Plans and Strategy Use in Higher Education: A Narrative Review of Measurement Alignment

Abstract

Students may intend to use effective learning strategies without subsequently adopting them, but studies differ in how they measure that discrepancy. This narrative review examines how higher-education research connects prospective plans or intentions with later strategy use. Targeted searches and citation tracing through 22 October 2026 informed a qualitative comparison of plan specificity, timing, behavioral indicators and evidence coverage. (Blasiman et al., 2017; Rowell et al., 2021) compare intentions or plans with later study reports;  (David et al., 2026)  add repeated experience sampling; and (Hazlett et al., 2025) incorporate courseware traces. Across these examples, prospective correspondence and intervention-related changes in average strategy use are distinct outcomes. Some retrieval-practice interventions increase use, whereas implementation intentions do not consistently increase distributed practice. Self-reports cover activity across settings but depend on recall; logs document recorded activity while omitting off-platform study. Four provisional dimensions organize these contrasts: content correspondence, temporal coupling, evidence source and coverage, and contextual opportunity. The framework requires independent coding and prospective validation. The review offers a focused interpretation of measurement choices, not exhaustive coverage or a pooled causal estimate.