Week 2

between problems and adapt appropriate solutions to the situation. It doesn't seem as easy or as comfortable as rereading, but studies on the brain have shown that this deeper learning uses a more complex part of the brain and permits more flexibility with the knowledge. There are three critical aspects of training used for complex mastery which can be used across many fields. Studies show that practicing the experience, repeated retrieval, and reflection are keys to deep, durable learning. Using these aspects with interleaving and varied practice reinforce durable learning. It is important to note the difference between blocked practice and varied practice. Blocked practice, commonly used in sports, requires you to practice in sequence, but practicing different components. An example of blocked practice would be to practice flashcards in the same order. The better option would be to shuffle the flashcards creating varied learning.

The authors tell the story of another study with a baseball team. One team practiced the same pitch over and over and the other team practiced different pitches. The result was that the team that practiced different pitches actually performed better. This is an example of massed practice verses interleaving practice. The players that practiced the same pitch appeared to be getting better in the short-term, but the players that received random balls had to work harder and performed better in the long-term. Brown et. al., (2014) state that when practice conditions are varied or retrieval is interleaved with the practice of other material, we increase our abilities of discrimination and induction and the versatility with which we can apply the learning in new settings at a later date.

The authors help us understand that difficulty can be desirable by describing a three-step process of learning which includes encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. Encoding involves holding the new information in short-term memory. The next step is for the information to be organized and related to past experiences in long-term memory and then given meaning. This step is consolidation. The final step is retrieval. This step requires us to practice, apply, and re-consolidate what we have learned. Brown et. al., (2014) state to be desirable, a difficulty must be something learners can overcome through increased effort. Trying to solve a problem before you are told how to solve it leads to better learning and with corrective feedback helps you better retain that knowledge.

McDaniel's first point in the video is that rereading is not effective. However, the majority of students study by rereading material. Experiments in the classroom show no benefit in learning gains. He states rereading creates cues that mislead students into believing they know the material. Rereading creates fluency where the student reads faster and becomes familiar with the material. McDaniel's suggests that instructors try to generate understanding by getting the student to ask why, how or what if questions. This will cause the student to build mental models by relating the information to knowledge already in memory. The more complex the material the better learning improves when there are difficulties. An experiment in the classroom proved that students using mini writing and asking the question why, improves the learning over students just copying the answer to study.

McDaniel's third point is that spaced presentation and learning should be used over mass presentation and learning. He reveals the data from experiments in two different classrooms, one medical school and one online tutoring program. Evidence proves spaced techniques provides the bigger gain in learning. He emphasizes that this is an easy change to make in classrooms.

McDaniel's fourth point is intermixing presentation and practice improves learning better than block presentation and practice. He shows an experiment in the classroom with math students. When students worked on math problems and interleaving concepts, they performed better on tests later in the semester than student learning one problem or concept at a time (block). The same results happened with a group of art students. He emphasizes that it is an easy change in the classroom by changing the way instructors assign homework. His final point is that testing promotes learning and transfer. Students should be reading, reciting and reviewing to help improve their learning. He recommends that instructors should be giving more low or no stake quizzes in the classroom.

receive knowledge. Employers want talent that possess the skills already. Many job seekers have encoded knowledge but have not consolidated it by attaching it to experiences. Many employers have remained inflexible about offering new hires on-the-job learning or apprenticeships even though the government has created many incentives to encourage the business owners. Training is very accessible today with online and digital modules that can be integrated into an employees workday. This training can be interleaved with work activities to help with consolidation and retrieval of the knowledge. Furthermore, employers can design engaging training modules specific to their needs using the strategies of learning from this workshop. It’s important that our younger workforce is encouraged to learn on the job and equally important that the employers encourage their learning. This can include pairing them with a mentor, letting them try to solve a problem without showing them how and allowing them to make mistakes, providing opportunities to train online and following up with asking them questions about what they learned and how it would apply to their job.

Offering employees small bites of information throughout the day and allowing them to set their own training goals is a much better solution to the massed workshops and seminars that are currently used in most companies.

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

fandmcollege. (2015, April 8). Making learning stick: Evidence and insights to improve teaching and learning [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=japP8Cr0q6g

Larry King. (2016, April 22). Anders Ericsson on the science of expertise Larry King Now Ora TV [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gn3f8sEb8Y

1. What is the difference between blocked practice and varied practice? (LO #2)
   1. Blocked practice requires you to practice in sequence. Varied practice requires your practice to be mixed up or shuffled.
2. Name three benefits from using mixed up practice? (LO #1)
   1. Has better versatility.
   2. Produces better mastery.
   3. Provides longer retention.
3. What is the three step process of learning? (LO #3)
   1. Encoding
   2. Consolidation
   3. Retrieval
4. Name three ways you can assess what your employees learned in your training. (LO #4)
   1. Quiz at the end of the workshop.
   2. Survey after workshop with reflective question.
   3. Creating an online toolkit.

Bonus question:

5. What are the key ideas from this module?

1. There are at least three ways you can mix up your practice, spaced out, interleaving and varied.
2. Massed practice or easy learning creates fast gains in knowledge and preferred by most people, but embracing difficult learning will help with mastering the material and retrieving the information later.