To encode and store new ideas in long-term memory, we need to encounter and use them many times, ideally in real-life conditions. Once knowledge is assimilated into long-term memory, we can retrieve it and connect it to new content, contexts or problems — and this continues the process of learning.
Having a store of knowledge in long-term memory means that working memory capacity and attention can be freed up to process new things , which is extremely important for managing cognitive load and not becoming quickly overwhelmed.
Well, research shows that testing our memory is more effective than simply studying the content again and again. And in combination, these contribute to the development of complex skills.
This distinction matters because different types of practice are suited to different types of knowledge. But more complex skills, like learning to knead dough or to use a handheld gaming device, require a combination of declarative and procedural knowledge. To move new ideas from our working memory to our long-term memory, we need to encounter them many times, ideally in real-life conditions. This might help us remember , but does it help us learn?
This holds true across domains as diverse as sport, music, and others. Ericsson , p. They found reliable differences in the weekly amount of practice alone deliberate practice , but not in the total amount of music-related activity experience.
The expert musicians with the higher levels of performance practiced alone for about 25 hours per week, three times more than the less accomplished expert musicians. This kind of focused, intentional practice involves well-defined activities which are pitched appropriately for the learner not over- or under-challenging , providing the opportunity to repeat , to spot mistakes and to be given useful corrective feedback.
More on this in just a moment! This means hard work — but hard work which should eventually pay dividends. Merely highlighting and rereading texts are not generally effective approaches to really developing expertise , for example. And for educators and learning designers, this means we should provide a wide variety of task types and complexity, r evisit content frequently , give good feedback and use this feedback as a springboard for further instruction.
If you chose A, you might be surprised. But this might actually be because many studies involve testing memory of new content almost immediately. As we saw in Principle 2, there are different types of knowledge — declarative what to do — facts, figures, dates, rules and procedural how to do it.
So distributing study over the course of several days is likely to be more helpful than spreading it out through just one day. For more complex skills such as proficiency in a new piece of software, learning to knead dough, using a handheld gaming device , we need to combine both declarative and procedural knowledge. In this case, spacing out practice may help at first for remembering the elements or steps involved; but to make a new procedure more automatic, a more experiential learning process a.
Release the accelerator pedal and, at the same time, press the clutch down. Move the gear stick gently but positively from one position to another. Release the clutch slowly and simultaneously press down on the accelerator.
Few of us have fond memories of taking tests at school. Especially in the case of declarative knowledge, repeated study re-reading and highlighting, for example might seem more effective than repeated testing in the short-term; but for long-term recall, research shows that testing is actually more effective — particularly when the stakes are low, as in a pop quiz or end-of-unit review, as opposed to a career-influencing high-stakes exam. In a study, researchers Roediger and Karpicke gave three groups a short text to read and remember.
But while the first group re-read the text several times before taking a final memory test a week later, the other two groups had at least one practice test before the final memory test. So the most effective way to move new information into your long-term memory is to frequently and actively try to remember it. But when we do this, getting corrective feedback is particularly important.
And what about the feedback learners get on their efforts? Certainly not. It needs to be meaningful to learners, clearly explained and focusing their attention so they understand the gap in their knowledge and can then fill it.
Feedback needs to be detailed enough for the learner to monitor and evaluate their own knowledge, behaviour, strategies and progress. In this sense, good feedback overlaps with further instruction, by reshaping and developing what the learner already knows.
And of course, feedback can focus either on the task itself or on how the learner approached it. This could involve showing learners how to do a task more effectively next time, relating the feedback to their learning goals, and encouraging the learner to take more responsibility for their own learning success. In an ideal world, everyone would have the necessary motivation, skills, support and self-awareness to direct their own learning effectively, as well as enough time and minimal pressure or other constraints.
But in the real world, we often find ourselves needing to learn something fast because of some kind of pressure from external factors. Maybe an employer is starting a new initiative to upskill the workforce, or perhaps a change in life circumstances has suddenly prompted a need for new skills or qualifications.
For adult learners with plenty of other priorities and other demands on their time, as learning designers we have to be confident that the experiences we design will actually work. This breaks the three principles down into sub-principles, with ideas for how each can be applied. This article is based on a series of blog posts written by Laura Patsko. Laura led the research and development of our learning design principles and wrote the Learning Design Principles whitepaper.
Laura has worked with LearnJam on a number of projects recently. Laura is a freelance language and pedagogy consultant, maker, speaker, writer, walker and traveller — not necessarily in that order. Agarwal, P. The value of applied research: Retrieval practice improves classroom learning and recommendations from a teacher, a principal, and a scientist. Educational Psychology Review , 24 3 , — BBC [Coughlan, S. Bird, C. The hippocampus and memory: Insights from spatial processing.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience , 9 3 , — Bjork, E. Gernsbacher, R. Pew, L. Hough, J. Pomerantz Eds. Breckwoldt, J. Burns, A. Taipei, Taiwan. November Butler, D.
Feedback and self-regulated learning: A theoretical synthesis. Review of Educational Research , 65 3 , — Cepeda, N. Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin , , — Cognitive load theory: Research that teachers really need to understand.
Cheek, D. Hokanson, G. Tracey Eds. Having a hobby to take your mind off work will help you focus more when you need to. When you arrive at Bellerbys you will be given a class timetable. This will help you to organise how you spend your time. This is a really good thing to do, especially when you know you have a lot of work to do.
Five ways to make your learning more effective. Five ways to make your learning more effective 08 March Compassionate - Has empathy for others by showing care and respect. Values a strong sense of justice and fairness. Courageous - Is not afraid of uncertainty and is prepared to take risks. Understands that making mistakes is part of the learning process. Is resilient, mentally tough and persistent in the face of challenges. Creative - Is prepared to try things out, generate new ideas or improve on old ideas.
In the process of coming to common understandings, students in a group must frequently inform each other about procedures and meanings, argue over findings, and assess how the task is progressing.
In the context of team responsibility, feedback and communication become more realistic and of a character very different from the usual individualistic textbook-homework-recitation approach. In science, conclusions and the methods that lead to them are tightly coupled. The nature of inquiry depends on what is being investigated, and what is learned depends on the methods used. Science teaching that attempts solely to impart to students the accumulated knowledge of a field leads to very little understanding and certainly not to the development of intellectual independence and facility.
Science teachers should help students to acquire both scientific knowledge of the world and scientific habits of mind at the same time. Understanding rather than vocabulary should be the main purpose of science teaching. Some technical terms are therefore helpful for everyone, but the number of essential ones is relatively small. If teachers introduce technical terms only as needed to clarify thinking and promote effective communication, then students will gradually build a functional vocabulary that will survive beyond the next test.
For teachers to concentrate on vocabulary, however, is to detract from science as a process, to put learning for understanding in jeopardy, and to risk being misled about what students have learned. Science is more than a body of knowledge and a way of accumulating and validating that knowledge. It is also a social activity that incorporates certain human values. However, they are all highly characteristic of the scientific endeavor. In learning science, students should encounter such values as part of their experience, not as empty claims.
This suggests that teachers should strive to do the following:. Science, mathematics, and technology do not create curiosity. Thus, science teachers should encourage students to raise questions about the material being studied, help them learn to frame their questions clearly enough to begin to search for answers, suggest to them productive ways for finding answers, and reward those who raise and then pursue unusual but relevant questions.
In the science classroom, wondering should be as highly valued as knowing. Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers prize the creative use of imagination. Indeed, teachers can express their own creativity by inventing activities in which students' creativity and imagination will pay off. Science, mathematics, and engineering prosper because of the institutionalized skepticism of their practitioners. Their central tenet is that one's evidence, logic, and claims will be questioned, and one's experiments will be subjected to replication.
In science classrooms, it should be the normal practice for teachers to raise such questions as: How do we know? What is the evidence? What is the argument that interprets the evidence? Are there alternative explanations or other ways of solving the problem that could be better? The aim should be to get students into the habit of posing such questions and framing answers. Students should experience science as a process for extending understanding, not as unalterable truth.
This means that teachers must take care not to convey the impression that they themselves or the textbooks are absolute authorities whose conclusions are always correct. By dealing with the credibility of scientific claims, the overturn of accepted scientific beliefs, and what to make out of disagreements among scientists, science teachers can help students to balance the necessity for accepting a great deal of science on faith against the importance of keeping an open mind.
Many people regard science as cold and uninteresting. However, a scientific understanding of, say, the formation of stars, the blue of the sky, or the construction of the human heart need not displace the romantic and spiritual meanings of such phenomena. Teachers of science, mathematics, and technology should establish a learning environment in which students are able to broaden and deepen their response to the beauty of ideas, methods, tools, structures, objects, and living organisms.
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