Reinventing Flashcards to Increase Student Learning

Abstract

Two studies examined the effectiveness of a flashcard-based study strategy, Flashcards-Plus, in an ecologically valid context. The strategy requires students to create flashcards designed to increase their ability to retain, comprehend, and apply textbook material to exams. In Studies 1a (n ¼ 73) and 1b (n ¼ 62), we introduced all students to the Flashcards-Plus method and compared their exam scores. Students who used this strategy scored significantly higher than those who did not. In Study 2 (n ¼ 434), we randomly assigned six introductory psychology courses to either receive a classroom lecture with the Flashcards-Plus strategy (i.e., three experimental courses) or no lecture (i.e., three control courses). Students in the experimental courses scored significantly higher than those in the control courses after the lecture. The results from all three studies demonstrate that students who were introduced to the Flashcards-Plus study strategy scored significantly higher on exams following the lecture than students who were not. These findings suggest that this easily implemented teaching strategy can help students achieve deeper levels of processing (i.e., comprehension and application) in a self-directed manner, which benefit students' performance.

Five Popular Study Strategies: Their Pitfalls and Optimal Implementations

“…For example, Schmidmaier et al (2011) found that medical students who engaged in repeated testing with flash cards were able to recall more medical terms on a test after a 1-week delay than students who engaged in repeated studying. Likewise, Golding, Wasarhaley, and Fletcher (2012) found that students who reported using flash cards more often scored higher on exams in an introductory psychology course, and Senzaki, Hackathorn, Appleby, and Gurung (2017) showed that students who were randomly assigned to receive a short lecture on the use of flash cards, incorporating generation of flash cards and tying the content to their own experience, scored higher in the term exams.…”

A survey of study skills of first-year university students: the relationships of strategy to gender, ethnicity and course type

“…Textbooks may include pre-written flashcards for students, but these tend to also be matched pairs with a term on the front and a definition on the back (Lin et al, 2018). When students are asked how they generate flashcards, they report creating cards for the words printed in bold typeface in their textbook-again, matched words and definitions (Senzaki et al, 2017). When there is evidence that flashcard use improves course grade, it occurs in a class that requires matched information on exams, such as listing common symptoms of a disease (Schmidmaier et al, 2011) or identifying definitions of psychology theories (Golding et al, 2012).…”

Benefits of a Low-Stakes Write-to-Learn Assignment on Exam Performance

“…Together, these results suggest that the WTL assignments enhanced learning relative to studying without explicit instruction to apply this study strategy. This research adds to the body of research focused on helping students develop better study strategies (e.g., Senzaki, Hackathorn, Appleby, & Gurung, 2017).…”