Myron H. Dembo, BA '64 & MS '66

Learn how to learn

To those who believe American students are losing ground to their counterparts in other countries, the reality might be even more alarming:  Dr. Myron H. Dembo, BA, '64, MS, '66 is an educational psychologist who asserts that many of this country's students "haven't learned how to learn."

Dembo, Stephen Crocker Professor in Education at the University of Southern California (USC), should know.  This eminent educational psychologist has focused four decades of research, teaching and writing on education in America, specifically on how students learn and what motivates them.  "My position is that learning how to learn is more than remediation," Dembo says.  "Unless students know how to study, read, take notes and manage their time, they won't be successful - no matter how good the teaching is."

Dembo doesn't just talk about the issue.  He is actively trying to help students become better learners via a variety of strategies.  For instance, Dembo is author of a textbook that offers college students specific ways - including managing their time and generating questions while reading - to improve how they study and learn.   He regularly consults with principals, superintendents and administrators at community colleges who are trying to deal with some of the issues.  He has also written five editions of one of the most widely read textbooks in the field of teaching, Applying Educational Psychology.

Medical school model

Dembo also was chair of a committee that developed a new doctor of education degree program at USC.  Based on a medical school model, the program strives to help students learn how to solve problems and requires them to work together on their dissertations.  Says Dembo, "We're training practitioners to be more effective leaders by introducing program components designed to help them solve educational problems they'll face on the job."  Several universities nationwide are looking with interest at how USC is developing a new generation of education leaders.

Though he says the problems he sees exist in a range of settings, Dembo has concentrated much of his work over the years on improving the quality of urban education, an interest fostered while he studied at UB.  During his time there, the math major with a teacher education minor did his student teaching in downtown Buffalo, which, he says, "set the stage for my understanding of urban education."

Today, he works in an urban setting and focuses on schools that have very high dropout rates.  According to Dembo, improving U.S. dropout and retention rates is a dire need.  "We have these dropout rates," he says, "but we don't know what types of school reforms we need.  It doesn't matter how many schools you build, how you train teachers, how you implement accountability - if you don't teach students how to learn, you can't achieve outcomes.  But learning how to learn is neglected in the national dialog about school reform."

Motivating factors

Dembo's research shows that one of the key factors in learning is, indeed, motivation.  "We know that competition, a technique many teachers use, is not effective with low achievers.  So we look at how to develop classroom climates with less social comparison, less finding out who's best and worst.  We need to change classroom culture by developing more of a ‘mastery' orientation to learn as much as you can rather than competition and social comparison."

In addition to being awarded a named professorship at USC, Dembo's influence has been acknowledged in other ways.  The American Psychological Association elected him a Fellow, a recognition given to only the most highly recognized scholars in psychology.  He also served on the Board of Examiners that wrote the Advanced Education Test of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE).

Dembo continues his efforts to influence the education field through his teaching and scholarship.  But his bottom line is likely to stay firm: "Nationally we talk about school reform, but I'm concerned that better teachers and schools and books won't work unless we teach students how to function better as students."

Written by Grace Lazzara

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