RESEARCH-BASED

PRINCIPLES OF
LEARNING AND
TEACHING STRATEGIES
The following list presents the basic
principles and teaching strategies that
underlie effective learning. These principles
are distilled from research from a variety in
disciplines.
1. Students’ prior knowledge can help or
hinder learning.
Students come into our classes with knowledge, beliefs,
and attitudes gained from previous grade levels and
through daily life. As students bring this knowledge to
bear in our classrooms, it influences how they filter and
interpret what they are learning. If students’ prior
knowledge is robust and accurate and activated at the
appropriate time, it provides a strong foundation for
building new knowledge. However, when knowledge is
inert, insufficient for the task, activated inappropriately, or
inaccurate, it can interfere with or impede new learning.
To apply this principle, consider the following
teaching techniques:

• Administer a diagnostic assessment or have students

assess their own prior knowledge (See “Selected
Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) for Getting
Feedback on Student Learning”).
• Use brainstorming to reveal prior knowledge.
• Identify discipline-specific conventions explicitly.
• Ask students to make and test predictions
2. Students’ motivation determines, directs, and
sustains what they do to learn.

Motivation plays a critical role in guiding the direction,

intensity, persistence, and quality of the learning behaviors
in which the students engage. When students find positive
value in a learning goal or activity, expect to successfully
achieve a desired learning outcome, and perceive support
from their environment, they are likely to be strongly
motivated to learn.
To apply this principle, consider the following
teaching techniques:

• Connect the material to students’ interests.

• Provide authentic, real-world tasks
• Show relevance to students’ current academic lives.
• Provide rubrics
3. How students organize knowledge
influences how they learn and apply what they
know.
Students naturally make connections between pieces of
knowledge. When those connections form knowledge
structures that are accurately and meaningfully organized,
students are better able to retrieve and apply their
knowledge effectively and efficiently. In contrast, when
knowledge is connected in inaccurate or random ways,
students can fail to retrieve or apply it appropriately.
To apply this principle, consider the following
teaching techniques:
• Provide students with the organizational structure of the
lesson.
• Share the organization of each lecture, lab, or discussion
explicitly (See “Teaching Strategies").
• Make connections among concepts clearly.
• Ask students to draw a concept map to expose their
understanding of how course material is organized.
4.To develop
4. To develop
mastery, studentsmastery, students
must acquire component must
skills, practice acquire
integrating them,
and know when to apply what they have learned.
component skills, practice integrating them,
Students must develop not only the component skills (i.e., fundamental skills) and knowledge
and know
necessary when
to perform complex tomustapply
tasks, they also practicewhat
combining andthey have
integrating them
to develop greater fluency and automaticity. Finally, students must learn when and how to
learned.
apply the skills and knowledge they learn. As instructors, it is important that we develop
conscious awareness of these elements of mastery so as to help our students learn more
effectively. To apply this principle, consider the following teaching techniques:
Students must develop not only the component skills (i.e.,
fundamental
Provide skills)
isolated practice of weakand knowledge
or missing skills. necessary to perform
Give students opportunities to practice skills including low-stakes, ungraded assignments
complex tasks, Assessment
(See “Selected Classroom they must also(CATs)practice
Techniques combining
for Getting Feedback on Studentand
integrating them to develop greater fluency and
Learning”).
Give students opportunities to apply skills or knowledge in diverse contexts.
automaticity. Finally,
Specify skills or knowledge and askstudents mustcontexts
students to Identify learninwhen and
which they how to
apply.
apply the skills and knowledge they learn. As instructors, it
is important that we develop conscious awareness of these
elements of mastery so as to help our students learn more
effectively.
To apply this principle, consider the following
teaching techniques:
• Provide isolated practice of weak or missing skills.
• Give students opportunities to practice skills including
low-stakes, ungraded assignments
• Give students opportunities to apply skills or knowledge
in diverse contexts.
• Specify skills or knowledge and ask students to Identify
contexts in which they apply.
5. Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted
feedback enhances the quality of students’
learning.
Learning and performance are best fostered when students engage in
practice that focuses on a specific goal or criterion, targets an
appropriate level of challenge, and is of sufficient quantity and
frequency to meet the performance criteria. Practice must be coupled
with feedback that explicitly communicates about some aspect(s) of
students’ performance relative to specific target criteria, provides
information to help students progress in meeting those criteria, and is
given at a time and frequency that allows it to be useful.
To apply this principle, consider the following
teaching techniques:

• Be explicit/clear about your goals in your course

materials Stage assignments by breaking tasks into
smaller assignments.
• Look for patterns of errors in student work.
• Prioritize your feedback Incorporate peer feedback.
6. Students’ current level of development
interacts with the social, emotional, and
intellectual climate of the course to impact
learning.
Students are not only intellectual but also social and emotional beings,
and they are still developing the full range of intellectual, social, and
emotional skills. While we cannot control the developmental process,
we can shape the classroom climate in developmentally appropriate
ways. In fact, many studies have shown that the climate we create has
implications for our students. A negative climate may impede learning
and performance, but a positive climate can energize students’
learning.
To apply this principle, consider the following
teaching techniques:
• Make uncertainty safe.
• Examine your assumptions about students.
• Model inclusive language, behavior, and attitudes.
• Establish and reinforce ground rules for interaction.
• Use the lesson guide and first day of class to establish the
course climate
7. To become self-directed learners, students
must learn to monitor and adjust their
approaches to learning.
Learners may engage in a variety of metacognitive processes to
monitor and control their learning—assessing the task at hand,
evaluating their own strengths and weaknesses, planning their
approach, applying and monitoring various strategies, and reflecting
on the degree to which their current approach is working.
Unfortunately, students tend not to engage in these processes
naturally. When students develop the skills to engage these
processes, they gain intellectual habits that not only improve their
performance but also their effectiveness as learners.
To apply this principle, consider the following
teaching techniques:

• Check students’ understanding of the task.

• Have students do guided self-assessments.
• Require students to reflect on and annotate their own
work.
• Prompt students to analyze the effectiveness of their study
skills.
• Have students engage in peer feedback.
https://crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p4_7