Getting smart about learning is her lesson

By Bridget Murray
Monitor staff

Most students who struggle in school could bolster their performance if they?d only understood the learning process better, Claire Ellen Weinstein, PhD, has insist-ed in her 20-plus years as an educator.

Sagging grades rebound when students learn the tricks of pinpointing the key points in lectures and of charting and summarizing their notes as they study for tests. According to Weinstein?s strategic learning model, all of us can learn better if we rethink and improve the way we approach learning.

'We have a belief in this country about effort, but it?s not just about effort, it?s about working smart,' says Weinstein. 'Certainly, motivation is a critical ingredient, but the key to learning is knowing how to do it.'

Weinstein?s notion of strategic learning has enjoyed growing popularity among researchers and practitioners in the education fields, particularly those in higher education. Based on her model, she has developed the well-known Learning and Study Strategies Inventory, or LASSI, and related coursework that enhances students? strengths and builds their learning weaknesses.

A theory for today

Today, LASSI is the most wide-ly used learning inventory on college campuses. More than half of all colleges in the United States use it, and it?s also been translated into more than 30 languages.

LASSI quizzes students about the learning-related thoughts and behaviors that predict their academic performance and that can be modified through educational interventions. The 177-item assessment diagnoses their proficiency in such areas as motivation, concentration and test-taking and offers feedback about areas that need improvement. In that way, LASSI is prescriptive, says Weinstein. Instructors use it to guide students toward better learning strategies.

Researchers, guidance counselors and instructors use the high school version in study skills workshops and college transition programs or courses. Many colleges and universities give it to their entire freshman class or use it in student affairs programs or classes geared for students at risk for academic failure. At the University of Texas?Austin (UT), Weinstein has incorporated the model into highly successful courses for low-achieving students with below-average standardized test scores.

The popularity of LASSI is due in part to the national focus on a learner-centered classroom, in which students guide their own learning and teachers coach them along, says University of Michigan psychologist Wilbert McKeachie, PhD, Weinstein?s long-time mentor who laid the groundwork for many of her ideas. Weinstein?s theory maximizes the tenet that students control their own destiny, he says.

'Her theory discounts the notion that intelligence is fixed,' says McKeachie. 'Rather, it?s a skill students develop.'

With the LASSI and its other applications, Weinstein?s learning model aims to help students succeed in college. An unprecedented rise in college attendance and the cultural and economic diversity of students attending college makes a learner focus essential, says Weinstein. Many students attending colleges today have never been taught how to learn. They often learn through drill-and-practice methods and don?t know how to build knowledge by connecting concepts or how to study and successfully complete college tasks, she says.

When students make the transition from high school to college?which can be particularly tumultuous for first-generation college students?colleges have an ethical responsibility to help them develop effective learning strategies such as reading more efficiently, Weinstein contends. Such tactics can drastically improve students? grades, she says.

How it all started

Weinstein?s fascination with learning originated in the cramped Brooklyn tenement she shared with her family in childhood days. Her father and two of her brothers were labeled slow learners and took constant ribbing for it. Nobody offered to help them, and that bothered Weinstein.

'They got stuck with this negative label, but it wasn?t as if they couldn?t learn,' says Weinstein. 'I became their translator. I explain-ed things and they learned.'

Her strategic learning theory first took shape in the early 1970s when, in her UT doctoral dissertation, she proposed that students can learn better through skill, will, self-regulation and knowledge of the learning context. The skill part is knowing how you learn best and understanding such strategies as notetaking, listening effectively in class and reading for main ideas. The will part is motivating yourself to learn, trading in stress and worry for curiosity and committing yourself to high achievement.

Lastly, self-regulation means concentrating, reflecting on your understanding and setting reasonable goals for completing academic tasks?in short, avoiding procrastination.

Weinstein argued that teaching these ideas to students would help them learn better.

At the time there wasn?t much support for her theory in cognitive psychology, says Paul Pintrich, PhD, a psychologist and learning-motivation researcher at the University of Michigan. But Weinstein forged ahead on the study and proved that learning strategies significantly helped a group of randomly selected ninth-graders on skill-assessment measures.

Next, Weinstein derived assessment methods, teaching ideas and instructional materials from her learning theory. As chair of the doctoral concentration in learning and cognition where she was once a student, she crafted a course that is now mandatory for at-risk UT students. Over time, the LASSI evolved as a tool for her course. Students take the LASSI at the beginning of the course to target their weak points. They then retake it at the end of the course to check their progress and identify areas where they still need to improve.

Studies show the course works. About 71 percent of UT students who take the LASSI course during their freshman year graduate after five years compared with a graduation rate of 55 percent for the general student body, according to a recent study by Weinstein (in press).

Anyone can benefit

Learning strategies aren?t just for low-achievers, says Weinstein. Bright students reap their benefits as well, she says.

In fact, gifted students often take her courses because it helps them learn more efficiently, she says. 'None of us are in any imminent danger of topping out our intellectual abilities,' says Weinstein. 'There?s always room for improvement.'

At present, Weinstein and Howard Everson of the College Board are studying the extent to which high school students? LASSI and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores predict college success. They hope to give high schools feedback about what best prepares students for college-level studying and learning and advise colleges on ways to help students become more strategic learners. Meanwhile, Weinstein and her graduate students continue to expand her learning-strategies model to reach even more students.

'By insisting that students are the masters of their own learning, Claire Ellen?s work has enriched the education of hundreds and thousands of college students,' says educational psychologist Anita Woolfolk Hoy, PhD, a learning researcher at The Ohio State University.

Areas assessed by LASSI

Claire Ellen Weinstein, PhD, is well known for developing the Learning and Study Skills Inventory, or LASSI, the most widely used learning strategies assessment on college campuses. Educators use LASSI to pinpoint areas where students need help developing better learning strategies. The test assesses students in 10 areas:

? Information processing?Creating effective images and explanations of concepts and using reasoning skills to gain knowledge.

? Selecting main ideas?Mining lectures and reading for key information.

? Test strategies?Gearing studying for different types of tests and using study plans.

? Attitude?Mind-set toward school and motivation for success.

? Motivation?Responsibility for completing school tasks.

? Anxiety?Feeling tense about papers, assignments and tests.

? Time management?Using schedules and monitoring techniques that ensure timely completion of academic tasks and that avoid procrastination.

? Concentration?Focusing on school-related tasks.

? Study aids?Using charts, summary sheets and other aids to help with learning and retention.

? Self-testing?Asking questions, and reviewing and applying new information.

?Bridget Murray