LEARNING STRATEGIES

LUZ AMPARO SÁNCHEZ NOY

INTRODUCTION
Monitors and Teachers as our task is to get our students to learn, however the result
does not always meet our expectations and our efforts. And is that learning depends on
several factors: ability, motivation, prior knowledge, or learning strategies.

Learning strategies are the set of activities, techniques and methods are
planned according to student needs, the objectives sought and the nature of
knowledge, in order to realize the learning process.

Define learning strategies involves having clear course objectives, conception of

teaching, learning design, according to Weinstein and Mayer (1986), learning
strategies are actions students and thoughts that occur during learning, that
have great influence on the motivation and include aspects such as acquisition,
retention and transfer. These authors consider the strategies and techniques
that can be taught to be used during learning. Thus, the goal of any particular
learning strategy will be to affect the motivational and emotional state and the
manner in which the student selects, acquires, organizes and integrates new
knowledge.

In any case the decision facing the choice of a learning strategy will start with
understanding it as a means of constructing knowledge, from the analysis,
evaluation, critical thinking, reflection and debate.

Going back to Newman and Wehlage (1993), the approach should be targeted
to the authentic learning that is characterized by five characteristics: high-level
thinking, depth of knowledge, real world connections, substantive dialogue and
social support for student achievement .

Apoyo social para el

aprovechamiento alumno.

Dialogo sustantivo

Conexiones con el mundo

real
Profundidad del
conocimiento

Pensamiento de alto nivel

A vital element in the development of learning strategies is provided by the learning
environment according to Honebein (1996) should consider the elements embedded in
the graph.

Animar la propiedad y Oportunidad de

voz en el proceso de experimentar la
aprendizaje construcción del
Animar el uso de Ambiente conocimiento.
formas de Oportunidad de
representación
de experimentar y apreciar
múltiples aprendizaj múltiples perspectivas
Promover el uso de la e Incluir el aprendizaje en
autoconciencia del contextos reales y
proceso de relevantes.
construcción del Incluir el aprendizaje de
conocimiento. la experiencia social

1. CLASSIFICATION OF LEARNING STRATEGIES IN THE FIELD ACADEMIC.

We have identified five general types of strategies in education. The first three help
students to develop and organize content for easier learning (process information), the
fourth is aimed at controlling mental activity to direct student learning and, finally, the
fifth support Learning for its occurrence in the best possible conditions.
1.1 Testing Strategies.
Are those that actively involves the repetition of content (say, writing), or focus on key
parts of it. Examples:
• Repeat aloud words, mnemonics, copy the material object of learning, taking notes
verbatim, emphasis.

1.2 Strategies developed.

They involve making connections between new and familiar. For example:
• Paraphrase, summarize, create analogies, take notes, not literal, answer questions
(those listed in the text or the student can be formulated), describe how it relates new
information to existing knowledge.
1.3 Organization strategies.
Group information to make it easier to remember. They involve imposing structure on
learning content, dividing it into parts and identifying relationships and hierarchies.
They include examples like:
• Summarize a text, outline, underline, overview, semantic network, concept map,
ordered tree.
1.4 Control strategies of understanding.
These strategies are linked to Metacognition. Involved remain aware of what you are
trying to achieve, keep track of the strategies used and the success with them and
adjust behavior accordingly.
If we used the metaphor to compare the mind with a computer, these strategies serve
as a central processor computer. They are a supervisor of the action and students'
thinking, and are characterized by a high level of awareness and voluntary control.
Among the metacognitive strategies are: planning, regulation and evaluation
• Strategies for planning.
Are those by which direct and control student behavior. They are, therefore, before
students take some action. Activities are held as:
• Establish the purpose and learning goal
• Select the background that are necessary to carry out
• Decompose the task into successive steps
• Schedule an implementation schedule
• Provide the time needed to accomplish this task, resources needed, the effort
required
• Select the strategy to follow
• Strategies for regulation, management and supervision.
They are used during the execution of the task. Indicate the capacity that the student
has to follow the plan laid out and test their effectiveness. Activities are performed as:
• Ask questions
• Follow the plan outlined
• Adjust the time and effort required by the task
• Update and seek alternative strategies in case the previously selected are not
effective.
• Evaluation strategies.
They are responsible for verifying the learning process. Are conducted during and after
the process. Activities are performed as:
• Review the steps.
• Assess whether or not to have achieved its objectives.
• Evaluate the quality of deliverables.
• Decide when to conclude the process undertaken when to pause, the length of
breaks, etc..
1.5 Strategies and emotional support.
These strategies do not address directly the learning of content. The primary mission of
these strategies is to improve the effectiveness of learning by improving the conditions
under which it occurs. They include:
• establish and maintain motivation, focus attention, stay focused, manage anxiety,
manage time effectively, and so on.
Finally note that some authors relate the learning strategy with a particular type of
learning. For these authors each type of learning (association / restructuring) would be
linked to a range of strategies that are specific.
• Associative learning: STRATEGIES FOR TEST
• Learning by restructuring: STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPMENT, OR
-ORGANIZATION.
The following chart graphically represents the types of strategies.

2 THE TEACHER TO THE LEARNING STRATEGIES.

The main difficulty in Teaching versus learning strategies is the refusal of an

innovation: The teaching of learning strategies involves the use of some certain
methods, in many cases other than those that teachers had been using. For some
professionals, this is an inference with accepted practice, and reject it.

Another difficulty lies in the ignorance of own learning process: Teaching these
strategies depends largely on the ability of the teacher having to discuss learning with
their students. It is therefore necessary to be capable of making conscious their own
learning process.

Finally the choice of a learning strategy also depends on the training methods
developed for teaching a specific content.

3. STRATEGIES TO STUDENT LEARNING.

The main problem is the resistance of students to be active in their learning, motivated
by the traditional models of teaching and, above all because it does not appreciate the
usefulness of learning to performance in examinations; because they will normally
reward rote learning or rote.

On the other hand learning strategies involve more time than traditional methods, an
environmental provision in terms of furniture, materials and particularly a more
autonomous self-regulation and therefore with the process, new task for the student
who has a natural disposition to the lecture which involves working alone or traditional
teacher education.