HOW TO...
answers are given immediately after each question in the test, performance increases over and above testing without feedback. However, feedback given after the entire test boosts performance even more, and delayed feedback leads to better retention than immediate feedback, even with long delays (Metcalfe, 2009). The benefits of delayed feedback might
represent a spacing effect, and retrieval practice combined with spacing (space retrieval practice) has an even greater effect than retrieval practice alone, with much improved long-term memory recall. Spacing is a strategy which was first described by Mace (1932), who added that “acts of revision should be spaced in gradually increasing intervals”. Pimsleur (1967) and Leitner in his 1972 Leitner System applied the spacing effect to language learning and systems based on flash cards. More modern systems use algorithms to space intervals based on correct or incorrect answers to online tests. Spacing is the opposite of last- minute cramming, so must be planned for well ahead. Common spaced intervals are an hour, then a day, then every other day, then weekly, then fortnightly, then monthly, then every six months, then yearly. No more than 30 minutes for each session is optimal for a topic. Interleaving, or distributed practice,
adds to the effectiveness of spacing. Pan (2015) argues that “mixing it up boosts learning” compared to more traditional methods of block learning. If multiple topics must be learned, the opportunities to practise each skill may be ordered in two different ways: blocked (e.g., aaabbbccc) or interleaved (e.g., abcbcacab) (Rohrer and Pashler, 2010).
Amber Barnitt is a lecturer in mathematics at Askham Bryan College and HE course leader mathematics PGCE at Leeds City College. She is a Member of SET.
...FIND SUPPORT FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS
By Andrew Morris
Getting hold of research evidence or embarking on a project of your own can seem arduous. One way to find support is to engage with some of the useful public resources developed in recent years. A recent Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN) workshop aimed to identify suitable resources and prepare for a web space providing access to them. There are a number of useful resources and your suggestions would be welcomed (see the last paragraph). Some, such as the Education and Training Foundation’s Practitioner
Research Programme, offer training. Others offer research summaries, such as the Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching & Learning Toolkit and the Institute for Effective Education’s Best Evidence in Brief newsletter. Others act as repositories for research reports and articles – for example, the Society for Education and Training’s online research library and UCL’s Digital Education Resource Archive. The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) Self-
Review Tool helps research organisers analyse research activity in their organisation and offers guidance. Others, such as the NFER How to Guides, help new researchers, or help with networking and dissemination – the Association for Research in Post Compulsory Education (ARPCE) and The British Education Research Association’s (BERA’s BERA) post-16 Special Interest Group, for example. For the evidence user, an increasing number of online sources
Andrew Morris is an honorary senior lecturer at the UCL Institute of Education and a member of the national planning group of the Learning and Skills Research Network. Andrew is president of the education section of the British Science Association. Contact Andrew at:
a.j.morris@ucl.
ac.uk
children’s and adults’ vocabulary learning. Memory & Cognition, 37, 1077-1087.
• Pan, S. C. (August 2015). The interleaving effect: mixing it up boosts learning. In G. Cook (Ed.), Scientific American.
• Pimsleur, P. (1967). A Memory Schedule. The Modern Language Journal 51 (2) 73-75.
offer guides based on evidence about pedagogic topics, including the Association of Colleges (AoC) Scholarship Framework, The Chartered College of Teaching and the Education Endowment Foundation. Tight funding means much of the canon is based on research in schools, but see what can be learned from these studies and adapted to a post-16 context.
The Networking the Networks
team wants to hear from SET members about your experience of online tools, materials or any other supportive services. Let us know what you have used, how you found it and what you feel is missing. Please email me (see left).
RESOURCES
• ETF Practitioner Research Programme
bit.ly/ETFPractitionerResearch • SET’s online research library
bit.ly/SETResearchLibrary • Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit
bit.ly/EEFTeachingToolkit
• Institute for Effective Education
bit.ly/IEEBestEvidence • Digital Education Resource Archive
dera.ioe.ac.uk
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