For lifelong learning, the learning strategy is crucial! A study with students shows which strategy truly leads to sustainable learning. But can this learning strategy also be transferred to adults?
What are learning strategies, actually?
Simply put, a learning strategy is everything you do to remember new knowledge as effectively as possible. Such individual learning strategies exist for everyone, whether child or adult. The right learning strategies are the foundation for lifelong learning, from kindergarten to professional development.
Which learning strategy really works?
A study with students showed twenty years ago: Certain learning strategies can significantly improve learning success! This study distinguished between two important learning strategies:
Surface strategies are what parents and teachers typically recommend: "Read the text a few times, highlight the most important parts with a marker, and just memorize it!" – Who doesn't know that?
Deep strategies aim to identify connections within the learning content and transfer them to other areas. This includes, among other things, reproducing the content in your own words or presenting it in another form, for example, by drawing a sketch of the content of a text.
Result of the student study: Deep strategies achieve higher learning success!
When reading texts, the choice of learning strategy has a strong influence on learning success: Students who naturally apply more deep strategies can remember significantly more content from the text. Additionally, these students can better integrate new knowledge with their prior knowledge than students with superficial learning strategies.
The graphic shows the success of both learning strategies across different content areas from the text that the students worked on.
Result of the study: Students with many deep strategies learn more and better than students with superficial learning strategies.
The right learning strategy for adults?
Students learn better with deep strategies. But can this also be applied to learning in adults?
I think: Of course! Learning is a lifelong process, and we apply such learning strategies not only in school but also in adulthood.
In professional adult education, you as a trainer or coach have various opportunities to support deep learning strategies for adults:
Build on the knowledge that your participants already have from their work-related experience and that they need daily.
Offer your participants various content, instead of just texts and images: For example, encourage them with videos and practical exercises to incorporate new knowledge into their professional context.
Motivate your participants to create sketches or mind maps to stimulate connections between different topics.
…and so on!
Conclusion: Deep strategies make learning sustainably effective
💡 Adults do not learn fundamentally differently than children, but sustainable learning occurs at any age when content is actively processed, linked, and integrated into their own context of experience.
The distinction between surface and deep strategies shows clearly: Pure repetition or rote learning is rarely sufficient to secure knowledge long-term. What matters is whether learners recognize connections, articulate content in their own words, and connect new knowledge with existing experiences.
Especially in professional development, there is enormous potential here. Adults already bring extensive practical experience. If training explicitly builds on this and encourages active engagement, genuine competency growth occurs instead of short-term factual knowledge.
For trainers, coaches, and those responsible for further education, this means: Successful learning depends less on the age of participants than on the chosen learning strategy. Those who promote deep strategies lay the foundation for sustainable development and lived lifelong learning.
Updated on 02/25/2026
