A college student who prepares for an exam by summarizing the textbook chapters assigned by the course instructor, drawing a map of key concepts, monitoring his understanding while drawing the map, setting goals on a daily basis, and checking his progress against the goals uses a repertoire of learning strategies. When an elementary school student practices a poem by repeating the lines over and over again, researchers also refer to this behavior as a learning strategy. The term learning strategy denotes thoughts and behaviors the learner employs with the intention of acquiring knowledge and improving task performance (Weinstein and Mayer 1986). In line with this definition, learning strategies can be cognitive and affective. Cognitive learning strategies exert a direct influence on knowledge acquisition, whereas affective learning strategies facilitate.
