21st Century Learning and Teaching

This phenomenon — testing yourself on an idea or concept to help you remember it — is called the “testing effect” or “retrieval practice.” People have known about the idea for centuries. Sir Francis Bacon mentioned it, as did the psychologist William James. In 350 BCE, Aristotle wrote that “exercise in repeatedly recalling a thing strengthens the memory.”

But the testing effect had been mostly overlooked in recent years. “What psychologists interested in learning and memory have always emphasized is the acquisition part. The taking [information] in and getting it into memory,” Roediger said.

Laypeople — and even experts — tend to think of human memory as a box to be packed with information.

“Memory is dynamic, and it keeps changing,” McDaniel said. “And retrieval helps it change.”

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http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Brain

— Breaking up and spacing out study time over days or weeks can substantially boost how much of the material students retain, and for longer, compared to lumping everything into a single, nose-to-the-grindstone session.

— Varying the studying environment — by hitting the books in, say, a cafe or garden rather than only hunkering down in the library, or even by listening to different background music — can help reinforce and sharpen the memory of what you learn.

— A 15-minute break to go for a walk or trawl on social media isn’t necessarily wasteful procrastination. Distractions and interruptions can allow for mental “incubation” and flashes of insight — but only if you’ve been working at a problem for a while and get stuck, according to a 2009 research meta-analysis.

— Quizzing oneself on new material, such as by reciting it aloud from memory or trying to tell a friend about it, is a far more powerful way to master information than just re-reading it, according to work by researchers including Henry Roediger III and Jeffrey Karpicke. (Roediger has co-authored his own book, “Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.”)

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https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/time-the-most-important-factor-neglected-in-education/

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Brain