It takes ‘three or four experiences involving interaction with relevant information for a new knowledge construct to be created in working memory and then transferred to long-term memory’ (Nuthall, 2000, p.93).
Strategy Overview:
What is it?
Multiple exposures provide students with multiple opportunities to encounter, engage with, and elaborate on new knowledge and skills. It is not simple repetition or drill work. Research demonstrates that deep learning is developed over time via multiple and spaced interactions with new knowledge and concepts. This may require distributing practice across several days, and using different activities to vary the interactions learners have with the new knowledge.
How effective is it?
Research demonstrates that multiple exposures greatly improve learner retention of new knowledge. It is most effective when exposures are used deliberately to assist learners to master new knowledge and skills, and when the exposures are spaced over time. Massed practice is less effective with an effect size of 0.41.
Considerations
Multiple exposures are most effective when strategically spread over time, as part of a unit and/or lesson structure. To make the repetition meaningful, it is essential to clearly state the link between the learning intentions and the work being done. Multiple exposures require planning and structure. They provide opportunities to engage, and re-engage, with concepts and ideas, and to practice new skills in different contexts. Planned, intentional repetition supports transfer of learning from earlier exposures to later exposures. It is vital to offer feedback on how well a student is achieving the learning goals. Timely feedback on practice remediates student misunderstandings and prevents them repeating mistakes in multiple exposures. Feedback also informs teacher practice and pinpoints where teaching strategies need be adapted.
This strategy is demonstrated when the teacher:
links multiple exposures to the learning goals
plans units of work that clearly identify new knowledge and skills that will benefit from multiple exposures
uses a variety of learning and assessment tasks that vary students’ interactions with the knowledge and/or skills, and support transfer of learning.
This strategy is not demonstrated when the teacher:
repeats the same activity many times with no variation in context, resulting in dull repetition
does not provide timely feedback, resulting in students repeating mistakes multiple times.
This strategy is demonstrated when students:
consolidate their learning through opportunities that engage and re-engage them with new content over a period of time
feel supported and confident about new learning
Example that illustrate the strategy:
The Humanities teachers of a high school identified the need to actively and consistently address literacy skills as part of their everyday teaching. By building the core vocabulary of their students, they aimed to support them to engage more deeply with complex issues and ideas. Working with a literacy coach, they planned and trialed a yearlong intervention designed to expose students to carefully selected ‘target words’ linked with the learning area content. The intervention sought to reinforce the use and meaning of target words via multiple exposures over a period of time. Working in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), teachers reviewed the unit topics to identify a list of content specific vocabulary all students need to understand and be able to use. They then pre-tested students to identify levels of understanding. The teachers collaborated to design learning activities that incorporated multiple exposures in different contexts over the year. Their intent was to teach and reinforce specific vocabulary and support transfer of learning across the planned units of work. Students initially encountered the words when reading a text or watching a video. From the moment a new word was introduced, students were exposed to it repeatedly via ‘friendly descriptions’ of what the word meant. Other strategies included using a vocabulary log, drawing a picture of the word, peer discussion on how and when to use the word, and consolidation activities at the end of each lesson. Over time, the use of the words was reinforced via ‘Do Now’ activities at the start of each lesson. These activities included games such as Pictionary, traffic light cups, homework activities, self-assessment and vocabulary walls. The PLC monitored the intervention’s implementation and at the end of the year teachers measured the impact of multiple exposures on student learning. The initiative was particularly successful because at the end of each unit students were able to track their progress by comparing their pretest scores to the final vocabulary test scores.
Continuum of Practice:
Emerging
The teacher uses repetition to review and reinforce new learning, particularly when introducing new concepts and skills. Professional learning activities focus on building teachers’ understanding of evidence based high impact teaching strategies.
Evolving
The teacher plans the use of repetition to review and reinforce new concepts and skills, explicitly linking each exposure to the learning goals. The teacher assesses student competence at each stage and provides timely feedback to remediate student misunderstandings and/or mistakes. Teachers work in Professional Learning Communities to develop multiple exposures learning activities in different contexts which support transfer of learning
Embedding
Across learning areas, teachers are skilled in planning and structuring multiple exposures. Teachers collaboratively plan and develop learning and assessment activities that incorporate multiple exposures. Teachers analyse a range of data, including student feedback, to measure the impact of multiple exposures on student learning and to evaluate their effectiveness.
Excelling
Use of multiple exposures is deliberate, systematic and embedded in lesson and unit structures, and applied strategically to support knowledge acquisition, transfer of knowledge and deep understanding. An integrated, whole-school approach to using high impact teaching strategies is implemented, and regular monitoring and evaluation processes ensure teacher accountability
Evidence Base:
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Milton Park, UK: Routledge.
Gardner, H. (1999). The disciplined mind: What all students should understand. New York, USA: Simon & Schuster.
Lemov, D. (2015). Teach like a champion 2.0: 62 techniques that put students on the path to college. San Francisco, USA: Jossey-Bass.
Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, USA: ASCD.
Nuthall, G.A. (2000). ‘The role of memory in the acquisition and retention of knowledge in science and social studies units.’ Cognition and Instruction, 18(1), 83-139.