Human Anatomy and Physiology I is a rigorous course where developing strong study habits poses a challenge that many students have difficulty overcoming. In an attempt to help students better prepare for exams and improve their overall performance, we introduced incentives for participating in study groups. Here we examine the possible impact…

Background: Many students use laptops in the classroom to take notes; however, even when laptops are used for the sole purpose of taking notes they can negatively impact academic performance. Objective: The current study examined state-dependent effects, and the potential for a match in note taking and quiz taking methods to improve quiz…

This research aimed to examine the meanings attributed to the concept of studying in line with the opinions of university students. As one of the qualitative research methods, phenomenology design was used. Convenience sampling technique was used to determine the study group. 353 senior university students, studying at Inonu University in the…

Many students use ineffective learning strategies. They tend to start too late and learn in a superficial way, without integrating different parts of the study materials. To help students in "Psychological Assessment in Youth" overcome these problems, we designed online study-aids to spread their learning over the semester (distributed…

Retrieval practice enhances the learning of educational materials, and prior work has shown that practicing retrieval can enhance learning as much as or more than creating concept maps. Few studies have combined retrieval practice with other learning activities, and no prior work has explored whether concept mapping and retrieval practice might…

We explore the structure of epistemological beliefs and its relation with the spontaneous formation of study groups in a sample of biomedical engineering students. The sophistication of the beliefs as well as the size and distribution of spontaneous small groups were measured for subjects in three different academic years: junior, intermediate and…

Sleep right after studying new material is more conducive to memory than a period of wakefulness. Another way to counteract forgetting is to practice retrieval: taking a test strengthens memory more effectively than restudying the material. The current work aims at investigating the interaction between sleep and testing by asking if testing adds…

Academic procrastination is understood as the postponement of academic tasks despite the possibility of negative consequences, with an estimated 46% of undergraduate students and 60% of graduate students regularly engaging in this behavior. The purpose of the present study was to contrast procrastination behavior on specific academic tasks…

Self-assessment has been portrayed as a way to promote lifelong learning in higher education. While most of the previous literature builds on the idea of self-assessment as a formative tool for learning, some scholars have suggested using it in a summative way. In the present study, we have empirically compared formative and summative models for…

Using a randomized control trial design, this study examines the extent to which a comprehensive college transition program (CCTP) shapes students' time-use during their first 3 years in college. The CCTP provides comprehensive student-centered support as well as a generous scholarship. We compare students who had access to the CCTP with those who…

Example use in undergraduate mathematics has been extensively studied. However, little is known about undergraduates' example use in the context of introductory point-set topology. We present a case study of one undergraduate and describe her example use when constructing proofs in the context of introductory topology. We describe her use of a…

Research on student engagement, study engagement and academic entitlement has followed separate paths. This research examined how the concepts relate to each other among traditional and non-traditional Finnish business students (N = 476). A cluster analysis indicated that students form two clusters. Part-time students, students over the age of 25,…

Although active retrieval is an extremely effective study method, students continue to use less effective methods (Karpicke, "Journal of Experimental Psychology General," 138(4), 469-486, 2009; Hartwig and Dunlosky, "Psychonomic Bulletin & Review," 19(1), 126-134, 2012). There are likely many underlying reasons for using…

Currently, limited data are available on student retention rates and attrition factors in online physical education (OLPE) courses. Several early OLPE studies as well as the 2007 NASPE Initial Guidelines for Online Physical Education have suggested that certain prescreening efforts be in place prior to student enrollment in OLPE; however, at…

Previous research investigating the relationship between peer-assisted study sessions (also called supplemental instruction or peer-assisted learning) and academic performance has a number of concerns. These include the lack of inclusion of important variables such as academic motivation and personality. This study (N = 233) investigated how…