Across ten learning techniques, distributed practice and practice testing have the largest effects and underlining and summarization the smallest¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesis r? · q3 · i2 medium · n=242 studies
Currency · newest study 2021 · checked against its sources 2026-10-15 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Relative effectiveness of the ten learning techniques Dunlosky et al. (2013) reviewed, re-analysed as a meta-analysis of the studies they cited.

Subclaims¶

q3 i2 Over 242 studies (1,619 effects, 169,179 participants) the overall mean was d = 0.56: distributed practice 0.85, practice testing 0.74, elaborative interrogation 0.56, imagery 0.56, self-explanation 0.54, mnemonics 0.50, re-reading 0.47, interleaved practice 0.47, underlining 0.44, summarization 0.44. → Donoghue & Hattie 2021

Evidence¶

Donoghue & Hattie 2021¶

Donoghue, G. M., & Hattie, J. A. C. (2021). A Meta-Analysis of Ten Learning Techniques. Frontiers in Education, 6, 581216. doi:10.3389/feduc.2021.581216

q3 · meta-analysis (242 studies, 1,619 effects) · i2 · medium effect, overall d = 0.56; 0.85 distributed practice, 0.74 practice testing · n=242 studies · quant-synthesis · r?

The authors meta-analysed the studies cited in Dunlosky et al.'s (2013) review of ten learning techniques: 242 studies, 1,619 effects and 169,179 participants. The ranking matched Dunlosky's high, moderate and low ratings: distributed practice (d = 0.85) and practice testing (0.74) highest; elaborative interrogation, imagery and self-explanation in the middle (0.54–0.56); mnemonics, re-reading, interleaved practice, underlining and summarization lowest (0.44–0.50). Heterogeneity was high (I² around 85%), so moderators matter more than the averages.

"The most effective techniques are Distributed Practice and Practice Testing and the least effective (but still with relatively high effects) are Underlining and Summarization."

Discussion¶

Even the lowest techniques average d = 0.44, but the outcomes were mostly surface, factual and near-transfer (see the related claims), and the low-rated interleaving effect here pools very different tasks: the wiki's interleaving principle records the conditions under which it helps or hurts.

Related Claims¶

• Training in text structure improves college students' summaries, but summarizing has not been shown here to improve recall or writing more than rereading or other active reading — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Mnemonic Instruction Improves Recall For Students With Disabilities — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Learner highlighting of text gives a small memory benefit but no reliable comprehension benefit, and evidence on other forms of annotation is not yet recorded here — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Retrieval practice improves long-term retention — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Distributed Practice Improves Retention — related

• Learning techniques have much smaller effects on deep learning and far transfer than on surface learning and near transfer — the same synthesis
• In the few studies that split by ability, learning techniques helped low-ability students and not high-ability students — the same synthesis
• Learning-technique effects do not shrink across test delays from the same day to six months — the same synthesis
• Ten-year-old readers predominantly underline subordinate passage details rather than superordinate conceptual material, even when conceptual postquestions focus attention on topic sentences — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Recall of passage details is most depressed when children receive both underlining and conceptual postquestions — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Highlighting shows low utility for improving learning outcomes — related
• Training seventh graders to elaborate produced better long-term recall than questions stimulating elaboration, and the training transferred to new passages — related
• Underlining and adjunct questions may hinder rather than help recall in young readers, reflecting a comprehension rather than a metacomprehension deficit — related
• Elaborative Interrogation Improves Learning — related
• The interleaving effect generalizes to visual materials, with the largest effects for paintings — related
• Practice testing and distributed practice receive high utility assessments because their benefits generalize widely across learners, tasks, and educational contexts — related
• Undergraduate students reported using relatively effective strategies (elaboration, organisation, spacing) more than less effective ones, with elaboration most endorsed and self-testing least endorsed — related
• Receiving elaborate explanations benefits learning only when the receiver can apply the explanation in a related task — related
• Self-explanation benefits learning across ages, but evidence is mixed for elementary-school children and effects shrink when time on task is equated — related