Which learning techniques supported by cognitive research do students use at secondary school? Prevalence and associations with students' beliefs and achievement.

Abstract

Research in cognitive science has highlighted the effectiveness of several learning techniques, and a number of studies have analyzed their prevalence among university students and their relationship with academic achievement. In this study, we surveyed a large, heterogeneous sample of secondary school students to reveal how often they use research-supported techniques in comparison with other frequent techniques, and we analyzed the association between their study strategies and school achievement. We also assessed the associations between study techniques and several students' beliefs and attitudes toward learning (self-efficacy, goal orientation, control beliefs, growth mindset, and examination anxiety). Results showed that, except for distributed practice, only those techniques that are supported by previous research yielded an association with achievement, and they exhibited higher associations with self-efficacy, growth mindset, control beliefs, and learning goal orientation than non-supported techniques.