Spaced Retrieval Practice Imposes Desirable Difficulty in Calculus Learning
Spaced Retrieval Practice Imposes Desirable Difficulty in Calculus Learning
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DOI：
10.1007/s10648-022-09677-2
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发表时间：
2022-04-29
影响因子：
10.1
通讯作者：
Immekus，Jason C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lyle，Keith B.;Bego，Campbell R.;Immekus，Jason C.
在教授了如何进行新的数学运算后，学生们通常会被分成一组几道练习题，比如家庭作业或测验(即集体练习)。另一种方法是将问题分布在多个家庭作业或测验中，增加练习之间的时间间隔(即，间隔练习)。实践证明，间隔练习可以增加对各种类型数学知识的长期记忆。不太清楚的是，间隔是否会降低练习中的表现，一些研究表明它会降低，而另一些研究表明不会。为了提高清晰度，我们在一门微积分课程中测试了间隔是否会带来长期的保持收益，但短期练习的成本。在练习测验中，学生们以集中的方式(一次测验3个问题)或分散的方式(3个测验3个问题)处理不同学习目标的问题。间隔增加了学期末考试中学习目标的保持，但降低了练习测验的表现。练习成绩的下降是细微差别的：间隔只降低了前两个测验问题的成绩，而第三个问题的成绩不受影响。我们将这些发现解释为间隔导致更持久但最终更稳健的学习的证据。因此，我们得出结论，间隔在微积分学习中施加了一种理想的困难形式。
After being taught how to perform a new mathematical operation, students are often given several practice problems in a single set, such as a homework assignment or quiz (i.e., massed practice). An alternative approach is to distribute problems across multiple homeworks or quizzes, increasing the temporal interval between practice (i.e., spaced practice). Spaced practice has been shown to increase the long-term retention of various types of mathematics knowledge. Less clear is whether spacingdecreasesperformance during practice, with some studies indicating that it does and others indicating it does not. To increase clarity, we tested whether spacing produces long-term retention gains, but short-term practice costs, in a calculus course. On practice quizzes, students worked problems on various learning objectives in either massed fashion (3 problems on a single quiz) or spaced fashion (3 problems across 3 quizzes). Spacing increased retention of learning objectives on an end-of-semester test but reduced performance on the practice quizzes. The reduction in practice performance was nuanced: Spacing reduced performance only on the first two quiz questions, leaving performance on the third question unaffected. We interpret these findings as evidence that spacing led to more protracted, but ultimately more robust, learning. We, therefore, conclude that spacing imposes a desirable form of difficulty in calculus learning.