Why Students Don’t Use the Study Strategies They Know (And How We Close the Gap)
We all have things we know we should do — drink more water, get eight hours of sleep, take breaks from screens — but knowing doesn’t always translate into doing.
It’s the same for students when it comes to studying. I notice it in my own learning, too. On Duolingo, where I’m practicing Spanish, I know that retrieval practice — testing myself — is the most efficient way to learn. But Duolingo makes it all too easy to peek at the answers, and often I give in.
And that’s me, with a fully developed prefrontal cortex (well, a perimenopausal one, which sometimes feels closer to teenage brain fog than adult focus!). For middle school through college students, whose executive functions are still developing, resisting the easy path is even harder.
Teachers, parents, and student coaches see it every day: students don’t study effectively. Many rely on rereading and highlighting because those methods feel productive. But even when students do know about better strategies, they often don’t use them. That’s what I call the Awareness–Use Gap — and it’s one of the trickiest challenges we tackle in the Anti-Boring Learning Lab.
TL;DR
Awareness isn’t enough. Many students don’t even know what makes learning effective — and even when they do, they often fall back on rereading and cramming.
Research shows scaffolding is essential. Students are far more likely to use effective strategies when educators model them, build them into assignments, and provide accountability.
The Anti-Boring Learning Lab equips educators to close the Awareness–Use Gap. We train teachers, tutors, and executive function coaches in science-backed tools and study skills that stick, so students actually follow through.
This Post Will Resonate Most With
Academic coaches, tutors, and executive function coaches who want to help students move from knowing about good strategies to actually using them.
Classroom teachers who want to make study skills visible in their lessons so students can take them home.
Learning specialists and other educators who want research-backed frameworks for supporting executive function and metacognition.
If we want to help students actually use the strategies that work, we first need to understand what gets in the way. Research over the past 15 years reveals three consistent themes about why the Awareness–Use Gap exists — and how we can start to close it. Let’s begin with the very first hurdle: awareness itself.
📖 Theme 1: The First Hurdle–Building Awareness
As a dedicated teacher, tutor, or coach, you probably already know this: many students simply aren’t aware of what actually makes learning stick.
The most common example is rereading. Again and again, studies have shown that rereading feels good but does very little for long-term memory. In one classic survey, Karpicke, Butler, & Roediger (2009) found that only about 11% of students said they used self-testing as a main strategy, even though retrieval practice is one of the most effective techniques we know. The majority turned to rereading, often multiple times over.
This isn’t just about rereading, though. Students also overvalue highlighting, underuse spacing, and misunderstand the role of effort in learning. In other words, before we even get to the awareness–use gap, we face a more basic problem: a lack of awareness that better strategies exist in the first place.
And it’s not just the students. Morehead, Rhodes, & DeLozier (2016) found that instructors themselves often reinforced rereading and highlighting as good study practices. When the classroom models ineffective strategies, students understandably repeat them at home. It creates a feedback loop of misplaced confidence — what researchers call “illusions of learning.”
Until students (and their teachers) have accurate awareness of what works, they can’t even begin to bridge the gap between knowing and doing.
🎯 Theme 2: When Awareness Isn’t Enough
Even once students gain awareness of effective strategies, the story doesn’t suddenly change. They may be able to name tools like self-testing and spacing — and still fall back on rereading and cramming when test time comes. This is the true Awareness–Use Gap.
Just like my example with Duolingo – I KNOW that taking a moment to test myself with vocab words is the best strategy for long term retention, but I so rarely follow through. Ease in the moment beats effective strategy use.
A large survey by Hartwig & Dunlosky (2012) showed that many students reported knowing about the benefits of self-testing, but rereading was still their most common strategy. Awareness did not reliably translate into use.
The consequences show up in grades, too. Geller et al. (2018) found that higher-achieving students were significantly more likely to use self-testing and spacing, while lower-achieving peers stuck with rereading and cramming. And in a biology course study published in Active Learning in Higher Education (2018), students who used self-testing and spacing earned noticeably higher final grades than those who did not.
So it’s very real – those who know and use the most effective strategies see it in their grades and their achievement.
Taken together, these studies suggest that the Awareness–Use Gap isn’t just an academic curiosity — it can reinforce achievement disparities. Students who actually apply evidence-based strategies learn more and perform better, while their peers who know-but-don’t-do risk falling further behind.
🌍 Theme 3: Why Scaffolding Is the Missing Ingredient
So if students don’t know what works (Theme 1), and even when they do know they often don’t use it (Theme 2), what actually helps them cross the Awareness–Use Gap?
Research points to one answer: scaffolding. Awareness is a starting line, not the finish line. Without support, students default back to the strategies that feel easiest in the moment. This is especially true in online and virtual learning contexts, where students are left to study independently without the structure of a classroom.
A recent study by Feenstra, Nwaelugo, Nibbelink, & De Noble (2024) looked at 450 U.S. undergraduates taking courses online. On surveys, many students could name effective strategies like spacing and self-testing. But in practice, their go-to methods were still rereading and cramming.
Here’s something that feels exciting to me, however: The researchers found that students were far more likely to adopt better strategies when their instructors explicitly modeled them. In this study, explicit modeling meant that instructors:
Demonstrated the use of spacing and self-testing during class (e.g., spreading practice over multiple sessions instead of massing it, or actually showing students how to quiz themselves).
Talked about why these strategies work, instead of just naming them in passing.
Built the strategies into the structure of the course (for example, assigning practice quizzes or weaving retrieval activities into assignments) so students could see the strategies in action.
The same lesson shows up in experimental work. In a 2023 study in Cognitive Research: Principles & Implications, students asked to study independently rarely chose self-testing. But when given light supervision — a small nudge to quiz themselves — they were much more likely to follow through.
Taken together, these studies confirm what many of us see every day: students don’t just need to know what works; they need to see it in action, be nudged to try it, and have accountability to keep it going. Scaffolding closes the Awareness–Use Gap by turning abstract awareness into lived practice.
And this is exactly where our work in the Anti-Boring Learning Lab comes in. Every day, we’re designing ways to give students the kind of scaffolding that research shows is essential — modeling strategies, breaking them down into simple frameworks, and providing playful accountability so the strategies stick.
🛠 How We Close the Gap in the Anti-Boring Learning Lab
It’s always exciting to me when I see research that basically replicates what we do in the Anti-Boring Learning Lab! This is where our methodology shines. We’ve designed our tools and teaching practices to bridge awareness and use in playful, concrete ways:
We help educators teach just enough science for students to take action. Using our “least you need to know” model, we show educators how to share quick, memorable nuggets about how the brain learns best. Instead of overwhelming students with too much detail, our approach keeps the focus on giving them just enough to get started.
We equip educators with a toolbox of strategies. The abstract becomes usable when students have practical tools to try. We train educators in a wide range of student-tested strategies so they can choose the right one to fit the motivation and needs of each learner.
We provide tools for executive function. We help educators introduce time management, organization, planning, work initiation, and metacognitive strategies so their students can actually follow through on the strategies they’ve chosen.
We model coach-like teaching. Instead of simply describing strategies, we train educators to demonstrate and practice them alongside students — so learners see what effective studying and time management actually look and feel like in action.
We support playful accountability over time. Educators learn ways to build spaced retrieval into their work so students have time to experiment, practice, reflect, and tweak strategies until they don’t just get learned — they get lived.
Over time, this scaffolding helps students shift from “I know I should do this” to “I actually did this — and it worked.”
And this fall, you have two chances to dig into these exact Anti-Boring methods with us. At the end of October, we’re hosting back-to-back masterclasses where we open up the Lab’s toolbox and show you how to put these ideas into practice:
Beyond Flashcards (October 21): Discover 30+ ways to make retrieval practice engaging, plus our “least you need to know” approach for teaching the science of retrieval to students without overwhelming them.
Beyond Learning Styles (October 25): Learn how to guide students in using encoding strategies that are both research-based and engaging — so they can strengthen the very areas that retrieval practice reveals as shaky.
Both sessions are practical, research-driven, and designed to help you close the Awareness–Use Gap with your own students. These masterclasses are ideal for educators, academic coaches, and private executive function coaches who want student-tested strategies for teaching study skills that stick.
🧠 Modeling the Mindset
As we wrap up, I invite you to reflect. In the Lab, we believe educators should model the reflective learners we want our students to become. Here are a couple of prompts to consider:
For coaches/tutors: How often do you assume “explaining a tool” is the same as “students using it”? What’s one way you could follow up on actual use? If you’re brave, reflect on this below; I’d love to hear.
For teachers: Do you make retrieval and spacing visible in your lessons so students see how to study, not just what to know? And if so, how do you do this!? Please comment below; I’d love to know.
If your answers to these questions make you curious about what else you could do differently, be sure to check out our October masterclasses.