Using the Findings of Cognitive Psychology in Academic Philosophical Learning Contexts

Some Examples

Abstract

In this text, the findings of cognitive psychology will be used to tackle certain misconceptions in academic philosophical learning contexts. It will be shown that some techniques that university teachers often recommend and on which students often rely on for working on texts and acquiring the contents of them and other contents – like for example highlighting, notetaking, and summarization – are not that effective for long-term retention. At least not if some aspects are not considered. The aim is to show what empirical research has found out about effective learning and how this can help to create tasks that foster long-term retention of philosophical contents which also helps with training higher-order skills such as applying, reflecting, evaluating, and modifying these contents.