Education has traditionally placed a strong emphasis on what students should know. They attend lessons, take notes, complete assignments, prepare for examinations and try to remember enough information to perform well. However, knowing what to learn is only part of becoming an effective learner. Students also need to understand how learning works and how they can take greater control of the process.
This distinction becomes increasingly important as students move from one level of education to another. The amount of information they encounter grows, subjects become more demanding and teachers cannot always provide step-by-step guidance. Eventually, students must be able to identify what they understand, recognise what they do not understand and decide what to do about it.
Learning how to learn is therefore not another subject that should be squeezed into an already crowded timetable. It is a collection of habits and abilities that can improve how students approach every other subject. These include knowing how to study effectively, asking useful questions, checking understanding, managing time, responding to mistakes and finding reliable information.
The OECD’s PISA 2022 research places considerable emphasis on learning strategies, self-monitoring, critical thinking and proactive learning behaviours as important foundations for sustained learning. Its findings show that students who develop these strategies are better positioned to take greater control of their learning and continue learning beyond formal schooling.
One of the clearest reasons students need to learn how to learn is that memorising information is not the same as understanding it. A student may remember a definition long enough to reproduce it in an examination and still struggle to explain what it means or apply it to a different situation.
This problem can become particularly obvious when students move from questions that require recall to those that require explanation, analysis or application. A student who has spent most of their time memorising notes may find an unfamiliar question intimidating because they have not developed the habit of connecting knowledge and using it in new contexts.
Learning how to learn encourages students to become more active participants in the process. Instead of asking only, “What do I need to remember?” they begin to ask, “What does this mean?”, “How does it connect to what I already know?” and “Can I explain it without looking at my notes?”
These questions matter because learning becomes stronger when students work with information rather than simply passively receiving it. The OECD identifies connecting new information with previously acquired knowledge as one of the proactive learning behaviours that can support sustained learning. However, its PISA 2022 data showed that fewer than half of students reported making such connections frequently in mathematics lessons.
Students also need to understand that different learning tasks may require different approaches. Reading a chapter once may be useful for becoming familiar with its content, but it may not be enough to remember the information later. Similarly, copying notes repeatedly may give a student the feeling of studying without necessarily producing strong understanding.
Research on learning has consistently highlighted the value of strategies such as retrieval practice and spaced learning. A major review published in Nature Reviews Psychology explains that spacing learning over time and actively retrieving information can improve long-term retention, while also noting that effective learning strategies are often underused by learners.
This means students should be taught to think about the effectiveness of their study methods rather than assuming that anything that feels like studying must be effective. A student who spends three hours rereading material may have worked hard, but another student who studies in shorter sessions and repeatedly tests their own understanding may retain more.
The lesson is not that students should abandon reading, note-taking or other familiar study habits. Rather, they need to understand why and when particular approaches work. Once students begin to recognise the difference between feeling familiar with information and actually being able to recall and use it, their approach to studying can change considerably.
This is also why learning how to learn should begin before students reach university. Young learners can gradually be taught to explain their thinking, reflect on mistakes, ask questions and experiment with different ways of understanding difficult ideas. These habits can then become increasingly sophisticated as they grow older.
A student who depends entirely on a teacher to explain, remind, correct and organise every aspect of learning may perform reasonably well in a highly structured environment. However, that dependence can become a problem when the structure changes.
As students progress through secondary school, university and eventually employment, they are expected to take greater responsibility for their own development. They will encounter unfamiliar subjects, new technologies, difficult tasks and problems that have no obvious answer. Nobody will always be available to tell them exactly what to study or how to solve the problem.
This is where self-directed learning becomes important. The OECD’s PISA 2022 assessment examined students’ confidence in planning schoolwork, motivating themselves, finding resources independently and assessing their own progress. Its findings highlighted the relationship between confidence in self-directed learning and behaviours such as asking questions, checking work and connecting new material with previous knowledge.
A student who knows how to learn is more likely to recognise when something is not working. If they perform poorly in a test, for example, they can look beyond the mark and consider what contributed to the result. Perhaps they relied too heavily on memorisation, started revising too late, misunderstood the topic or failed to practise applying the knowledge.
That kind of reflection is different from simply saying, “I am not good at this subject.” It moves the student from judging their ability to examining their learning process.
This is where teachers have an important role. Teaching students how to learn does not mean abandoning direct instruction or leaving students to discover everything for themselves. Instead, teachers can make learning strategies visible by explaining why they are asking students to practise something, how to approach a difficult task and how to recognise whether understanding has actually occurred.
Students should also feel comfortable asking questions when they do not understand. Yet PISA 2022 found that, on average across OECD countries, only 47 per cent of students reported asking questions often when they did not understand something being taught in mathematics.
That finding points to an important issue. Learning how to learn includes learning how to seek help. An independent learner is not necessarily someone who works alone. In fact, knowing when to ask a teacher, classmate, parent or reliable source for clarification is itself an important learning skill.
Students also need to learn how to evaluate the information they find. This has become particularly important in a digital environment where answers are easily available through search engines, social media, educational platforms and artificial intelligence tools.
The challenge is no longer simply finding information. Students must increasingly determine whether information is accurate, relevant and supported by credible evidence. A student who knows how to learn should therefore be able to investigate a question rather than simply accept the first answer that appears on a screen.
In addition, self-directed learning requires students to manage their time and attention. A learner may understand exactly what needs to be done and still struggle to complete it because of poor planning, distractions or procrastination. Learning how to break demanding work into manageable stages can make difficult academic tasks less overwhelming.
These abilities become particularly valuable when students encounter subjects they do not immediately enjoy. Instead of concluding that they cannot learn the subject, they can experiment with different approaches, seek clarification and give themselves time to improve.
Read also:
How parents can raise independent learners, not dependent students
Why education must prepare students for problems that do not yet exist
The greatest value of learning how to learn is that its benefits extend beyond school. Subjects change, textbooks become outdated and particular technologies eventually disappear. The ability to learn, however, remains useful.
A student may graduate with knowledge of a particular computer programme, scientific process or professional method, only to discover that the field has changed several years later. If that person has only learnt how to memorise information for examinations, adapting may be difficult. If they have learnt how to research, practise, evaluate information and acquire new skills, adapting becomes more manageable.
This is one reason lifelong learning has become an increasingly important part of education. The OECD describes learning strategies, motivation and self-belief as interconnected elements that support students’ ability to continue learning throughout their lives. Its PISA 2022 findings also indicate that learning strategies are associated with mathematics performance, although strong academic performance alone does not define an effective lifelong learner.
Learning how to learn can also change how students respond to failure. A poor result does not have to become proof that a student lacks ability. It can become information about what needs to change.
For example, a student who repeatedly struggles with mathematics might discover that the problem is not an inability to understand numbers but a tendency to avoid practising unfamiliar questions. Another student may realise that they understand lessons in class but cannot recall the material during tests because they rarely practise retrieving it independently.
Such discoveries give students something they can work on. Instead of seeing academic ability as a fixed quality that they either possess or lack, they can begin to view learning as a process that involves strategy, practice, feedback and adjustment.
This does not mean telling students that effort alone guarantees success. Effort matters, but how students use that effort also matters. A student can spend many hours studying inefficiently and become exhausted without making the expected progress. Learning how to learn helps students ask whether their effort is producing meaningful understanding.
It can also make students more confident. When students know how to approach unfamiliar material, they are less likely to panic when they encounter something they do not immediately understand. They may not know the answer, but they have a process for finding it.
That confidence can be particularly valuable in higher education and employment. University students are expected to read widely, conduct research and work with less direct supervision. Employees, too, increasingly have to acquire new knowledge as organisations, technologies and professional expectations change.
For Nigerian students, this lesson is particularly relevant. Academic success is often strongly associated with examination results and certificates, but the ability to continue learning after obtaining a qualification is equally important. A degree can open a door, but it cannot guarantee that everything a graduate will need throughout a career has already been taught.
Schools therefore have an opportunity to move beyond preparing students simply to remember enough information to pass examinations. They can help students become curious about how knowledge is acquired, how mistakes can be analysed and how difficult problems can be approached.
Parents can reinforce this at home by asking children to explain how they arrived at an answer rather than focusing only on whether the answer is correct. Teachers can encourage reflection after assessments instead of treating examination results as the final stage of learning. Students themselves can begin to take greater ownership by paying attention to which study approaches help them understand and remember.
Ultimately, learning how to learn is about giving students a level of control over their education. It teaches them that learning is not something that happens only when a teacher is speaking or an examination is approaching. It is an active process that involves questioning, connecting ideas, practising, reflecting, seeking feedback and adjusting when something does not work.
The strongest education does not simply leave students with a collection of facts. It leaves them with the confidence and ability to keep acquiring knowledge long after the lesson, examination and school year have ended.
A student who knows what to learn may succeed in the next examination. A student who knows how to learn has a skill that can continue serving them long after the examination is forgotten.