Which learning techniques supported by cognitive research do students use at secondary school? Prevalence and associations with students' beliefs and achievement.

Research in cognitive science has highlighted the effectiveness of several learning techniques, and a number of studies have analyzed their prevalence among university students and their relationship with academic achievement. In this study, we surveyed a large, heterogeneous sample of secondary school students to reveal how often they use research-supported techniques in comparison with other frequent techniques, and we analyzed the association between their study strategies and school achievement. We also assessed the associations between study techniques and several students' beliefs and attitudes toward learning (self-efficacy, goal orientation, control beliefs, growth mindset, and examination anxiety). Results showed that, except for distributed practice, only those techniques that are supported by previous research yielded an association with achievement, and they exhibited higher associations with self-efficacy, growth mindset, control beliefs, and learning goal orientation than non-supported techniques.

Tenacious educational neuromyths: Prevalence among teachers and an intervention.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have revealed a common high prevalence of educational neuromyths among teachers from different countries. However, only one intervention aimed at reducing these beliefs among in-service teachers has been reported to date, and it was conducted in a non-naturalistic setting. PROCEDURE: In the present study, we administered a survey to measure the prevalence of common neuromyths in a large sample (n = 807) of primary and secondary teachers from 203 schools across Catalonia (Spain), and then we evaluated the impact that a 15-hour online course on neuroscience had on a sample of them as compared to a control group. MAIN FINDINGS: Results showed an initial distribution of neuromyth beliefs similar to those of previous studies and a large effect of the intervention on reducing their prevalence shortly after the training and in the long term. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide evidence that an intervention addressed to in-service teachers that is low-cost and easy to implement can cast corrective effects that persist over time in neuromyth beliefs.