Distribution is the first 'Inexpensive Technique to Improve Education'.
The founding principle here is that repetition of material benefits memory. Going beyond that, it is claimed that spacing out these repetitions makes them even more beneficial. A really interesting thing about this principle is that despite coming from cognitive psychology, it’s actually pretty old: the benefits of distributing practice were first described in 1885. It is also quite a simple idea. Typically, the researchers explain, teachers introduce students to a knew skill, or to a new piece of knoweledge, and them have them practice using it. Maths teachers might explain pythagorus theorem to their students, for example, and then have students practice using it again and again within the lesson and then perhaps for homework. While they don’t reject the value of this practice, the writers insist that we should not mistake students’ abilities to perform a new skill - or remember a new fact or definition - within the relatively short time frame of a lesson for genuine mastery or, even, progress. More valuable, they argue, is to distribute this practice over a longer time frame. This makes intuitive sense. I play better golf by the time I’ve reached the fifteenth tee than I did on the first, second or third holes. But I shouldn’t assume that I’ve made meaningful progress as a golfer over this time. If I really want, or need, to get better at golf, then I need to play more often than every three months. If I distributed that practice throughout those three months, I would get better. So how do we do that in the classroom? Here’s what they say: “Teachers can incorporate distributed practice into students’ learning by reviewing topics covered in previous lectures at the beginning of each class and/or giving homework assignments that include items from previous chapters”. A couple of things that I’ve tried: make a bank of quiz questions at the start of a Scheme of Work that I can space, and repeat, throughout the term, and beyond; use (or reuse) activities intended as plenaries as starters in subsequent lessons. If you're interested in reading more. Try these: "Ask the Cognitive Scientist: DIstributed vs. Massed Practice", Dan WIllingham (Cognitive Pyschologist). "Round and Round we go: Teaching English in Spirals", Andy Tharby (English Teacher). "A Week Working at UCLA in the Bjork Learning and Forgetting Lab", WIlliam Emeny (Maths Teacher).
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