Proactive vs Reactive study AND Active vs Passive revision
One of the most popular skillsets we are asked to develop within students is ‘how to revise effectively’. Within this area, students, teachers and parents are delighted to hear how we encourage students to move from passive to active revision methods. In this article, I want to clarify the difference between passive and active approaches. But before I do, there is another concept that is useful to understand; proactive vs reactive study.
Revision itself is a proactive exercise – in essence, it’s going back through the course syllabus, reminding yourself of what you know – building your confidence, AND uncovering the bits you don’t know so well, and re-learning those.
Before we take an in-depth look at how best to approach revision – let’s start with the first part of the title of the article; Proactive vs Reactive study.
I recently attended a conference hosted by Steve Oakes and Martin Griffin. They have developed a powerful model called VESPA which has been adopted by many schools and colleges to encourage metacognition within the student body. Steve and Martin explain the concept of Proactive vs Reactive study in a succinct manner and I will use some of their work to illustrate the concept. As we explore the concept, you’ll no doubt notice how a proactive approach to study is a powerful, transferable skill which will benefit the student immeasurably over their lifetimes.
Proactive vs Reactive Study
Reactive is completed in response to instruction.
E.g. classwork and homework.
Proactive is the work you set yourself. You do it because you know it will help.
E.g. creating effective flashcards, writing topic summaries, asking questions, exploring a topic further.
The main difference between proactive and reactive study is that proactive study takes initiative. Students need to make learning happen. While reactive study occurs when students simply wait for the learning to happen to them.
Students that decide to take a proactive approach are always looking for ways to improve their knowledge/understanding/situation and consequently, they take charge of their own learning. They’re regularly thinking about what they can do to move closer to their academic goals. Students that adopt (or fall into) a reactive approach to learning, on the other hand, tend to wait for instruction and hope that learning happens to them.
Of course, it’s not as simple as (or useful) labelling students as either proactive or reactive, as some students might act differently depending on which subject or project they are applying themselves to. Many students might also change their approach as they near exams and feel that they need to ‘turn it on’ if they are to achieve the grades they desire.
Let’s take a closer look at Proactive vs Reactive learning:
| Entirely reactive | Mostly reactive
Proactive on rare occasions |
A balance of reactivity and proactivity | Some reactivity, but mostly proactive |
| These students only complete work if they’re told to. They’ve often never set themselves any work – even in the run-up to exams, they go to extra classes and react to the instructions they get there. | These students complete almost all their work because they’re told to.
Now and again, if there’s a crisis, they’ll spend a small amount of time proactively – revising for a test or tracking down some missing notes. |
These students are close to matching their reactive work with proactive work.
They’re regularly setting themselves work; re-reading and tidying notes, asking questions, reading textbooks and submitting redone essays. |
These students get their reactive study out of the way pretty quickly, completing it to a high standard so they can get on with more proactive work.
They enjoy the proactive work, exploring topics in detail and challenging themselves. |
| Outcomes:
These students almost always get the lowest grades in the year group. |
Outcomes:
These learners find themselves towards the bottom of most groups, but have the potential to climb up. |
Outcomes:
These students tend to be in the middle or towards the top of most of their classes. |
Outcomes:
These students are almost always at the top of their classes, and often end up getting places at the best universities. |
(Steve Oakes and Martin Griffin – VESPA)
OK – that seems to make sense. A proactive approach to learning will naturally help the student be more involved in the learning and achieve better results.
So, let’s go back to the initial statement… that revision is a proactive activity. It certainly is when the student is motivated to take more control over their effort, and makes decisions for themselves; in effect, they are revising because THEY want to, or feel the NEED to.
Is this true when students attend additional/after school revision sessions? Well, they are proactive if they choose to attend the revision sessions and apply effort and independent thought when taking part in the session. I was at a school recently, where a teacher explained to me that after-school revision sessions were to become compulsory for all their Year 11 students in the lead-up to final exams in 2024. Is this still proactive? In real terms, no it’s not, as the student has not made the decision to be there themselves; they are required to take part. And, are these additional revision sessions reinforcing a ‘spoon-feeding’ methodology? Now, some schools have experienced an uptick in results after laying on additional revision sessions (https://schoolsweek.co.uk/compulsory-longer-day-for-year-11-as-school-pushes-for-gcse-results/). However, some educators are of the opinion that additional school-led revision sessions might be doing more harm than good (https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/stop-revision-sessions-they-dont-help-anyone).
I will certainly be looking with interest as the schools we work with closely, report back on their findings.
Ok – so let’s say the student has decided to ‘proactively’ do some revision. We can now break revision down into two categories:
Active vs Passive Revision
Cognitively Active revision happens when the student does something with the material they want to learn. They question, process, condense, organise, arrange and test themselves on the content that they want to learn; in effect, they drive the learning process.
Cognitively Passive revision occurs when the student only reads, watches, listens, or copies the material which they want to learn; in effect, they are passengers in the revision process.
What’s the best way to revise…?
Passive learning does not work very well – It’s not effective to read your notes over and over, copy out notes or highlight bits of handouts. Students need to think actively about ideas if they are going to remember them.
To learn actively, students need to think, understand and connect the things they are trying to learn to their existing ideas and knowledge. They consider how the information can be used to answer exam questions from past papers. Is it a theory? Or supporting evidence? Do they agree with it?
Active revisers ask themselves…
– “What have I just learnt?”
– “How could I use it to answer an exam question?”
In a fascinating experiment conducted at the University of Georgia in 2009, professor Kathrin Stanger-Hall found that students who prepared for an exam using active revision strategies significantly outperformed those who used passive revision strategies.
Students revising in a cognitively passive manner tended towards five revision strategies that were comfortable, repetitive and less challenging. Here they are:
- Reading the assigned text
- Re-reading class notes
- Making flash-cards of notes
- Highlighting key terms during reading
- Looking up difficult information
Students revising in a cognitively active manner tended towards five revision strategies that were more involving, thoughtful and challenging. Here they are:
- Repeatedly asking/explaining “how does it work?” and “why does it work this way?”
- Creating and answering challenging study questions
- Closing notes and testing how much is remembered
- Drawing and labelling diagrams from memory
- Setting tests, trying to answer questions, then looking up information
Curiously, the students who used active strategies also experienced a significant increase in their perception of the inherent value of learning. Therefore, students who revised actively not only achieved higher grades, but also viewed education in a more positive and beneficial light.
What does this teach us?
Cognitively active revision gets you better results; it’s more effective and more efficient. This means that students might not have to do more revision to be successful… they might just have to do different revision. Now that’s what you call working smarter, not harder!
Thanks to Steve Oakes and Martin Griffin for expanding and clarifying my understanding of Proactive and Reactive study. For more info on the VESPA model, see: https://www.vespa.academy/
To see if MADE Training can help with your students, please feel free to check out our workshop page, or drop us a line at [email protected] or 0800 270 7660, we’d be happy to help.