WEEK #2 Content and Key Concepts Summary
SMART LEarning objectives
Learning Objectives for Week #2
Upon completion of this week's content you should be able to:
Upon completion of this week's content you should be able to:
- Identify why Spacing practice produces more long-standing results by reviewing the chapter content and supplemental video.
- List the three stages a sensory perception goes through to become a durable learning that can be easily retrieved.
- Create a solution for adding Mixed practices into the New Hire Training Curriculum in a Care Center Environment.
Week #2 Content Summaries
Doing What Works - Key Concepts in Spacing Over Time
In this video Mark McDaniel discusses the benefits spacing. Spacing takes the same amount of time that you would spend learning a concept and breaks the learning up into chunks that total the same amount of time. Spacing provides many advantages over other types of learning. Specifically, spacing the information between other topics allows the learners to effectively retrieve the information more efficiently and effectively (McDaniel, 2008).
In this video Mark McDaniel discusses the benefits spacing. Spacing takes the same amount of time that you would spend learning a concept and breaks the learning up into chunks that total the same amount of time. Spacing provides many advantages over other types of learning. Specifically, spacing the information between other topics allows the learners to effectively retrieve the information more efficiently and effectively (McDaniel, 2008).
Chapter 3 - Mix Up Your Practice
Chapter 3 is all about mixing it up. Massed practice, described as focused repetitive practice of one single topic (task/skill/piece of knowledge) at a time, is easily confused with true learning. The primary reason for this is that initially, you remember more about the specific topic when compared to using other types of learnings. The problem with this false sense of accomplishment is that you forget much of what you learned almost as quickly as you learned it. The forgetting curve is something that often not considered when examining the effectiveness of a learning event. (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014)
Therein lays the problem. No matter how effective you are at learning something, it is only as effective as your ability to retain the information. That is why Massed practice “seems” like a great learning strategy when in reality it is not.
In order to obtain true gains when learning, you need to mix it up. Spaced practice, Interleaved practice and Varied practice are all effective way to do just that. While each of these techniques is harder and more difficult than massed practice, they have been proven to result in superior retention of the information learned. In one study, Massed practice showed a 69% drop in scoring over a period of time as compared to a 3% increase in the same period of time for Mixed practice. The reason for this is that mixed learnings provide the learner with the ability to assess context and discriminate between problems. (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014)
Chapter 3 is all about mixing it up. Massed practice, described as focused repetitive practice of one single topic (task/skill/piece of knowledge) at a time, is easily confused with true learning. The primary reason for this is that initially, you remember more about the specific topic when compared to using other types of learnings. The problem with this false sense of accomplishment is that you forget much of what you learned almost as quickly as you learned it. The forgetting curve is something that often not considered when examining the effectiveness of a learning event. (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014)
Therein lays the problem. No matter how effective you are at learning something, it is only as effective as your ability to retain the information. That is why Massed practice “seems” like a great learning strategy when in reality it is not.
In order to obtain true gains when learning, you need to mix it up. Spaced practice, Interleaved practice and Varied practice are all effective way to do just that. While each of these techniques is harder and more difficult than massed practice, they have been proven to result in superior retention of the information learned. In one study, Massed practice showed a 69% drop in scoring over a period of time as compared to a 3% increase in the same period of time for Mixed practice. The reason for this is that mixed learnings provide the learner with the ability to assess context and discriminate between problems. (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014)
Chapter 4 - Embrace Difficulties
Chapter 4 is all about how and why we learn the way that we do! Learning begins with encoding. Encoding is the process of converting memory perceptions into meaningful representations in the brain. While this entire process is not fully understood, it is the first step in creating memory traces. Consolidation is the next step in the process. It is the process of strengthening the mental representations created during encoding to prepare them for long-term memory. This step can take some time, hours, days or even weeks. During this time, it is believed that the brain processes the information, tying the information to past experiences, predicting possible future uses and filling in any missing information. The final step is retrieval. This is where the real learning happens. This process allows you access the information at the appropriate time. This is where we have to begin working to preserve the memories and experiences. Activities like Mixed practices will help with this.(Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014)
Once you have encoded, consolidated and retrieved the information the real work begins. It is important that you embrace this difficulty because difficult learning is effective learning.
Chapter 4 is all about how and why we learn the way that we do! Learning begins with encoding. Encoding is the process of converting memory perceptions into meaningful representations in the brain. While this entire process is not fully understood, it is the first step in creating memory traces. Consolidation is the next step in the process. It is the process of strengthening the mental representations created during encoding to prepare them for long-term memory. This step can take some time, hours, days or even weeks. During this time, it is believed that the brain processes the information, tying the information to past experiences, predicting possible future uses and filling in any missing information. The final step is retrieval. This is where the real learning happens. This process allows you access the information at the appropriate time. This is where we have to begin working to preserve the memories and experiences. Activities like Mixed practices will help with this.(Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014)
Once you have encoded, consolidated and retrieved the information the real work begins. It is important that you embrace this difficulty because difficult learning is effective learning.
Connections to a Care Center Learning & Development Team
This week's concepts are just the shot in the arm many Care Center New Hire curriculum s need. The common practice of teaching new associates the key concepts by blocking them into modules based on the concept is ineffective. We need to look for ways to create micro learnings that can be interleaved throughout our new hire experience. This will allow the associates to retain a greater amount of knowledge learned in the classroom setting and in turn will reduce contacts to the internal help lines. This will in turn produce a greater customer experience and reduce the ramp up period for the newest member of the Care Center team. Moreover, when the associates are able to spend more time adjusting to the environment and less time adapting to the systems and processes they will become a more highly engaged work force.
Suggestions for Implementation
In order to fully realize all of the benefits of mixed practice, I suggest that you take a look at you current New Hire curriculum and evaluate how much time you spend on each topic. Once you have all of the topics and the time spent on each listed out, start looking for the topics that have the most time spent on them. Compare the time spent on those topics and with the time spent on the shortest topics. What are the differences in the way that you are approaching the information? I have found that the shorter topics are usually supplemental topics, which expand on previously learned information. These topics have already been broken down. Once you remove these items, I suggest that you then focus on the ones that take the most time to cover and evaluate how you can break them down. Look for ways to expand and build on a foundation of information. If your training time is several weeks in length, then I would look for way to break the content down into daily doses. If your training timeframe is only a few days then I would look for ways to break the information down into by breaks in the day. Cover a portion of the information after each break or at the beginning and end of each day.
Formative Assessment—Quizlet Flashcards
Please review the following Learning Activity to practice this week's concepts.
References
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.
•Mark McDaniel, (2008). Key Concepts in Spacing Learning Over Time [Video File] Retrieved from: http://dwwlibrary.wested.org/media/key-concepts-in-spacing-learning-over-time
Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
•Mark McDaniel, (2008). Key Concepts in Spacing Learning Over Time [Video File] Retrieved from: http://dwwlibrary.wested.org/media/key-concepts-in-spacing-learning-over-time