Effective Highlighting Will Result in 40 - 50% of a Paragraph Being Marked for Review

Original blog in Dutch past Tim Surma, Gino Camp & Paul Kirschner (translated and reworked past Paul and Mirjam)

Henry Dark-green, a British novelist talking well-nigh his craft, wrote: "The more than you get out out, the more you highlight what you get out in." This might be very truthful when it comes to highlighting equally a learning strategy.

Sometimes learners have to bargain with large amounts of content, for example in books or articles. It's usually the teacher's chore to emphasise which parts of the text are key. (S)he tin do this by using advance organizers and past intermittently focusing the learners' attention on foundational concepts and skills (e.g., prompting; too see our previous blogs on spaced practice and what makes a superlative teacher). No matter what the teacher does, learners notwithstanding need to discern the primal things in a text themselves. They normally do this by using their favourite written report mate: the highlighter!

This web log explores highlighting as a learning strategy. What empirical proof is there nearly its (in)effectiveness? What guidelines do nosotros demand to give to learners to help them optimally utilise highlighting as a learning strategy? These questions, have, for example, been explored past Miyatsu, Nguyen, and McDaniel (2017) and Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, and Willingham (2013).

Highlighting has minimal effect, despite its potential

Highlighting is a very simple strategy which doesn't crave much more than the learner reading the text and deciding what needs to be highlighted so highlighting it. The question is, to what extent such an easy-to-apply strategy have the desired effect?

Despite a low effectiveness score in various review studies (e.1000., Dunlosky et al, 2013; Marxen, 1996), highlighting seems to accept potential to be a expert learning strategy. Afterward all, salient attending cues in texts are benign for readers. For example, we know that underlined text, capitalised words, marked text, etcetera, are better remembered by readers. This effect is frequently described as the isolation effect (Chase, 1995). In one study, learners were asked to answer questions on articles published in Scientific American. Within the start group, v statements were highlighted, while in the control group nothing was highlighted in the text.

The test scores related to the given statements were higher for the intervention grouping (statements were highlighted), in comparison to the control group where there was no highlighting (Cashen & Leicht, 1970). These results suggest that highlighting increases the reader's attending and because of that, the highlighted text is improve processed. This is called 'intentional learning', or in other words, purposeful learning of something that is specifically emphasised. This is similar for techniques similar asking (adjunct) questions or making learning objectives explicit before reading a text. By helping the learner to find focus, these parts of a text are better coded and remembered.

The opposite of intentional learning is 'incidental learning'. This is learning something that hasn't been fabricated explicit through accent, questions, or learning objectives; that is, the rest of the text. It isn't clear if intentional learning happens at the expense of incidental learning with regards to the parts that are not highlighted. Inquiry results here are cryptic (Marsh & Butler, 2013)

Although highlighted text draws a learner's attention to the highlighted parts, researchers see a shortcoming of highlighting as a learning strategy. As is the case with almost every tool or technique, its effectiveness depends upon whether it is used properly. The challenge with a technique as highlighting is that learners need to determine how much text they need to highlight as well equally which parts they should highlight. This turns out to be a problem!

• Learners oft tend to either highlight too much or too fiddling text. Too much highlighting has two disadvantages: first, learners don't have to recollect that much about which paragraphs they mark (they merely go along highlighting) and 2d, there'south no longer an isolation effect. In other words, when everything's highlighted, it'due south no longer 'isolated', or, more cherries than cake. Too little highlighting also doesn't lead to the isolation effect as hardly anything is isolated. And so, the amount of highlighting is of import.
• When learners were given the freedom to highlight every bit much or little of the text, there was no reward to the strategy.
• Learners with more than prior knowledge of a topic benefit more from highlighting equally a learning strategy (Klare, Mabry& Gustafson, 1955). Also, for young children it turns out to be very difficult for them to select important parts in a text in the first place and so, as a event, they're besides not able to highlight effectively.

The biggest challenge with highlighting equally a learning strategy, not surprisingly, is that learners need to decide which text needs to exist highlighted.

Simply that'south non all! Researchers concluded that in that location are even more limitations to highlighting to support learning.

• Learners restudy a highlighted text likewise speedily, only focusing on the highlighted parts (east.g., Hoon, 1974). This is an example of intentional learning at the expense of incidental learning.
• Highlighting focuses attending on individual, separated concepts, instead of paying attention to connections betwixt concepts. That's why highlighting might be less suitable for learning things where connections between parts need to be made (Peterson, 1992).
• At that place also doesn't seem to be any advantage for highlighting when learning more circuitous content and there was also no difference between learning texts of dissimilar lengths (Peterson, 1992).
• Finally, learners seem to remember they've learned a text, even if they've just highlighted parts. Kind of like "I've highlighted it and I'm done studying". Highlighting in itself doesn't mean that they've processed the text. Still, learners seem to think that highlighting equals learning. Unfortunately, of grade, that's non the case.

In addition to those potential disadvantages, mindless and countless highlighting can likewise be detrimental in that information technology can prevent learners from focusing on other, more than productive strategies similar retrieval practice. Notwithstanding, through combining marking with other proven learning strategies, nosotros can assist learners increase highlighting's effectiveness.

How to use highlighting in an effective manner?

It should be obvious past now: The quality of the highlighting is critical to whether it is an effective strategy. With the following additional support, highlighting can become more useful.

• Teach learners to distinguish between the wheat and the chaff. Highlighting without being able to separate what is important from what isn't is pretty useless. When learners were taught to identify diverse text structures (Where's the most important information? Which fundamental words does the text provide?), they were style improve able to highlight key points or ideas instead of details (Meyer, Immature, & Bartlett (1989/2014). What's also true, is that experts (with more vocabulary and prior knowledge) are amend at this (due east.g. Meyer & Rice, 1989).
  This isn't unique to highlighting. While summarising a text that you've read tin can be a very constructive strategy to retrieve what y'all've learned from memory (the so-called retrieval effect, come across our weblog here), it doesn't piece of work if the learner can't / hasn't learned how to write a adept summary.
  And then, first things first: Learners need to know how to separate the wheat from the crust.
• Encourage learners to highlight the right amount of text. In studies where learners were asked to highlight less, better results ensued (Rickards & August, 1975). In other words, learners develop a better strategy if they're told only to highlight i sentence per paragraph, instead of large chunks of text as this forces them to read carefully and procedure the text more deeply since to do this they need to make comparisons, weigh alternatives, etcetera to make an informed conclusion on which sentence is most important.
• Tell learners that they can but highlight after they've read the total text once. Having done this, let them then rephrase the almost important parts and enquire them to highlight those. The good news is that learners can be taught how to do this during a curt preparation either in small groups or via a lecture to the whole class.
• Teachers tin can point out important phrases or paragraphs and ask learners to highlight them. Having washed this, they tin and so discuss with their students why these parts are important and why and which other parts are not important.
• Combine highlighting with other effective learning strategies. When learners are confronted with a phrase or paragraph with highlighted words, they tin can starting time try to remember what was explained in the part they originally highlighted. This mode, they use highlighted texts in a similar mode to a Cornell method (come across this blog) to remember essential data.
• To promote the isolation effect, books tin can all-time highlight the important paragraphs themselves.

Takeaway: Under most weather, highlighting is a non-effective learning strategy, particularly in the way it'southward used by most learners. However, for learners with a relatively large amount of prior knowledge on a certain topic, it can aid them to remember cardinal information. For novice learners with less prior noesis, highlighting volition ofttimes cause problems in choosing what is of import and what isn't. Simply when learners receive the correct grooming, in combination with other effective learning strategies, tin can they benefit from highlighting. Futurity research needs to figure out how nosotros tin help learners acquire how to effectively highlight, given the fact that about of the states, when we're trying to learn something, volition go along to utilise this popular technique (despite its relative ineffectiveness!)

Now go print this web log and highlight it! 🙂

References

Cashen, Five. M., & Leicht, K. L. (1970). Function of the isolation consequence in a formal educational setting. Journal of Educational Psychology, 61, 484–486.

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, Thousand. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Scientific discipline in the Public Involvement, 14, four–58.

Hoon, P. W. (1974). Efficacy of three common study methods. Psychological Reports, 35, 1057–1058.

Hunt, R. R. (1995). The subtlety of distinctiveness: What von Restorff actually did. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2, 105–112.

Klare, G. R., Mabry, J. E., & Gustafson, Fifty. M. (1955). The relationship of patterning (underlining) to firsthand retention and to acceptability of technical material. Periodical of Applied Psychology, 39, forty–42.

Miyatsu, T., Nguyen, K., & McDaniel, M. A. (2018). Five popular study strategies: Their pitfalls and optimal Implementations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, xiii, 390-407.

Marsh, Due east. J., & Butler, A. C. (2013). Retentiveness in educational settings. In D. Reisberg (Ed.), Oxford handbook of cognitive psychology (pp. 299-317). Oxford, United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland: Oxford University Printing.

Marxen, D. E. (1996). Why reading and underlining a passage is a less effective study strategy than simply rereading the passages. Reading Improvement, 33(2), 88-96.

Meyer, B. J. F., & Rice, G. East. (1989). Prose processing in adulthood: The text, the reader, and the task. In L. Westward. Poon, D. C. Rubin, & B. A. Wilson (Eds.), Everyday knowledge in adulthood and tardily life (pp. 157–194). New York, NY: Cambridge Academy Press.

Meyer, B. J. F., Young, C. J., & Bartlett, B. J. (2014). Memory improved: Enhanced reading comprehension and retentiveness across the life span through strategic text structure. New York, NY: Psychology Printing. (Original work published 1989).

Peterson, Southward. E. (1992). The cognitive functions of underlining as a report technique. Reading Enquiry and Educational activity, 31, 49–56.

Rickards, J. P., & August, G. J. (1975). Generative underlining strategies in prose recall. Journal of Educational Psychology, 67, 860–865.

mathesonyouripasted.blogspot.com

Source: https://3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/less-is-more-highlighting-as-learning-strategy/

Share this post