Fiorella and Mayer argue that learning is generative—students learn best when they actively make sense of new information by selecting, organizing, and integrating it with prior knowledge. They synthesize research identifying eight evidence-based strategies that consistently promote deeper understanding and transfer across contexts. These strategies shift learners from passive reception to active sense-making.
The 8 generative learning strategies (with applied examples)
- Summarizing: Example (History, face-to-face): After a mini-lecture on Reconstruction, students write a 3-sentence summary explaining its goals, challenges, and outcomes in their own words.
- Mapping (concept maps / graphic organizers): Example (Biology, online asynchronous): Students create a concept map linking cellular respiration stages (glycolysis, Krebs cycle, ETC) using a shared digital mapping tool.
- Drawing: Example (Physics, hybrid lab): Students draw a free-body diagram of forces acting on an object before running a simulation on motion.
- Imagining (mental imagery): Example (Anatomy & Physiology, online synchronous): While reading about blood flow, students mentally visualize the path of oxygenated blood through the heart chambers, guided by instructor prompts.
- Self-Testing (retrieval practice): Example (Psychology, online asynchronous): Students complete low-stakes quiz questions from memory (no notes) after a module on classical conditioning, followed by immediate feedback.
- Self-Explaining Example (Mathematics, face-to-face): While solving worked examples, students explain aloud or in writing why each step is taken in solving a system of equations.
- Teaching (explaining to others) Example (Education, hybrid): Students record a short video teaching a learning theory (e.g., constructivism) to a hypothetical first-year teacher audience.
- Enacting (gestures or physical manipulation): Example (Chemistry, in-person lab): Students use hand gestures to model electron movement during covalent bonding before writing structural formulas.
Key Takeaway: The most powerful learning gains occur not from what instructors present, but from what learners actively generate—and the effectiveness of each strategy depends on matching it to the content, learner prior knowledge, and learning context. Thoughtful selection and scaffolding of generative strategies can reliably improve comprehension and transfer.
Read the full article here:
Fiorella, L., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). Eight ways to promote generative learning. Educational Psychology Review 28(4):717–41. doi:10.1007/s10648-015-9348-9.