Learning strategy

Learning strategies are action plans to control your own learning . Everyone has different learning strategies.

Learning strategies are used both consciously and unconsciously . They differ depending on the requirements of the subject, the general situation that makes learning necessary and the individual learning style (in didactics: learning type ). Learning strategies are geared towards the learning objective and contribute to achieving a good result with the help of an efficient learning process.

For Mandl and Friedrich, learning strategies are key elements of learning and methodological skills .

Learning strategy research

According to Friedrich and Mandl, learning strategies are “sequences of action to achieve a learning goal”. The same authors refer to learning strategies as “those behaviors and thoughts that activate learners in order to influence and control their motivation and the process of knowledge acquisition”. This puts the focus on the process of active and individual knowledge construction, which is supported by the use of learning strategies.

Lompscher (1996) comes to the following considerations and findings:

Learning strategies

1. are handled individually differently with regard to the way the action is carried out,
2. are embedded in the structure and context of an activity with specific motives, conditions and means,
3. are equally the result of learning processes in different activities and subjective requirements for learning,
4. arise either through the unconscious orientation towards the respective working conditions or through conscious orientation towards certain goals and tasks,
5. can develop in different directions depending on the conditions of creation and realization: generalization or specification, development or reduction, awareness or automation,
6. interact with motivation , emotion , cognition and volition ,
7. can be promoted or hindered through educational or other activities.

The learning strategy research (see kind ELT and Moschner, 2006) throws out about the question of how to reliably examine the application of learning strategies and recorded; Second, the attempt is made to demonstrate the effect of learning strategies on learning success.

Classification of learning strategies

To structure the complex subject, Mandl and Friedrich propose a classification of the different learning strategies:

Cognitive strategies mainly serve to develop, structure and use knowledge . They have to be developed and consolidated by the individual in order to enable the use of metacognition . The metacognitive strategies are mainly used to check existing knowledge and classify new facts. They are therefore an important process of self-control and self-regulation. A better storage of knowledge and its retrievability is achieved through motivational-emotional support strategies that are used by everyone. This means that every learned knowledge is stored together with a feeling, which makes it usable in the event of renewed use. Cooperation strategies serve to relieve individual brain regions and make the learning material more accessible. They are closely linked to the strategies for using resources. These, like the cooperation strategies, are necessary to enable learning to be meaningful at all. Everyone uses individual, habitual and gender-specific learning styles for learning .

Repeat strategies serve knowledge to be learned, in literal form in the working memory to keep active and to create the conditions for that information in the long-term memory can be transferred. Examples are:

• Copy texts
• repeated recitation.

Elaboration strategies The aim of elaboration is to try to activate existing prior knowledge about a subject area and to link new knowledge with it. Typical elaboration strategies are e.g. B.

• to think of examples
• to formulate what you have learned in your own words.

Organizational strategies should help to work out relationships within a new area of ​​knowledge in order to build up a coherent picture of the topic. Organizational strategies are for example

• Writing summaries of texts
• Create mind maps on a topic.

Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies

The direct control, regulation and planning mechanisms that are used in learning processes are called metacognitive strategies . In a (somewhat fuzzy) demarcation, cognitive learning strategies encompass all those processes that serve the direct information acquisition, information processing and information storage. With regard to the processes of knowledge construction during learning (both in formal, i.e. institutionally anchored and informal, i.e. outside of educational institutions / private learning, (see " informal learning ")), they represent central modes of action:

Elaboration strategies serve to understand and permanently retain new information: "The central principle of elaboration strategies is to integrate new information into existing knowledge structures (e.g. prior knowledge, images), which facilitates later retrieval". Individual strategies of development are:

• Attract / create attention
• Activate prior knowledge
• ask questions
• taking notes
• Generate imaginations
• Apply mnemonic techniques (a user-friendly representation can be found here in Schuster and Dumpert (2007))
• varied repetition

Organizational techniques, on the other hand, aim to reduce the wealth of information to the essentials, “to organize and structure new knowledge by working out the relationships between the knowledge elements”. They are not only effective strategies of understanding, but also efficient retrieval aids for reproducing the content of long-term memory :

• Summarize text information
• Use of knowledge schemes
• Use of external visualization (e.g. mind maps or concept maps )

Self-control and self-regulation strategies relate to the situation and task-appropriate control of the learning processes; as metacognitive and self-reflective components, they run through the cognitive processes and regulate thinking through one's own thinking and learning processes:

• Planning of learning
• Monitoring learning
• Assessment of learning.

Knowledge management strategies are designed to help "counteract a typical learning problem: the problem of" inert knowledge "( inert knowledge or inert knowledge), which is to be that learned and reproducible may know in application and transfer situations not activated due to lack of practice and used can ". Serve:

• Writing of texts
• Solving of problems
• Arguing / discussing in a social context.

Motivation and emotion strategies

Strategies in this area are:

• Influencing the motivation to learn (e.g. setting goals for yourself)
• Activation of various components of the motivation to learn (e.g. achievement motive , thematic interest, competence experience, etc.)
• Emotion regulation (e.g. dealing with frustrations) (see also coping )
• Design of the learning environment
• Promote concentration , e.g. B. through short breaks, learning during circadian performance highs

It is assumed that “motivational-emotional conditions and strategies tend to influence learning indirectly by, for example, the extent of effort / perseverance invested, the selection of tasks (e.g. difficulty, content of the learning tasks chosen by a person) and affect the choice of appropriate cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies ”.

Cooperation strategies

Learning has - understood as a knowledge construction - fundamentally a very individual orientation; however, it is just as common in communication and interaction with others. Socially interactive forms of learning can - provided that they are designed in a meaningful way - have a positive effect “on the motivation to learn yourself, on the motivation to motivate others to learn and on the motivation to help others learn”. Insofar as one's own learning is positively influenced, promising learning strategies are:

• joint learning (in different groups)
• Help seeking behavior (e.g. Academic Help Seeking)

Resource management

The necessary resources and framework conditions for the learning processes can be accompanied by appropriate coordination and management processes:

• Time management
• Information and knowledge management (e.g. the question of when, where and how necessary / suitable information can be obtained)

Individual and habitual aspects

the use of learning strategies are of interest both as a prerequisite and as a target dimension for successful learning processes. The diversity of the learners is expressed, on the one hand, in very individual thinking and learning styles; on the other hand, changes in the learning orientation (see below) are desirable effects of teaching and learning processes:

• cognitive styles
• Learning styles
• Learning orientations
• Gender specificity ( gender problem )

Domain-specific strategies

A domain is a specific area of ​​knowledge and domain-specific strategies help to solve problems in this area of ​​knowledge. Domain-specific strategies, in contrast to general strategies, are applied to a narrower area of ​​knowledge, but they are much more effective than general strategies and almost always lead to results. With increasing experience, the knowledge of the strategy users grows and refines, expertise is formed . This expert knowledge is procedural knowledge.

Procedural knowledge is practically usable knowledge that consists of the knowledge of many production rules and procedures for problem solving and that often occurs in the form of automated and insofar unconscious processing routines. With the help of expert knowledge, it is possible to find even better solutions to problems even faster. On the other hand, it is too specific for other areas of knowledge and less transfer to new problems is possible.

Expert knowledge does not arise through theoretical training, but through the practical application of factual knowledge to the solution of problems. Thus, the type of strategy used by experts can differ from that of beginners. In general, one can say that domain-specific strategies can only be learned on the basis of authentic problems. Domain-specific strategies play an important role in the context of the problem-oriented learning approach and the cognitive apprenticeship approach. The aim here is to provide the learners with knowledge and strategies for applying this knowledge as well as control strategies for controlling their own learning based on authentic problems.

Promote and change learning strategies

The conscious use of one's own learning strategies opens up the possibility of optimizing learning (“learning to learn”). Automated strategies can therefore - e.g. B. when learning difficulties occur - be made aware and then corrected or discarded. On the other hand, consciously applied learning strategies - newly acquired or already existing ones that have been changed - can be gradually automated, but the capacity for awareness is retained. The general challenge of dealing with learning strategies in a targeted manner is to increase learning performance in order to achieve a learning objective.

In principle, learning strategies can be developed as part of key qualifications regardless of the respective subject area. However, it should be borne in mind: “The competence acquired through learning strategy training (direct support) withers away if it does not meet learning environments in which it is challenged, in which tasks are set that call up strategic competence (indirect support). Conversely, however, it is also true that learning environments that are designed to activate learning strategies do not do this for all learners if they lack the individual prerequisites for this ”.

Learning strategies can be promoted individually or collectively. In the case of individual support, measures such as counseling or giving specific homework are consistently adapted to the needs of the learners. At the collective level, a distinction is made in the literature between the indirect and direct promotion of learning strategies. With the indirect funding approach, the focus is on the subject matter and not on the communication of strategy. It is assumed that learners unconsciously adopt the learning strategies imparted in specialist lessons.

With the direct support approach, the learning strategies are specifically trained and made aware of the learners. Three different approaches are possible: In an independent subject, general learning strategies are promoted, which learners should apply independently in different subjects and with different tasks. The aim is for learners to acquire a comprehensive repertoire of learning strategies. The support can also be integrated into the classroom. Such learning strategies are then promoted that are found to be necessary for a particular subject. Finally, a combination is also possible with direct learning strategy promotion. General learning strategies are first conveyed and made aware of in an independent subject, in order to then be applied and evaluated in a targeted manner in specialist lessons. It is hoped from this approach that learners will acquire declarative, procedural and conditional strategy knowledge in order to be able to use this in different learning situations.

See also process orientation (foreign language teaching)

literature

• C. Artelt, B. Moschner: Learning strategies and metacognition. Implications for Research and Practice. Waxmann, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8309-1514-4 .
• HF Friedrich, H. Mandl: Learning and thinking strategies - an outline of the problem. In: HF Friedrich, H. Mandl (Ed.): Learning and thinking strategies. Analysis and intervention. Hogrefe, Göttingen 1992, pp. 3-54.
• J. Lompscher: Learning strategies - a component of learning activity. LLF Reports 13, 1996.
• H. Mandl, HF Friedrich: Handbook of learning strategies. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8017-1813-1 .
• PY. Martin, T. Nicolaisen: Promote learning strategies - models and practical scenarios . Beltz Juventa, Weinheim, 2015, ISBN 978-3-7799-3253-6 .
• Ch. Metzger: Learning and Working Strategies: A textbook for students. WLI University. Cornelsen, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-06-027936-4 .
• M. Schuster, HD Dumpert: Better learning. Springer, Heidelberg 2007.
• K.-P. Wild: learning strategies during studies. Waxmann, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-89325-791-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedrich and Mandl, 1992, p. 6.
2. ↑ Ma. a. O., 2006, p. 1.
3. ↑ Mandl and Friedrich, 2006, p. 2.
4. ↑ Mandl and Friedrich, 2006, p. 4.
5. ↑ Mandl and Friedrich, 2006, p. 6.
6. ↑ Mandl and Friedrich, 2006, p. 7.
7. ↑ Mandl and Friedrich, 2006, p. 8.
8. ↑ Mandl and Friedrich, 2006, p. 16.
9. ^ Charlotte Nüesch: Independent learning and use of learning strategies. An empirical study on the importance of the learning and examination constellation . Eusl, Paderborn 2001, p. 101 .
10. ↑ C. Artelt: Strategic Learning . Waxmann, Münster 2000, p. 165-177 .
11. ↑ HF Friedrich, H. Mandl: Learning and thinking strategies - a problem outline . In: HF Friedrich & H. Mandl (ed.): Learning and thinking strategies. Analysis and Interventions . Hogrefe, Göttingen 1992.
12. ↑ Charlotte Nüesch, Andrea Zeder, Christoph Metzger: Teaching units to promote learning skills (Part 1) . In: Dieter Euler, Christoph Metzger (Ed.): Teaching materials of the IWP . tape 5 . Institute for Business Education University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen 2003, p. 10 .
13. ^ Charlotte Nüesch: Independent learning and use of learning strategies. An empirical study on the importance of the learning and examination constellation . Eusl, Paderborn 2001, p. 102 .
14. ↑ Charlotte Nüesch, Andrea Zeder, Christoph Metzger: Teaching units to promote learning skills (Part 1) . In: Dieter Euler, Christoph Metzger (Ed.): Teaching materials of the IWP . tape 5 . Institute for Business Education University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen 2003, p. 10 .
15. ↑ Christoph Metzger: Learning strategies - a didactic challenge . In: Christoph Metzger, Hans Seitz (Hrsg.): Economic education, providers, content, processes . Publishing house of the Swiss Commercial Association, Zurich 1995, p. 312 .