(2010-09-07) Carey Good Study Habits

Benedict Carey on research-based good study habits (Basic School Skills). The findings can help anyone, from a fourth grader doing long division to a retiree taking on a new language. But they directly contradict much of the common wisdom about good study habits, and they have not caught on.

Take the notion that children have specific Learning Styles, that some are “visual learners” and others are auditory; some are “LeftBrain” students, others “RightBrain.” In a recent review of the relevant research, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas. “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,” the researchers concluded.