Space learning

[becomingagodo]

I was watching the one show yesturday and they had a school that was exprimenting with something called space learning. Basically, space learning is based on the fact that we only have a STM capacity of about ten minautes.

Space learning says you should learn for only about ten minautes and then do something different like listen to music or excersize for ten minautes so memory can be stored LTM. I can't find any more details on this so can somebody provide a link if they have cam across this.

Does it make any scientific sense?

I guess if you allow time for information to pass from STM to LTM then you would have better memory.

P.S. I am assuming it is called space learning.

[tsg]

I heard this twenty years ago. Supposedly you learn better in a series of short sessions than you do in one long session. I couldn't tell you if it's true or not in general, but I know I comprehend things better if I can study them uninterrupted than if I have to stop and start a dozen times. I tend to lose my place and have to backtrack if I get interrupted.

[Jimbo07]

I know I comprehend things better if I can study them uninterrupted than if I have to stop and start a dozen times. I tend to lose my place and have to backtrack if I get interrupted.

How could you really get into any detail in only 10 minutes?

I have to admit though, I do something sort of similar at work sometimes... work for a while, see what's happening at JREF, work more, etc.

[TX50]

I thought the optimum was 20 minutes, or have attention spans got even
shorter now?

[sinclairmcevoy]

For me, shorter than 30 minutes seems to work. After that, I just go into a daze, almost hypnotized. I think that boredom sets in or I just have a short attention span.

[tsg]

How could you really get into any detail in only 10 minutes?

I have to admit though, I do something sort of similar at work sometimes... work for a while, see what's happening at JREF, work more, etc.

If I get stuck on something I often have to take a mental break. But otherwise I'm much better off going straight through.

[Jeff Corey]

It's called spaced or distributed practice. Many short sessions as opposed to massed practice - one long session.
This has been known for a long time and has nothing to do with short-term memory, which typically lasts for about 20 seconds.

[salazar]

That seems reasonable for learning how to do a short task, but perhaps not the best way to try to learn and understand complicated maths, or if you were trying to write an essay.

[Zarathustra]

This sounds interesting.
Would anyone be up to an experiment?

[athon]

How could you really get into any detail in only 10 minutes?

I have to admit though, I do something sort of similar at work sometimes... work for a while, see what's happening at JREF, work more, etc.

It doesn't quite mean you have to change topics completely, but rather change the focus. The most effective lessons are those which use a series of related activities where information needs to be applied in various ways using a range of methods. For example, I might get the class focussed through coming up with a simple solution to a simple problem. This addresses a topic, where I spend about ten minutes setting up the foundations (either relating to previous knowledge, or discussing a problem that needs a better solution etc.). I might then spend ten minutes teaching some content, then ten minutes applying the content to the problem. At the end I'll have a plenary where I quickly evaluate the depth of their understanding on the matter.

Each section should only take ten minutes. Mind you, this is the ideal, and not always the practice. Often I'll spend half an hour going step by step through a piece of content. I do have to keep in mind, however, that the depth of their understanding wanes as time goes on. I would then revisit the latter material with mind that while the terms and explanation might be familiar, it won't be solid in their understanding.

While I've never heard it called 'space' learning, it seems to be a rehash on standard pedagogical procedure. Nothing new here.

Athon

[NobbyNobbs]

I think my short term memory is fine, and as for my attention span, it's...it's...


What was I saying? Um...oh yeah, my attention span is


Oh, look! Candy!

[Jeff Corey]

Athon,
It is an old pedagogical procedure based of about a century of research in memory. It appears in any good introductory psych text as "massed vs distributed practice".

[athon]

Athon,
It is an old pedagogical procedure based of about a century of research in memory. It appears in any good introductory psych text as "massed vs distributed practice".

I went and looked it up in one of my pedagogical texts. It mentions it by that term in one place. I'm guessing it isn't called by that name much in these parts in recent decades.

Athon

[Jeff Corey]

The term "spaced practice" fell out of practice during the 60s, when many students practiced while spaced. That led to some curious demonstrations of state-dependent learning.
Now the more prevalent term in US texts is distributed practice.