1) Learning is a complex process that is often invisible, unpredictable, and involves overcoming difficulties. 2) Research shows that spacing out practice, interleaving topics, and testing support longer-term retention over mass practice sessions. However, learning feels difficult in the short-term. 3) Understanding threshold concepts and a student's overlapping waves of thinking can help educators design instruction that balances improving long-term learning over short-term performance.

1. David Didau
researchED English & Literacy #rEDEng
7th November 2015

2. Research I’ve found useful
• Bjork: Desirable difficulties (memory)
• Meyer & Land: Threshold concepts
(organisation)
• Siegler: Overlapping waves (progress)

3. 3 predictions
• Students will forget at a predictable rate
• Students will get stuck at predictable
points
• Students will not make progress at a
predictable rate

4. 3 problems
• Learning is invisible
• Learning is liminal
• Learning is unpredictable

5. Learning is invisible
• Learning is the long-term retention and
transfer of knowledge and skills

6. Performance
Learning

7. Onomatopoeia

8. The (New) Theory of Disuse
Retrieval strength
Storagestrength
Your phone
number
Phone
number
Childhood
address
What you
learn today

9. “As learning occurs, so does
forgetting…”

10. Learning vs. performance
• The higher the retrieval strength, the smaller
the gains from additional study or practice
• Forgetting creates the likelihood of increased
learning
• If learning is difficult, retrieval strength will
decrease in the short term but will increase
in the long term

11. Desirable difficulties
– Spacing
– Interleaving
– Variability
– Testing
– Reducing & delaying feedback

12. Hermann Ebbinghaus, 1885
The spacing effect

14. The Testing Effect
Which study pattern will result in the best
test results?
1. STUDY STUDY STUDY STUDY – TEST
2. STUDY STUDY STUDY TEST – TEST
3. STUDY STUDY TEST TEST – TEST
4. STUDY TEST TEST TEST – TEST

15. Blocking vs interleaving
Topic 1 Topic 2 Topic 3 Topic 4 Topic 5 Topic 6
Term 1 Term 2 Term 3 Term 4 Term 5 Term 6
But what should we interleave?

16. Learning is liminal
Not
knowing
Knowing

17. What we think
progress looks like
Learning is messy

18. What it actually
looks like

19. Overlapping waves theory
1. At any one time children think in a variety
of ways
2. These varied ways of thinking compete
with each other
3. Cognitive development involves gradual
changes in the frequency of these ways
of thinking, as well as the introduction of
more advanced ways of thinking.

20. Threshold concepts in English
• Understanding the relationship between grammar and
meaning
• Understanding the effect of context, both on writers and
readers
• Understanding the need to use supporting evidence for
ideas
• An awareness of the ways in which language can affect
readers
• Understanding how the structure of a text can produce
different effects and meanings
• Understanding that texts can be subjected to analysis to
reveal a variety meanings.

21. Interleaving threshold concepts
Writing WritingReading
Awarenessofimpact
Spelling,punctuation&
grammar
Structure&coherence
Analysingtechnique
Usingevidence
Understandingcontext
Awarenessofimpact
Spelling,punctuation&
grammar
Structure&coherence
Analysingtechnique
Usingevidence
Understandingcontext
Awarenessofimpact
Spelling,punctuation&
grammar
Structure&coherence
Analysingtechnique
Usingevidence
Understandingcontext

22. The best of both worlds?

23. Key messages
• Improving learning is more important than
improving performance
• Threshold concepts might help us space &
interleave more effectively
• The unpredictability students’ progress is
predictable

24. @LearningSpy
learningspy.co.uk
ddidau@gmail.com