Practice, Practice!
Brain researchers and educators have discovered that several types of practice are necessary to be able to learn, embed, and retrieve learning.
The first step of learning something new, be it content knowledge or a skill, is to encode it into the short-term memory. The type of practice that facilitates this is called Mass Practice. In Mass Practice, the learner is asked to repeat the knowledge or procedure many times within a relatively short span of time. Some of us may have learned to do this instinctively when needing to learn spelling words, multiplication tables, or free throws. We would repeat the action a good number of times until we felt a sense of confidence that the new information was at least in our short-term memory.
The error on the part of some teachers and students is that if nothing is done with that information, it will soon fade, fog, and eventually dissipate from our brains. A different type of practice tool is needed to get the information from short term input into a somewhat more permanent brain file for later retrieval. This calls for a different type of practice, called Intermittent Practice. As the researchers of the book, Make It Stick (Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel) write, the key to enhancing and developing strong knowledge retrieval is to “interrupt the process of forgetting.” This is done by proactively creating or finding opportunities and occasions to review and retrieve the material with increasing gaps of time in between. So, perhaps for three days you would reflect on the knowledge, review it, practicing it once an hour. Then, review it several times a day, followed by a period of time during which you would review it a few times a week, and so forth. This type of practice actually strengthens the brain synapses creating stronger, more effective retrieval power.
Teachers need to make sure to include Mass Practice periods several times shortly after learning a new skill or content information. If it is core, prerequisite info then you must make certain it is getting into their short-term memory. Then, teachers find time over the next several days, weeks, and months to spiral in a review activity, with longer gaps of time in between, to strengthen the retrieval muscles. I have found that what I call “referencing” is a very sound strategy. Referencing is when teachers are on the lookout within new material that may have a connection or reference points to something previously learned and using this as an opportunity to retrieve it and connect the dots to the new material. Not only is this good Intermittent Practice but now you have “copied and pasted” that information into a new folder in the brain creating different memory pathways.
A teacher who does not create tasks for Intermittent Practice can be compared to someone attempting to fill up a bucket that has a hole with water. As much as one attempts to fill the bucket there will always be leakage and loss until the bucket owner does something to stop the leak. Having students reflect, remind someone, review, reference and use prior knowledge greatly multiplies the chances that this critical learning will remain intact for later use.
