johnywrites.com

Category: Learning Science

  • Tweet: Classroom retrieval practice

    ​A new study conducted by Dr. Lisa K. Fazio, “Retrieval practice opportunities in middle school mathematics’ teacher’s oral questions.”, shows that many teachers promote more active forms of learning like retrieval practice, but the research suggests that some of the other hallmarks of active learning, like waiting for students to respond, are not occurring. 

    The study attempted to examine how often and what type of questions teachers ask that require retrieval practice.
     
    It also looked if teachers whose students showed high growth in mathematics achievement used retrieval questions differently from teachers whose students showed low growth.
     
    The researchers found, on average, that middle school mathematics teachers asked a whopping 210 questions per hour, or 3.5 per minute.
     
    The study also pointed to three hypothesized areas that are necessary for student learning and, unfortunately, are often missing from the classroom:
     
    • time to respond,
    • a norm of participation, and
    • questions that require effortful retrieval.
     
    Time to respond: Ideally, teachers should wait a few seconds for students to process a question, think, and formulate a response.
     
    A norm of participation: It’s the idea that the majority of students need to be engaged in the classroom if retrieval questions are to improve classroom performance.
     
    Effortful retrieval: The level of difficulty often corresponds to the quality of learning. In other words, harder retrievals are more valuable for students.

  • Tweet: IQ test and Chess. Intelligence among chess players VS Intelligence in IQ test ? Local Or universal?

    Read the study mentioned: Deliberate practice: Is that all it takes to become an expert?

    This study looked at the findings of studies done by Anders Ericsson et al which proposed that expert performance reflects a long period of deliberate practice rather than innate ability, or “talent”.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  • Tweet: Desirable difficulties and learning

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.

     

    Desirable difficulties are difficulties which challenge the comfort but ends up creating long term desirable effects(Learning).
     
    The concept of “desirable difficulties” was developed by Robert Bjork of UCLA. In his research, he noticed various kinds of experimental phenomena which indicated the emergence of 2 predominant patterns in learning.
    They are:
    1. Conditions of instruction or practice (learning) that make performance improve rapidly often fail to support long term retention and transfer. Whereas,
    2. Conditions of instruction or practice(learning) that appear to create difficulties for the learner, slowing the rate of apparent learning, often optimizes long term retention and transfer.
    The first one accelerates the learning(Or speeds up learning), the second one slows down learning by introducing difficulties that benefit long term retention and transfer. These difficulties are what Robert BJORK Calls Desirable difficulties.
     
    {Retention means having the information stored in long-term memory in such a way that it can be readily retrieved. Transfer refers to learning in one context and applying it to another.}
     
    The difficulties in the latter category are called desirable difficulties because they enhance the very goal of learning, ie retention and transfer. They are difficulties because they pose challenges and they slow down the rate of performance.

  • Tweet: Sans Forgetica and Desirable Difficulty.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Desirable difficulties are difficulties which challenge the comfort but ends up creating long term desirable effects(Learning).
     
    The concept of “desirable difficulties” was developed by Robert Bjork of UCLA. In his research, he noticed various kinds of experimental phenomena which indicated the emergence of 2 predominant patterns in learning.
    They are:
    1. Conditions of instruction or practice (learning) that make performance improve rapidly often fail to support long term retention and transfer. Whereas,
    2. Conditions of instruction or practice(learning) that appear to create difficulties for the learner, slowing the rate of apparent learning, often optimizes long term retention and transfer.
    The first one accelerates the learning(Or speeds up learning), the second one slows down learning by introducing difficulties that benefit long term retention and transfer. These difficulties are what Robert BJORK Calls Desirable difficulties.
     

    According to originators ofSans Forgetica the font aides better retention because of the difficulty in the reading act as a ‘desirable difficulty,’
     

    In this case “When an obstruction is added to the learning process(difficult to read font) in order to promote deeper cognitive processing, which results in better memory retention.”
     
    The designers tested this font on 400 students:
    57% successfully memorized text written in the Sans Forgetica font, compared to 50% who read it in Arial.

  • Tweet: Mathew Effect In Learning

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

     
    The term Mathew effect was emerged from bible verses (Matthew, XXV: 29).
     
    “For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath”
     
    Matthew Effect in education was first coined by Walberg and Tsai in 1983 were they looked at cumulative advantages of educative factors.
     
    They found that early educative experience predicts current educative activities and motivation, and all three factors contribute to the prediction of achievement.
    Annotation 2020-02-10 212901
     
    It was Stanovich (1986) was the first to use the Mathew effect to describe how, in reading, those who start well tend to continue to do so, while those who do not are unlikely to catch up.

     
     

  • Tweet: learning myths which got exposed

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    So Marshmallow test, Learning styles, and Growth mindset

    New studies this year called into question earlier findings in three major areas of research: learning styles, growth mindset, and Mischel’s experiments on self-control (better known as the marshmallow test).

    Learning styles:  

    Growth mindset:

    Meta-analysis spanning more than 150 studies found that growth mindset interventions have “weak” effects on student achievement, although low-income and academically at-risk students did show improvements, meaning that a growth mindset may end up helping those who need it most.

    Walter Mischel Marshmallow Test :

    A new study by Tyler Watts, Greg Duncan and Haonan Quan finds limited support for the idea that being able to delay gratification leads to better outcomes.

    Instead, they suggests that the capacity to hold out for a second marshmallow is shaped in large part by a child’s social and economic background.

    They found out that that background(socio-economic), not the ability to delay gratification, is what’s behind kids’ long-term success.

    Read  previous post about this study