How do students learn?

How students learn is important as well as putting certain principles into practice when preparing for teaching. Educators have a duty to help develop the best relationships with their students, as well as providing solid theoretical knowledge. This is key to improving overall student outcomes, potentially reducing attrition on teachers. Therefore, here are some principles so that you understand how students learn.

1. Student learning is not limited by stages of development

Some students are capable of behaving with a higher level of knowledge than others. This may be Influenced by the family context and access to materials that challenge their intelligence.

2. How you acquire long-term skills and knowledge is highly dependent on practice

It is important that teachers make a short and long term transfer of information to their students. It is somewhat difficult, for which different strategies are drawn. The clearest way to improve the information transfer process is to practice. It is truly effective and involves rehearsal, repetition, and attention. These steps are important to achieve some degree of automaticity, allowing you to focus on more complex skills and knowledge in the future.

For best practice teachers should:

Use visual tests and reviews regularly Make a schedule of activities Repeatedly, so they try out similar tasks and try various practical methods on the same task. Prepare work according to the knowledge of the students.

3. What they know in advance affects student learning

Students enter classrooms with certain pre-existing knowledge based on everyday experiences. These experiences they can be grounded in social interactions, either with peers or in other settings. To counteract this problem, teachers should:

Add new knowledge, based on the existing one in order to achieve adequate consistency and well grounded. Transform all existing knowledge that is found to be wrong with a new one that is well explained.

One of the most common mistakes made by teachers is that they lead to cognitive conflicts between various points of view of their disciples. Your job should be to help them recognize the truth and falsehood of the thoughts expressed. Providing them with the right materials to support their ideas.

4. Learning is based on generalizing new contexts

The transfer of knowledge and skills to students cannot be automatic or spontaneous. On the contrary, it becomes more and more difficult as it becomes more different from the concept predefined in their minds.

For ease a better transfer toward their students, teachers can:

Present a concept or topic in multiple contexts Help students recognize the differences and similarities between the concepts presented Promote learning based on understandingrather than superficial learning Make connections between teachers’ predefined learning objectives and current knowledge of schoolchildren Help students to correctly apply the knowledge learned in the real world.

5. Promote the teaching of self-regulation skills to aid learning

There are self-regulation skills that students can perform to better master the materials necessary to learn. Two examples of are: organization and Attention. Although it is true that these skills can increase over time, they can also be taught or improved.

To help students learn abilities self-regulation teachers can do:

Division of the tasks to be carried out into more significant and smaller components Exercises of the processing time, the practice and activity as long-term retention Cues to increase students’ level of attention Helps students to identify how their decisions may have short- and long-term consequences Clearly enforce tasks, criteria and methods for better achievement of success.

6. Promote student creativity

Greater student involvement and modeling of real-world applications can be creative approaches to an enthusiastic learning process. Creative thinking can encourage and develop in students, which will result in a more appropriate learning process. For both teachers and students.

One way to encourage thought creative and how students learn, teachers:

Use direct cues from activities such as: inventing, discovering, and creating Provide opportunities to solve problems in groups Value diverse perspectives See students as beings creativeChallenge students’ beliefs, take quizzes, make unexpected connections, critically explore opinions and ideas, and imagine more radical alternatives.

7. Timely and explanatory feedback is essential for learning

Facts such as specific comments, regular and timely explanations keep students motivated and better understand study materials. But providing this feedback requires that:

Reference is made to what students should do to achieve the objectives set Use a positive tone when issuing comments Be clear when relating the specific learning objectives, to facilitate understanding by students. A comparison and explanation is made of any incorrect answers that may arise in the questionnaires and practice tests carried out. Praise with a certain frequency those small advances or improvements that demonstrate the learning of a new task, or the struggle to overcome one.

Therefore, when it comes to understanding how students learn, it is necessary to foster a mentality of increase among students. For which the teachers had to:

Recognize situations in which students make modest effort, incomplete or minimal; as a sign of possible embarrassment that is feared by students Convey to students how performance can be improved with extra effort or through the use of certain strategies Have high expectations for all students alike, not just those who are more successful, but also for those who are doing it wrong.