Man oh man! Life has been busy, with lots of unexpected surprises (e.g. no internet connection for four days…IN TWENTY-FOURTEEN – COME ON!), so I’m a bit late to the TT punch. However, I’ve been reading How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why it Happens by Benedict Carey (of which I had much time to read this past weekend), and there was a concept I found incredibly interesting: Spaced (or distributed) Learning.
I think what I found most interesting was the research that went into the findings related to spaced learning – it would have taken some dedication, that’s for sure! And while it certainly seems like an effective method for learning, it still baffles me and I’m not sure I could commit to such study practices on my own.
What is Spaced Learning?
Spaced learning is a learning method wherein an individual must learn a series of information (often quite dense in nature). In order to optimize learning and retention, spaced learning posits that one should space their study activities out, with distractions in between. For example, you have three sessions of study – one 10 minute session with a 3 hour gap in between, the next study session is 10 minutes with 1 day in between, and the final study session typically occurs in close proximity to the formal test (e.g. the night before). Spaced learning has been shown to enhance retention, allowing learners to score higher than their colleagues who are not implementing a spaced learning method for their studying.
Essentially, spaced learning makes memories more memorable! Neat, eh?
Resources
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