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1. Spaced practice
Perhaps the most significant fact we know about learning. Knowledge is easy to
learn but hard to retain. We forget things quickly and that the most effective
way to prevent this forgetting is to practice at spaced intervals over time.
Math class needs a little homework every night, but not overkill. 15 - 20 minutes maximum. Don't
do it all in one bang, even if it is easier to "get it over" or it fits a schedule better.
2. Cognitive overload
3. Chunking
Perhaps the easiest and simplest piece of learning theory to put into practice.
Chunking means being sensitive to the limitation of working memory. Less is
more in learning and distilling, rather than enhancing, elaborating and creating
lots of distracting noise, is a virtue in teaching.
Whenever a teacher or a student can put a couple of ideas or skills into a “package”,
they are creating a far greater possibility of success. This is one reason why I like the
algebra tiles with their specific set of rules that help chunk together ideas of negative
numbers, equality and distributive property into one “game like” scenario.
4. Order
The order you learn things is critical to how they will be stored and recalled, yet
education and training continues to jumble and confuse content. Learn things in
the wrong order and you’ll end up having to unlearn.
This is crucial. When I talk to math educators, or educators in general, I often leave
wondering if they have a sense of scope and sequence of the material they are
covering. Does it make logical sense? Did they create it or are they simply using the
text guidelines. Ownership of the sequence guarantees a better outcome in my
experience.
6. Psychological attention
Learning does not take place without psychological attention, so setting up
classrooms and scenarios that inhibit attention, or distract from learning, is
massively counter-productive. The bottom line is that much learning is best done
on your own or one-to-one.
I need relative quiet to learn. I can listen and absorb classroom or lecture material, but
I need time on my own to make the learning my own. That is why teaching has been
such a powerful learning experience for me. I often find myself in chaotic classrooms
where learning is sporadic at best. Walk into a calm, focussed classroom, where
everyone is on task, and the difference is notable. I don’t see enough of this, to be
honest.
7. Context
We know that recall is enhanced by learning in the physical context in which one
is expected to perform. Real world uses need to be pervasive.
The “when will we ever need this?” question needs to be respected. We educators
need good, convincing answers that go beyond the “next year” response (although
that is not a bad answer to start with in my opinion). Math educators in particular fall
into this trap: connect our topics, concepts and skills to other arenas: sports, sciences,
history, games etc. Do that on a regular basis and our students will benefit from at
least imagining the possibilities.
8. Learn by doing
We know that we learn lots by doing, yet much teaching and training is locked
into a over-theoretical, knowledge and not skills, model.
Of course, less teacher talk and more student work on a subject. No brainer.