरंदाज बने

Jasdeep Singh Gill Story: कौन हैं जसदीप सिंह गिल? केमिकल इंजीनियर से धार्मिक गुरु बनने तक की कहानी

Who is Harvinder Singh? India's First Archer To Win Gold Medal At Paralympics

Teacher's Day 2024: ये हैं देश के सर्वश्रेष्ठ शिक्षक, जिन्हें Shikshak Divas पर मिला राष्ट्रीय पुरस्कार

Teacher's Day 2024 Quiz in Hindi: छात्र Shikshak Diwas पर 15 विशेष प्रश्न और उनके उत्तर यहां पढ़ें

Genius IQ Test: Find the poisonous milk bottle in 10 seconds!

SSC CGL Admit Card 2024 Out at ssc.gov.in: Direct Link to Download Region Wise Tier 1 Hall Ticket PDF Here

SSC SR CGL Admit Card 2024 OUT at sscsr.gov.in: Download Hall Ticket Link Here

Teacher’s Day 2024 Shayari: शिक्षक दिवस पर इन शायरी से शिक्षकों को दें शुभकामनाएं

Teacher’s Day 2024: 50+ Images, Photos, Pictures to Share with your Favorite School and Coaching Teacher

RUHS B.Sc Nursing 2024 Result Declared, Download Marksheet at bscnursing2024.com

Happy Teacher’s Day 2024 Wishes, Quotes in Hindi: शिक्षक दिवस पर इन संदेशों के साथ भेजें शुभकामनाएं

Happy Teachers Day 2024: 70+ Quotes, Wishes, Greeting Messages to Share with your Teacher and Mentor

10 Amazing Ideas to Celebrate Teachers’ Day 2024

अयोध्या राम मंदिर पर हिंदी में निबंध, Essay on Ram Mandir in Hindi

DRDO ITR Recruitment 2024: Apply for 54 Graduate and Technician Diploma Apprentice Posts, Check Eligibility

MPBSE Class 9 Marathi Syllabus 2024-25: Download MP Board Marking Scheme PDF

RRB NTPC Recruitment 2024 Notification at rrbapply.gov.in for 11558 Vacancies: Check Salary, Eligibility & Exam Details

'Flagstock' concert honors UNC students who defended US flag during anti-American protests

by JACKSON WALKER | The National Desk

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - MAY 1: A barricade protects the American flag at Polk Place at the University of North Carolina on May 1, 2024 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (TND) — Members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill community gathered on Labor Day to celebrate “Flagstock,” a concert organized to honor a group of fraternity brothers who defended the Star-Spangled Banner amid campus unrest.

The fraternities earned an outpouring of support in May after images and videos captured their members encircling a flagpole that bore an American flag. The images were taken during a campus protest during which demonstrators attempted to raise a Palestinian flag in its place, according to freelance journalist Bryan Anderson.

A GoFundMe created to throw the frats “a rager” earned over $515,000 before it was closed by organizers. These funds were reportedly used to organize the concert.

A livestream of the concert shared via Rumble captured patriotic performances from a slew of artists including Aaron Lewis, Vladimir John Ondrasik and Lee Greenwood, who also performed during the Republican National Convention in July.

“It breaks my heart actually to look at you guys, even though you look like you’re having a good time,” Ondrasik, who uses the stage name Five for Fighting, said during the show. “It is critical that we stand up to the faculty that indoctrinates our kids with hatred and radicalism. It is critical that we stand up the administrators and presidents across our nation that enable, encourage and sometimes support the mobs running amuck.”

Country singer John Rich, who originally proposed throwing the concert, condemned those who “painted [young people] with a broad brush."

“They say ‘well, they’re a bunch of knuckleheads playing video games in their mom’s basement drinking soy lattes,’” Rich said. “You know, here’s what they say: ‘all the young people in this country are a bunch of beta males out there sucking the government t--.’”

“Is that who you are?” Rich asked. “Or is this a group of young Americans that want to chase the American Dream?”

Follow Jackson Walker on X at @_jlwalker_ for the latest trending national news. Have a news tip? Send it to [email protected].

IMAGES

FREE 44+ Research Paper Samples & Templates in PDF
FREE 5+ Sample Research Paper Templates in PDF
Research into College Students’ Pioneering Education
(PDF) CREATIVE WAYS OF TEACHING RESEARCH PAPER WRITING
Research Paper For College Essay Template in Google Docs, Word, Pages
Teaching the Research Paper Part 1: Introducing the Research Paper and

VIDEO

How to write an academic research paper (general notes)
Academic Research for Teachers, Part 2: Start with Good Summary Publications
Which Verb Tenses to Use in a Research Paper || What Tense Should You Use in Academic Writing? ||
Where to publish Research paper
College Writing: A Student's Perspective (Challenges)
Mastering University Research: A Comprehensive Guide

COMMENTS

How to Teach Writing a Research Paper in 9 Steps
Read each other's syntheses, and write a thought-provoking question that asks for additional information or clarification. Return papers to one another. Read the question and write a two to three-sentence response. Continue to exchange papers, read responses, and ask another question until the time is called.
Teaching Students to Write Good Papers
There are several steps TFs and faculty can take to prepare students to write good papers. If you are responsible for making writing assignments, remember that most students need to practice the basic elements of writing — purpose, argument, evidence, style — and that these skills are best practiced in shorter, focused assignments. Opt for shorter essays and papers throughout the semester ...
Teaching the Research Paper Part 1: Introducing the Research Paper and
There are three things every teacher should do before taking their students to the computer lab to research information for their research papers: teach the difference between reliable and unreliable sources, check to make sure every student has a self-generated research question, and help prepare students with key phrases and words to search.
PDF How to Write a Research Paper Lesson Plan
Procedure [60 minutes]: Step 1: Begin the lesson plan with an image [3 minutes] Show the third slide of the PowerPoint presentation with a picture of stacked books and an apple on the top of the book that is titled "Education.". Begin to discuss the significance of the apple as. a very powerful fruit.
5 Methods to Teach Students How to do Research Papers
Work individually. Work collaboratively. The following tips and methodologies build off the initial preparation: Students formulate a logical thesis that expresses a perspective on their research subject. Students practice their research skills. This includes evaluating their sources, summarizing and paraphrasing significant information, and ...
(PDF) Teaching Research Methods: Learning by Doing
Abstract. This paper outlines ways to structure a research-methods class so that students gain a practical knowledge of how research is done. Emphasis is placed on data collection, using ...
Empowering Students by Teaching Research-Paper Writing as a ...
The value of research-paper writing became clear as I developed as a teacher. As an advanced graduate student, I joined the team at Cornell-in-Washington (CIW), a program for Cornell University's government and other majors who wanted to intern in Washington while earning a semester's worth of credit.
Teaching Research
Teaching Research. As part of PWR's charge related to the WR 1 and WR 2 requirements, PWR 1 and PWR 2 classes (in collaboration with the library) teach first and second-year students research strategies that provide an introduction to important research practices that they will likely use in their coursework at Stanford and then in future ...
Home
On the following pages you'll find an overview of strategies for researching and writing a paper on most education topics. Please contact me or any of the Subject Specialists if you have questions or special research needs. The research guide, Educational Research, should also prove useful. Last Updated: Aug 12, 2024 2:35 PM. Subjects: Education.
How to Write a Research Paper
Choose a research paper topic. There are many ways to generate an idea for a research paper, from brainstorming with pen and paper to talking it through with a fellow student or professor.. You can try free writing, which involves taking a broad topic and writing continuously for two or three minutes to identify absolutely anything relevant that could be interesting.
Teaching the science of learning
The science of learning has made a considerable contribution to our understanding of effective teaching and learning strategies. However, few instructors outside of the field are privy to this research. In this tutorial review, we focus on six specific cognitive strategies that have received robust support from decades of research: spaced practice, interleaving, retrieval practice, elaboration ...
Teaching Research in the First-Year Writing Classroom in the U.S
Strategies for incorporating research into first-year writing. By Sritama Chatterjee. Sritama Chatterjee is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh. You can find her on Twitter @SritamaBarna. Image of a PowerPoint slide that I made to get students started thinking of their potential research topics.
PDF Teaching the Research Paper through Inquiry-Based Instruction
nar to teach the research paper by approaching the project asa themat. unit in an effort to connect the project to the real world. Inquiry-based instruction is "an educational approach that supports critical thinking, skill b. ilding, and problem solving, in addition to content learning. Inquiry-based instruction encourages students to ...
The Journal for Research and Practice in College Teaching
In the spirit of social learning spaces, we present a special issue of the Journal for Research and Practice in College Teaching that showcases both the process and the product of the case clinic. In Communities of Practice within and across Organizations: A guidebook, Wenger-Trayner et al (2023) describe a case clinic as, "A member brings a real-life challenge to the community and members ...
Full article: Reviews of teaching methods
The overview format. This study is situated within the frames of a research project with the overall aim of increasing and refining our knowledge about teaching and teaching research (Hirsh & Nilholm, Citation 2019; Roman, Sundberg, Hirsh, Nilholm, & Forsberg, Citation 2018).In order to clarify the context in which the present study has emerged, a brief description of starting points and ...
Effective Teaching Methods in Higher Education: Requirements and
In the present study, regarding the Effective Teaching Method in Higher Education, Requirements and Barriers, the experiences and perceptions of general practitioners were explored. As presented in Table 2, according to data analysis, two themes containing several major categories and codes were extracted.
Teaching Research Papers with High School Students
The best way to teach research papers to students is by breaking down the process into manageable steps. Start with teaching them how to choose a topic, conduct research, and create an outline/list/graphic organizer. Then guide them in writing drafts, revising and editing their papers, and properly citing sources.
170+ Research Topics In Education (+ Free Webinar)
The use of student data to inform instruction. The role of parental involvement in education. The effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom. The use of technology in the classroom. The role of critical thinking in education. The use of formative and summative assessments in the classroom.
113 Great Research Paper Topics
One of the hardest parts of writing a research paper can be just finding a good topic to write about. Fortunately we've done the hard work for you and have compiled a list of 113 interesting research paper topics. They've been organized into ten categories and cover a wide range of subjects so you can easily find the best topic for you.
Research in Education: Sage Journals
Research in Education provides a space for fully peer-reviewed, critical, trans-disciplinary, debates on theory, policy and practice in relation to Education. International in scope, we publish challenging, well-written and theoretically innovative contributions that question and explore the concept, practice and institution of Education as an object of study.
(PDF) THE IMPACT OF EFFECTIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES ON ...
Learn how effective teaching strategies can boost learning outcomes in this research paper. Find and cite relevant studies on ResearchGate.
Higher Education Through Student Eyes: A Collection of Student Research
The present collection of research papers reflects students' perspectives on today's changing higher education landscape and the challenges or controversies they observe in contemporary higher education. Student research papers featured in this collection are a testimony of students' genuine interest in studying and contributing to the ...
Michigan Education Trust celebrates September as National College
As National College Savings Month returns this September, and with a proclamation from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declaring Michigan College Savings Month, the Michigan Education Trust (MET) is amplifying its efforts encouraging families to plan for their children's future education.. New for 2024, the prepaid tuition program administered by the Michigan Department of Treasury is offering fresh ...
CBSE Class 10 Sample Papers 2025 OUT For Skill Subjects: Download FREE
CBSE 2025 Skill Education Class 10 Sample Paper: CBSE Class 10 Skill Subjects' Sample Papers 2024-25 with marking scheme are available here. Check and download free subject-wise free PDFs here ...
'Flagstock' concert honors UNC students who defended US flag during
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (TND) — Members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill community gathered on Labor Day to celebrate "Flagstock," a concert organized to honor a group of fraternity brothers who defended the Star-Spangled Banner amid campus unrest. The fraternities earned an outpouring of support in May after images and videos captured their members encircling a flagpole that ...

Search form

Consultations, Observations, and Services

You are here

Downloads

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

Writing Consultations

Reserve a Room

Teaching the Research Paper Part 1: Introducing the Research Paper and Preparing Students for the Assignment

Teaching the Research Paper: 3 Critical Steps to Take

Teaching the Research Paper: Create Questions

Teaching the Research Paper: Brainstorm Key Words

Teaching the Research Paper: A Research Paper Writing Instructional Unit

Research Paper Teaching Unit

Read more about teaching the research paper

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

SUBSCRIBE NOW

ChatGPT for Teachers

Formulating a research question

You may also like to read

Empowering Students by Teaching Research-Paper Writing as a Foundational Methods Course

Cite this chapter

Access this chapter

Similar content being viewed by others

The Evolution of a Research Paper Course

Creating Positive Feedback Cycles Between Teaching and Research

Building a Foundation for a Successful Doctoral Student Journey: A Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Investigation

Author information

Corresponding author

Editor information

Rights and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Download citation

Share this chapter

Teaching Research

Writing an Educational Research Paper

Have a language expert improve your writing

How to Write a Research Paper | A Beginner's Guide

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Table of contents

Scribbr Citation Checker New

Paragraph structure

Example paragraph

Citing sources

Global concerns

Fine-grained details

Checklist: Research paper

Is this article helpful?

More interesting articles

Get unlimited documents corrected

Teaching the science of learning

Significance

Spaced practice

Interleaving

Retrieval practice

Elaboration

Concrete examples

Dual coding

Acknowledgements

Availability of data and materials

Contributions

Corresponding author

Ethics declarations

Publisher’s Note

Rights and permissions

About this article

Share this article

Teaching Research in the First-Year Writing Classroom in the U.S.

Louisiana’s Corequisite Math Courses Boost Completion

Share This Article

5 Productivity Practices That Helped Me Finish My Dissertation

Summer Planning Strategies

Holding Pattern

Sign up for a free account or log in.

Announcements

Current Issue

An Introduction to Case and Design Clinics A social learning alternative for group problem-solving

Effective Teaching Methods in Higher Education: Requirements and Barriers

AHMMADREZA NASR ISFAHANI

ROYA KHALILI