Week 2

SMART Learning Objectives

At the end of the tutorial, students will define Varied Practice and Interleaved Practice.
At the end of the tutorial, students will identify a benefit of Active Learning.
At the end of the tutorial, students will identify a critical requirement for Generative Learning.
At the end of the tutorial, students will define the definition of an expert.

Content Summaries

Chapter 3

Practice, practice, practice, the most common advice students hear when trying to learn a new topic or skill, but is it the correct advice? This chapter focuses on the research that demonstrates the typical massed practice techniques used (work on one topic, then move on to another) during learning which are ineffective at establishing lasting results. One alternative is Spaced Practice, which calls for learning to be spaced out with time in between activities, instead of lumping everything into one session (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014). For example, instead of learning everything about the Civil War in one topic, space it out along a couple weeks and revisit it every other day.

Another technique that can be controversial is Interleaved Practice, which "shuffles" the practice of topics and / or techniques within a session (Brown et al., 2014). For example, switching between varied forms of practicing three point shots, defense, lay-ups, and rebounds within the same basketball practice session. This technique can be controversial because the switch happens before the students / players feel like they have mastered one item, before moving on to the next. Obviously this can create frustration, however continued studies and research show that this forces the brain to work harder to process the knowledge and skills into long term memory (Brown et al., 2014).

A third technique which challenges the brain is Varied Practice, which requires the student to recall knowledge and skills in different contexts than those used for learning (Brown et al., 2014). This forces the brain to develop stronger connections between the knowledge and the circumstances involved. An obvious example is in the medical field, where doctors constantly experience different situations to which they have to apply their knowledge and skills (Brown et al., 2014).

Chapter 4

A boy who loves butterflies skipped through a garden, enjoying the fluttering beauty around him. As he passed by a tree, he noticed a poor butterfly on a leaf, stuck inside it's cocoon. The boy brought the leaf with the butterfly inside and gently cut away the cocoon. Elated that he helped a butterfly, the boy waited for it to fly away, but it didn't look right. The butterfly was swollen and eventually died. What the boy didn't realize is that butterflies need the challenge of squeezing out of a cocoon in order to properly form the wings to fly away.

In learning, greater effort often produces long term results. In this chapter, this is presented as Desirable Difficulties, which combined with timely corrective feedback, forces the brain to create more solid connections to knowledge (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014). This happens naturally with the learning techniques introduced in the previous chapter. Forcing the brain to work harder to retrieve knowledge solidifies that learning.

One method that takes advantage of desirable difficulties is Generative learning, which is the effort of trying to solve a problem before learning how, or in other words "trial and error" (Brown et al., 2014). According to research and studies, experiencing failure while trying a new task opens the mind to accept the knowledge on how to complete that task. However care must be taken with this technique, since many people immediately associate failure with a lack of ability, instead of using it as a form of learning, and an opportunity to try again (Brown et al., 2014).

Mark McDaniel: Making Learning Stick: Evidence and Insights to Improve Teaching and Learning Video

In this video, Mark McDaniel speaks to a group of faculty and staff about the benefits of active learning. He encourages them to not have students repeat material over and over, instead to help them understand it by asking "why".

A few techniques that Mark shares are Spaced Study, Interleaved Practice, and the use of low stakes or no stakes quizzes to help enforce learning (Fandmcollege 2015).

Anders Ericsson on the Science of Expertise Video

In this video, Larry King interviews Anders Ericsson to determine the definition and the criterion of an expert. Simply put, an expert is someone who can achieve an exceptional performance in his or her task or field. In addition, that performance must be repeatable, and must be improved via feedback and practice (King 2016). Ericsson provides an example of an expert music performer observing the audience's response to the performance, which encourages that performer to further improve for the next performance.

Connections to Field and/or Discipline

Spaced Practice and Interleaved Practice are very interesting, and yet somewhat counter-intuitive, however they do make sense. Having taught grades 7-12 for eight years, I have seen the massed practice techniques used over and over, with little results. Exams were always stressful, and students whom I observed always were frustrated with the difficult topics of their classes. Reflecting back on those times, I find it interesting that the classes that weren't stressed over were the music and stage design courses. The Space and Interleaved practice techniques were naturally used since the students had to either practice different pieces of music at different times in preparation for a concert, or experience difference situations while building sets for the stage. In my own classes, the projects and assignments that were difficult and required the students to press forward, were retained better than the easier projects. In fact, to this day, I see students who have long since graduated still remember and use what they've learned from those difficult projects in my classes.

Suggestions for Implementation

The techniques in these chapters can be difficult to implement in a high school, since they are more difficult, and can appear foreign to both teachers and students. Initially, the Spaced Practice and Generative Learning would be better accepted and implemented, especially in traditionally difficult classes like history and math. The Interleaved Practice would require teachers willing to take a chance, since the initial frustration would be quite the impediment.

In a history class, Spaced Learning and asking the students "why" would be helpful when covering difficult topics like the Cold War, for example. Often students simply memorize the information just for the test, but asking them why certain events in the Cold War were significant would generate discussion on how those events still impact us today.

Formative Assessment

Congratulations on completing this tutorial!

Use this Learn activity to quiz yourself on what you have learned.

References

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning [Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

Fandmcollege. (2015, April 8). Mark McDaniel: Making learning stick: Evidence and insights to improve teaching and learning [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=japP8Cr0q6g

Larry King. (2016, April 22). Anders Ericsson on the science of expertise [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gn3f8sEb8Y

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