SPONTANEOUS STUDY STRATEGIES AND THE QUALITY OF KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION

Background, previous research indicates that generative study strategi es (e.g., summarising, concept mapping) produce qualitatively better l earning as compared to reproductive strategies (e.g., verbatim notetak ing, underlining). In the present study it was assumed that the more g enerative study strategies used the better the learning outcomes would be. Aims, This study considered the role that spontaneously used stud y strategies play in knowledge construction, that is, learning the con tent matter from text and writing answers to short essay-type tasks on this basis. Samples. The study was conducted among 502 applicants to a medical school during an entrance examination. Methods. One-way mult ivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to examine the relatio nship between spontaneous study strategies and learning the content ma tter and writing performance. Results, As expected, it appeared that s ummarising and concept mapping were related to high scores in learning the content matter in most tasks. However, any type of overt notetaki ng activity was related to the good quality of written expression, mea sured as coherence in essay-type answers. The subjects who did not pro duce any physical records while reading the text obtained the lowest s cores on all measures. Conclusions, It was shown that generative study strategies were useful while learning from text, especially when appl ication of knowledge was called for. Yet, more research on situations in which spontaneous study strategies are effective is needed in the f uture.