Learning as a Generative Activity

by Logan Fiorella

During the past twenty-five years, researchers have made impressive advances in pinpointing effective learning strategies (i.e., activities the learner engages in during learning that are intended to improve learning). In Learning as a Generative Activity: Eight Learning Strategies That Promote Understanding, Logan Fiorella and Richard E. Mayer share eight evidence-based learning strategies that promote understanding: summarizing, mapping, drawing, imagining, self-testing, self-explaining, teaching, and enacting. Each chapter describes and exemplifies a learning strategy, examines the underlying cognitive theory, evaluates strategy effectiveness by analyzing the latest research, pinpoints boundary conditions, and explores practical implications and future directions. Each learning strategy targets generative learning, in which learners actively make sense out of the material so they can apply their learning to new situations. This concise, accessible introduction to learning strategies will benefit students, researchers, and practitioners in educational psychology, as well as general readers interested in the important twenty-first-century skill of regulating one's own learning.

Genres: Teaching

236 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2014

Reviews

[Diz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The eight strategies to encourage generative learning are presented with studies that back up their effectiveness. Most of these studies deal with science or math education, so if you are teaching in other fields, you'll have to use some creativity to devise ways to adapt these strategies to your classroom. Two strategies that interested me were learning by self-explaining and learning by teaching. These have potential for my own classroom practice.

[hin_852 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great and comprehensive introduction into the research literature on learning. If you don't get enough after reading popular non-fiction on learning how to learn, such as "How it Stick", "How We Learn" and "Learning How to Learn", this handbook is a great introduction on the subjects and concepts introduced from those popular non-fiction. Highly recommend it.

[Cybele36 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clear well organised overview of the research on the topic of learning strategies. I recommend this book.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good ideas about designing learning activities