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Ebbinghaus forgetting curve and why you should do your homework!
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve and why you should do your homework!
Inspired by Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, the video demonstrated the importance of reviews using evidence from a thought experiment. This is a perfect example of application of math in real life.
It is worth to mention that by "homework", I really just mean practice of any kind including music and sport practice. The term homework is chosen as it's simple and everyone understands what it means.
Rosenshine principle weekly and monthly review
Rosenshine principle weekly and monthly review
To better comprehend the reduction in cognitive load, picture a human brain as a warehouse. New information is analogous to an influx of goods. With more influx and less discrete and efficient organization, the warehouse becomes cluttered, greatly hindering storage and retrieval. Well, think of weekly and monthly review as acts of routine clearance, decluttering space, pruning overgrown paths, reducing cognitive load.
Let us delve into how weekly and monthly review reactivate newly learned material. Persistent engagement with freshly absorbed knowledge aids in retaining and reinforcing newly learnt information. You could perhaps view weekly and monthly review as small simple, sreps such as tending to a newly planted sapling, where regular watering, careful placement for ample sun and care helps to foster growth.
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve and the review cycle
According to Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, there is a strong correlation between memory and time. Gernally, forgetting occurs reapidly at first then slows down. In order to remember newly informed data, it is necssary to practice effective review methods.
Experiments have shown that if you memorize repeatedly within one hour, you will remember for one day, if you memorize one day later, you will remember for a week. Figure 1 (above) illustrates the effect of the review. When many forgetfulness occurs, the memory rate increases. The time when forgetfulness occurs is immediately after class, on the evening of the class, the next day, week, month, and so on [4,5]. Thus, it is suggested that four or five times review on what you have learned: right after the lesson, the evening, one week later, and one month later. Click here to read more.
A great article outlining Rosenshine's Principles 1 = Daily review and 10 = Weekly and monthly reviews.
The article also outlines Tom Sherrington's guidelines for effective reviewing:
(Read the entire article here)
Sherrington recommends that reviewing should be part of a regular teaching routine. Drawing upon Rosenshine’s ‘Principles’, Sherrington outlines the following seven guidelines for making daily, weekly and monthly reviewing ‘part of an effective and sustainable routine’ (Sherrington, 40)
1. Involve all students
Good reviewing techniques should ‘involve all students checking their knowledge’ (Sherrington, 40). Contrast this with questioning, where individual students might be asked about their learning in a particular lesson, and a different set of students in another lesson.
2. Make checking accurate and easy
It should be possible for students ‘to find out what they got right and wrong, what they know well and where they have gaps’ (Sherrington, 40). Good reviewing techniques ‘involve students testing their knowledge and then checking … for accuracy and completeness’. Sherrington notes that this applies more readily to simple retrieval activities; it doesn’t apply to more complex tasks, such as ‘giving students extended mark schemes to mark longer assessments’ (Sherrington, 40).
3. Specify the knowledge that retrieval should be based on
Students should ‘know the set of knowledge any retrieval will be based on, so they can study, prepare and self-check’. Sherrington adds that it ‘must be possible for students to check their own answers’ (Sherrington, 40). As a process of self-assessment, reviewing should be conducted by students independently to a significant degree.
4. Keep learning generative
Sherrington suggests that students should ‘think for themselves’ and ‘explore their memory to check what they know and understand’. Students should be expected to recall prior learning without prompts. So, he recommends employing retrieval practices where there are no memory prompts, avoiding resources such as cue cards, scaffolds, cheat-sheets or open books.
5. Vary the diet of teaching and learning methods
Employing a variety of teaching and learning methods helps ‘students to explore their schemata in different ways, strengthening future recall’ (Sherrington, 40). A ‘schema’ isa well-connected network of ideas (Sherrington, 19); reviewing should provide students with the opportunity to explore and consolidate their ideas and prior learning in a variety of ways.
6. Make retrieval practice time efficient
The final two guidelines Sherrington offers concern time and workload. His sixth guideline is don’t let retrieval practice dominate entire lessons.
7. Make retrieval practice workload efficient
Sherrington’s seventh guideline is that we should avoid allowing reviewing practices to create unsustainable teaching workloads. Sherrington writes that ‘The best methods do not involve the teacher checking the students’ answers. … A teacher might choose to check the occasional test but for routine practice, students should do it themselves’ (Sherrington, 40). So, the most effective reviewing, according to Rosenshine and Sherrington, is students checking their work for themselves.
We see from the above that independent learning is important to effective reviewing. The best reviewing methods involve students avoiding prompts, such as cue cards or open books, and require students to check and assess their own learning, rather than the teacher assessing students’ work.
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