Tag Archives: interleaving

College Students Sitting in Hallway

How Students (Think They) Learn: The Plusses and Minuses of “Interleaving”

As the school year begins, teachers want to know: can mind/brain research give us strategies to foster learning? We might also wonder: what will our students think of those strategies? It seems plausible — even likely — that students will



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A “Noisy” Problem: What If Research Contradicts Students’ Beliefs?

The invaluable Peps Mccrea recently wrote about a vexing problem in education: the “noisy relationship between teaching and learning.” In other words: I can’t really discern EXACTLY what parts of my teaching helped my students learn. Was it my content



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The Best Kind of Practice for Students Depends on the Learning Goal

In some ways, teaching ought to be straightforward. Teachers introduce new material (by some method or another), and we have our students practice (by some method or another). Result: THEY (should) LEARN. Alas, both classroom experience and psychology/neuroscience research suggest



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Conflicting Advice: What to Do When Cognitive Science Strategies Clash?

Teachers like research-informed guidance because it offers a measure of certainty. “Why do you run your classes that way?” “Because RESEARCH SAYS SO!” Alas, we occasionally find that research encourages AND DISCOURAGES the same strategy simultaneously. What to do when



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cognitive science principles

Pro Tips: How To Think Like A Cognitive Scientist

A short, “intensive” college course might seem like a good idea. However, essential cognitive science principles suggest that students will learn less in them. Researchers consistently show that it’s better to spread learning out over time, and that easy learning doesn’t last. Continue reading



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