Here’s a hypothetical situation:<\/p>\n
Let’s say that psychology researchers clearly demonstrate that retrieval practice<\/strong> helps students form long-term memories better than rereading the textbook does.<\/p>\n However, despite this clear evidence, these researchers nonetheless emphatically recommend that students avoid<\/em> retrieval practice and instead<\/em> reread the textbook<\/em>. These researchers have two justifications for their perverse recommendation:<\/p>\n First<\/em>: students aren’t currently doing retrieval practice, and<\/p>\n Second<\/em>: they can’t possibly learn how to do so.<\/p>\n Because we are teachers, we are likely to respond this way: “Wait a minute! Students learn how to do new things all the time. If retrieval practice is better, we should teach them how to do it, and then they’ll learn more. This solution is perfectly obvious.”<\/p>\n Of course it is. It’s PERFECTLY OBVIOUS.<\/p>\n This hypothetical situation is, in fact, all too real.<\/p>\n In 2014, Pam Mueller and Dan Oppenheimer did a blockbuster study<\/a> comparing the learning advantages of handwritten notes to laptop notes.<\/p>\n Their data clearly suggest that laptop<\/strong> notes ought to be superior to handwritten<\/strong> notes\u00a0as long as students learn to take notes the correct way<\/em>.<\/p>\n (The correct way is: students should reword<\/span> the professor’s lecture, rather than simply copy the words down verbatim<\/span>.)<\/p>\n However–amazingly–the study\u00a0concludes<\/p>\n First<\/em>: students aren’t currently rewording their professor’s lecture, and<\/p>\n Second<\/em>: they can’t possibly learn how to do so.<\/p>\n Because of these two beliefs, Mueller and Oppenheimer argue that–in the witty title of their article–“The Pen is Mightier than the Laptop.”<\/p>\n But, as we’ve seen in the hypothetical above, this conclusion is PERFECTLY OBVIOUSLY incorrect.<\/p>\n Students can<\/em> learn how to do new things. They do so all the time<\/em>. Learning to do new things is the point of school<\/strong>.<\/p>\n If students can learn to reword the professor’s lecture when taking notes on a laptop, then Mueller and Oppenheimer’s own data suggest\u00a0that\u00a0they’ll learn more. And yes, I do mean “learn more than people who take handwritten notes.”<\/p>\n (Why? Because laptop note-takers can write more words<\/em> than handwriters, and in M&O’s research, more words lead to more learning.)<\/p>\n And yet, despite the self-evident logic of this argument, the belief that handwritten notes are superior to laptop notes has won the day.<\/p>\n That argument is commonplace is the field of psychology. (Here<\/a>‘s a recent example.)<\/p>\nBelieve It Or Not…<\/strong><\/h2>\n