Research Reveals 4 Surprising Facts About Learning

Scientific research often requires us to rethink how things work. Here a four facts that get us thinking the right way about how learning works.

00:00 Fact 1
1:07 Fact 2
3:13 Fact 3
5:06 Fact 4
6:53 A cool thing to do

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References

On the testing effect:

Karpicke, J. D. (2012). Retrieval-Based Learning: Active Retrieval Promotes Meaningful Learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(3), 157–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412443552

Pan, S. C., & Rickard, T. C. (2018). Transfer of test-enhanced learning: Meta-analytic review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 144(7), 710–756. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000151 (testing effects do transfer)

Jensen, J. L., McDaniel, M. A., Kummer, T. A., Godoy, P. D. D. M., & St. Clair, B. (2020). Testing Effect on High-Level Cognitive Skills. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 19(3), ar39. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.19-10-0193 (testing effect works for “high-level” questions; not just low-level questions)

On the deceptiveness of immediate measures, see:

Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. Psychology and the real world: Essays illustrating fundamental contributions to society, 2(59-68).

On the importance of prior knowledge and for an interesting overview of how learning works:

John Bransford, Nancy Vye, Reed Stevens, Pat Kuhl, Daniel Schwartz, et al.. Learning Theories
and Education: Toward a Decade of Synergy. P. Alexander & P. Winne. Handbook of Educational
Psychology (2nd Edition), Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum., 95 p., 2005. ffhal-00190628f. https://telearn.hal.science/hal-00190...

On the fraction study:

Patel, R., Liu, R., & Koedinger, K. R. (2016). When to Block versus Interleave Practice? Evidence Against Teaching Fraction Addition before Fraction Multiplication. In CogSci.

For other ideas about ordering effects, see:

Schwartz, D. L., & Bransford, J. D. (1998). A time for telling. Cognition and instruction, 16(4), 475-5223. https://aaalab.stanford.edu/assets/pa...

Fyfe, E. R., DeCaro, M. S., & Rittle‐Johnson, B. (2014). An alternative time for telling: When conceptual instruction prior to problem solving improves mathematical knowledge. British journal of educational psychology, 84(3), 502-519. https://louisville.edu/psychology/dec...