What are Learning Strategies? Strategies for and by Students | WowEssay Research
Knowledge and education break through the physical barriers of classrooms and homes. Knowledge acquisition pathways provide tactical learning. It must be applied coherently to each student's own situations, as well as to their daily life. It is what is sought when defining and practicing what learning strategies are.
Educational processes involve a great diversity of actors and contexts. It implies that it is essential to start from detailed and conscious planning of the path to follow to achieve learning objectives. The range of decisions must respond to a set of reflective actions, always aimed at the well-being of the students.
To understand what learning strategies are, we must start by understanding that they ensure a response to integral learning. That is to say, any of the tools or instruments used in education tend to enhance students' capabilities. It occurs at any stage of learning and about any subject matter.
All these strategies provide support for the student to assimilate knowledge more efficiently and strengthen their cognitive activity while developing practical skills.
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But, then, what are learning strategies?
It is always suitable to context how specialized authors have understood this term.
Learning strategies are sequences of procedures or plans oriented toward learning goals, while specific functions within that sequence are called learning tactics. In this case, strategies would be higher-level procedures that would include different learning tactics or techniques."
In this way, learning strategies imply that these are formulas through which more effective, meaningful, strategic, and autonomous learning is achieved. They are, above all, a good and flexible guide that guides teachers, students, and parents towards the realization of actions that accelerate information processing, comprehension, and analysis.
Concerning the above, their importance lies in two key factors:
First, they seek to affect how knowledge is acquired and integrated. This factor appeals to the primordial bases of educational processes. It considers learning as a systematic and cumulative process.
On the other hand, learning strategies are also related to student motivation. No form of learning is effective if the student does not connect with it. That is why they must be innovative creative. Moreover, they must be thought about the students' individual and collective needs.
In the particular case of E-Learning and home education, the use of ICT and learning environments have set new challenges for implementing learning strategies. In virtual education, it is required that the student can learn through autonomy and self-regulation. It means that learning strategies must be highly effective. The student is interested in ubiquitous and continuous learning, as an essential and encouraging need, far from being an obligation.
Attributes and Characteristics of Learning Strategies
To continue defining what learning strategies are, it is necessary to consider the attributes that unify them. Their main characteristics are:
Although learning strategies achieve multiple purposes, one of them is the one from which the others are derived: the achievement of effective learning and the solution of academic and motivational problems.
Teachers or tutors are not the only ones who implement learning strategies. On the contrary, students can create and access them as long as they learn more efficiently. Only the learner knows their needs perfectly, and it is because of this strategies start from them.
Learning strategies are not immovable. They are made up of different techniques, instruments, and activities. They vary according to the objectives set in the educational process. They are flexible and dynamic procedures.
They go beyond being educational strategies. They are also socio-cultural strategies. They respond appropriately to the context of tutors and students and include and practice what is learned within it.
How are learning strategies classified?
Although learning strategies are multiple and diverse, they mainly fall into three general categories.
Cognitive learning strategies
These strategies are developed for the learning, encoding, and assimilation of academic knowledge. The key objective of cognitive learning strategies is to achieve meaningful learning. Through it, students will select the most relevant and exciting information, organize it coherently and interweave it with the knowledge already acquired.
This strategy is related to factual knowledge and specific skills within the teaching-learning link.
Now, within the cognitive learning strategies, there are micro strategies that will serve for specific tasks, such as:
Repetition strategy: although it sounds redundant, these consist of going back over the same information and learning stimuli constantly and repeatedly. This strategy strengthens memory and knowledge retention in the short and long term. These strategies are typical examples, such as reading aloud, taking literal notes, or applying mnemonic rules.
Elaboration strategies entail the interrelation of acquired learning with already familiar knowledge. Education is included in the social experience and promotes self-awareness as a primary part of teaching-learning. These include paraphrasing, non-literal notes, or the creation of analogies.
Organizational strategies: Thanks to corporate design, the information gathered in the learning process is transformed into a coherent and meaningful whole. Knowledge organization structures and the hierarchical division of topics facilitate learning and assimilation. Examples of these are summaries, synoptic or conceptual tables, organization charts, among others.
Metacognitive learning strategies
Metacognitive strategies allow the student to analyze his learning process. In this way, they can develop an evaluation of their progress and achievements.
Metacognitive learning strategies depend primarily on the students' abilities, interests, and attitudes. It makes them related to external but common factors.
The function of these strategies is to demonstrate to the learner why, when, and where to use specific learning tools. Only in this way will he understand the effectiveness of his choices and what things can be modified for better performance.
Among the metacognitive strategies are the following:
Planning strategies: these strategies are before any action on the part of the student. They seek to establish objectives, select the necessary prior knowledge, and follow other procedures.
Regulation strategies: These strategies seek to determine the capacity and ability of students to comply with the learning process. Here, questions are formulated, time is adjusted, and new techniques are included.
Evaluation strategies: Thanks to them, the learning process is verified, and the quality of the final results is evaluated. Self-assessment techniques become fundamental in these strategies.
Resource management learning strategies
These support strategies seek to sensitize the student to what they are learning through innovative and efficient resources. In this way, learning is conditioned according to learning environments, effort, and time control.
The purpose of resource management strategies is to improve the material and psychological conditions students learn. For this reason, they are entirely related to motivation and affect.
A great example of these strategies is the inclusion of interactive and technological resources and innovative methodologies such as gamification. Students will be motivated to continue learning through fun.
Conclusion
Understanding and practicing learning strategies means finding more innovative and engaging ways for knowledge-hungry learners. Strategies focus on theory and are purely academic. Still, they give even more importance to integral learning, which puts under the spotlight the emotional and affective conditions as keys to better understanding.
