The Take-Away Technique for Increasing Higher Order Learning and Achievement

Take-Aways are the key messages and meanings learners derive from presentations and learning interactions of all kinds. Cognitive learning theory Take-Aways are not prescriptive; rather they are extracted and constructed by the learner at the conclusion (backend) of a learning session. Little research has been done on how the backend of the learning process concludes for the learner. This article describes the Take-Away Technique and the learning theory upon which it is based and summarizes the results of 3 exploratory studies of the technique done at the high school, undergraduate and graduate level using science and social science content. In all three studies the Take-Away Technique significantly increased higher order achievement independent of aptitude and writing ability levels, as predicted, and 73% of the students across the three studies reported that the technique improved their comprehension and retention of the content studied as well as their studying and expressive skills, again as predicted. learning 1.0 Overview If one has training in business, advertising, marketing, political science, funding raising or campaigning, one most likely is vaguely familiar with the concept of the "take-away" in any (content) presentation or interaction, and its key importance as an evaluative and effectiveness criterion for summarizing the critical essence of the interchange and its key messages, whether it is a live presentation, or a casual or group conversation or discussion, or a web- page or series of web-pages or a lecture or a chapter in a book. However, if you are in education, you might not be familiar with the concept of the "take-away" or its key and critical importance in the teaching-learning exchange, and the critical "back-end" of the learning process; namely, what happens and what students do after a presentation or interchange or learning session is done. From the point of view of contemporary cognitive learning theory (e.g., Pinker, 1997, Ashcraft 2002; Martinez, 2009; and Sternberg and Sternberg, 2012), the "back-end" of the learning/instructional process would be post learning processes and activities that organize, elaborate, consolidate, connect, and incorporate what the student should be taking away from the exchange into the student's long term memory via assimilation and/or accommodation processes (see Meeter and Mure, 2004 for details). The critical difference here, however, is that contemporary cognitive learning theory contends that all of these "back-end" processes should not be prescriptive (namely, done by the instructor or the instructional agent), but rather that they should be actively done by the student (i.e. the learner or information processor), and that such "back-end" processing should be a meta- cognitive habit that is developed in the student to the point that it is an automatic and highly active part of the student's everyday information processing activities. In this regard, then, the instructional or cognitive "Takeaway" is very different from other forms of the "take-away," and the cognitive learning theory form of the technique is very different than other forms and views of the technique. Very little research has been directly done to date on the cognitive Takeaway or Takeaway technique, and very little theory about the technique has been formalized.