Learning by Reflection
In case you missed it, the cameras were rolling at the APS 23rd Annual Convention in Washington, DC. Watch Meera Komarraju from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale present her poster session research on “Learning Styles and Academic Motivation in College Students From India.”
Komarraju and her coauthors — Steven J. Karau, Corey Tincher, and Varsha S. Godbole — studied the learning and information-processing strategies used by students at two universities in India. The scientists found that student with reflective learning strategies (i.e., strategies that connect course material with personal experiences and outside knowledge) also displayed more intrinsic motivation. Students who did not process information reflectively by linking new ideas to existing knowledge were more likely to display amotivation.
“One of the implications that we take away from these results,” Komarraju says, “is that instructors who are able to get the students to process information more deeply are more likely to be able to get the students to be motivated.”
Want more on learning? Read research on learning from mistakes and how beliefs shape effort and learning from Psychological Science.
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