Interleaving | Studying Effectively for GCSE's & A-level's
Summary
TLDRThis educational video explores the concept of interleaving as a learning technique, contrasting it with blocked practice. Interleaving involves mixing different types of problems in a single study session, which research suggests can enhance learning and retention, particularly in math and science. The video discusses studies that demonstrate the benefits of interleaving, such as improved problem discrimination and active recall, and offers practical advice on incorporating this method into study routines. It concludes by acknowledging the need for further research but highlights the potential of interleaving to make revision more effective and interesting.
Takeaways
- 📚 Interleaving is a learning technique that involves mixing different types of problems or skills in one study session, as opposed to blocked practice where one focuses on a single topic for a long stretch of time.
- 🧠 Research, particularly in math and science, suggests that interleaving can lead to better learning outcomes and retention compared to blocked practice, especially when dealing with unfamiliar problems.
- 🤔 Interleaving may require more cognitive effort as it forces the learner to actively recall and differentiate between problem types, which can enhance understanding and application of knowledge.
- 🏓 A study from 1986 showed that students who practiced badminton serves in a mixed order performed better than those who practiced in a blocked order, highlighting the benefits of interleaving in sports as well.
- 📉 In a 2007 study, students who practiced calculating volumes of different shapes using interleaved practice outperformed the blocked practice group in a test with new problems conducted a week later.
- 🔄 Interleaving can help build new neural connections and consolidate information into long-term memory more effectively by requiring frequent active recall.
- 📈 While the benefits of interleaving can be significant, some studies have shown only small improvements, indicating that further research is needed to understand its full potential and optimal application.
- 📚 Textbooks and traditional teaching methods often favor blocked practice, which may not be as effective as interleaving for long-term learning and problem-solving.
- 🔑 Incorporating interleaving into study routines can be as simple as mixing up problem types or topics within a study session to improve recognition and application of different skills.
- 📈 Interleaving can make revision more interesting by covering multiple topics in one session, which can also improve the ability to distinguish between different types of problems.
- 📝 Doing past papers is an excellent way to practice interleaving as they present a mix of problems that require identifying the most relevant topic or method to solve them.
- 💡 Interleaving can be particularly effective for challenging problems; taking a break to work on a different problem can allow the brain to subconsciously work on the solution, leading to an 'aha' moment upon returning to the original problem.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video series?
-The main topic of the video series is discussing learning techniques, particularly focusing on active recall, space repetition, and interleaving, in the context of GCSE studies.
What is interleaving as a learning technique?
-Interleaving is a learning technique where different skills or topics are mixed within a single study session, as opposed to blocked practice where one focuses on a single topic for an extended period.
Why is interleaving considered beneficial for learning?
-Interleaving is considered beneficial because it helps students better discriminate between different types of problems, promotes active recall, and aids in consolidating newly learned information into long-term memory.
What is the difference between interleaving and blocked practice?
-Interleaving involves mixing up different types of problems or topics within a study session, while blocked practice involves focusing on one type of problem or topic for a long stretch of time.
What was the finding of the badminton study mentioned in the script?
-The badminton study found that students who practiced different types of serves in a mixed order performed better than those who practiced in a blocked order, despite both groups spending the same amount of time.
What was the result of the 2007 study on calculating volumes of different shapes?
-The 2007 study showed that students who used interleaved practice performed better on a test with new and unfamiliar problems compared to the blocked practice group, outperforming them by almost 40 percent.
Why did the researchers believe the interleaved group performed better in the 2007 study?
-The researchers believed the interleaved group performed better because it allowed students to better discriminate between different types of problems, making them more likely to use the correct method for each one.
How does interleaving relate to active recall?
-Interleaving relates to active recall because it requires students to recall information more often as they switch between different types of problems, thus engaging in active recall more frequently.
What are the current limitations in understanding interleaving according to the script?
-The current limitations in understanding interleaving include a small body of literature with some null effects, indicating that the technique may not work consistently or that it may not be used appropriately due to a lack of understanding of its underlying mechanisms.
What is the recommendation for teachers and students regarding interleaving?
-The recommendation is that teachers and students should consider adopting interleaving in appropriate contexts, especially for learning and retention of mathematical skills, as it has shown to have relatively dramatic effects.
How can interleaving be incorporated into studying for better results?
-Interleaving can be incorporated by mixing up problems from different topics or skills within a study session, which can help train students to recognize problem types and determine the best approach for each type of problem.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Interleaving and Active Recall Techniques
The video script begins with an introduction to various learning techniques, focusing on interleaving as an alternative to blocked practice. It explains that interleaving involves mixing different types of problems or skills in one study session, which can lead to better learning outcomes. The script contrasts this with blocked practice, where one type of problem is practiced extensively before moving on to another. The benefits of interleaving are supported by research, such as a 1986 study on badminton serves and a 2007 study on calculating volumes of different shapes, which showed that interleaved practice led to better performance in the long term. The script also touches on the importance of active recall and space repetition, hinting at their effectiveness in learning.
🔍 Enhancing Study Techniques with Interleaving
This paragraph delves deeper into the concept of interleaving, suggesting that it can improve problem-solving skills by training students to recognize different problem types and choose the most appropriate method for each. It recommends mixing up study topics to enhance understanding and retention, particularly in subjects like math and physics. The script shares personal experiences where interleaving proved effective, especially when tackling challenging problems. It also acknowledges that while interleaving has shown positive effects, the research on its effectiveness is still limited and suggests that more studies are needed to fully understand its impact. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the potential of interleaving as a medium utility in learning and encourages its adoption in appropriate educational contexts.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Active Recall
💡Space Repetition
💡Interleaving
💡Blocked Practice
💡Discriminate
💡Long-Term Memory
💡Working Memory
💡Integration by Parts
💡Integration by Substitution
💡Past Papers
💡Cognitive Skills
Highlights
Introduction to the learning technique of interleaving as a complement to active recall and spaced repetition.
Interleaving is the opposite of blocked practice, mixing up different types of problems rather than focusing on one.
Research shows that interleaving can be more effective than blocked practice for learning and retention.
Interleaving is applicable not only to studying but also to practicing music and sports.
A 1986 study demonstrated that mixing up badminton serves in practice led to better performance.
A 2007 study found that interleaved practice improved performance on unfamiliar problems compared to blocked practice.
Interleaving helps students better discriminate between different types of problems and select the correct method.
Active recall is used more often in interleaving, aiding in the consolidation of information into long-term memory.
Some studies show only small benefits of interleaving over similar time frames.
Interleaving shows promise but requires further research to understand its benefits in detail.
Interleaving may be particularly useful for math problems, as it helps in recognizing problem types and selecting the best approach.
The speaker suggests that interleaving can make revision more interesting by covering more topics in one session.
Interleaving is recommended for challenging math and physics problems, potentially aiding in subconscious problem-solving.
Researchers consider interleaving to have medium utility, with dramatic effects on learning and retention of mathematical skills.
Interleaving is suggested for appropriate contexts and to improve cognitive skills without hindering them.
The literature on interleaving contains enough null effects to warrant further research into its mechanisms and appropriate use.
The video concludes by emphasizing the need for more research to understand specific areas where interleaving may be lacking.
Transcripts
hey friends and welcome back to a series
inserting effects for gcse's nail lovers
so before looking at ways to implement
active recall and space repetition
i will briefly mention another learning
technique called interleaving
before we begin do bear in mind that
much of the research into this technique
has it gone
into using it with math and science and
not so much for the humanities as
always timestamps will be in the
description down below so do check those
out during the video
so when studying we can naturally
default to grouping activities together
and focusing on one thing for long
stretches of time for example
say you're at gcse and wanted to
practice quadratics
you may think it's better to do 10
questions than factorizing quadratics
than doing number 10 on using the
quadratic formula
and then maybe another 10 on sketching
quadratics and this is known as
blocked practice but turns out that
research shows that it's better to mix
up all those problems
and this is known as interleaving in
short interleaving is essentially the
opposite of blocked
practice rather than dedicating long
stretches of time to one particular
skill
it's often better to vary the skills and
ideas you're covering in one study
session and this
doesn't just apply to studying it also
applies to practicing music and sports
to
take the study from 1986 for example in
which 30 students were learning
free badminton's long shorts and drive
serves
in either a blocked order or a random
order for three days a week for five
weeks it turned out that the random
group who had mixed up the three types
of serves
performed better than the students who
didn't despite both groups spending the
same amount of time practicing but since
we're not really here for sports let's
look at some studies measuring the
effectiveness of
leaving for studying take this study
from 2007 in which students were taught
how to calculate the volumes of
different shapes the students
had two practice sessions separated by
week and during each session they were
given a lesson on how to find the
volumes
of four different types of shapes the
students in the blogs practice group
first had a lesson finding the volume of
some shape
then immediately did four problems then
had another lesson then did four more
problems and so on
meanwhile the interleaved group had had
four lessons and then had to complete a
mixed set of problems
at covering content from all those four
lessons across the first session it was
found that the blocked practice group
did much better on the questions because
they were scoring almost 90 percent
whereas interleaved group scored around
60
but then in a test conducted a week
later with new and unfamiliar problems
the interleaved group again scored about
60
but the blocks group's performance
dropped to about 20
which means that the interleaved group
outperformed the blocked group
by almost 40 percent and looking at the
results the researchers thought the
reason that the interleaved group did
better was because
interleaved practice allowed the
students to better discriminate
between different types of problems so
we're more likely to use the correct
method in each one and this makes sense
if you think about it
if you were learning about the sine rule
in maps and were given 10 questions
then you would know that you had to use
the sine rule for all 10 of them
and if you then talk the cosine rule i
will give an additional 10 questions
it's clear that you had have to use the
cosine rule for all time inverse as well
but if you were taught both and were
given a mix of questions then it
requires more thinking for you to figure
out when to use
which rule and this can help aid your
understanding also by mixing up problems
you're using active recall more often if
you did 10 questions on the sign rule
then you would only have to recall the
sign wheel once
because when you move in onto the next
problem it would still be in your
working memory but by moving on to
another question
and then going back to the sign real
question you'll be recalling the sign
realm more often as you will be having
pauses in between
this all means leaving and varying the
problems we are doing
allows us to build new connections and
helps us to consolidate the newly
learned information
into our long-term memory more easily
all that said there have been a few
studies which have shown that the
benefits of
using interleaving is only rather small
over similar time frames so previously
mentioned study nevertheless
the researchers still say that the
technique shows promise based on
much of a research but further research
still has to be done to understand
interleaving in more detail and how its
benefits vary based on dosage
student ability and the difficulty of
material so whilst more research still
needs to be done
the researchers say that into leaving
may still be useful to many students
especially when it comes to math
problems and mixing them up they believe
many students don't use it because
only a few textbooks seem to mix up
problems with ones which have been
covered earlier also when you learn
about a topic in class
you're often given a set of problems
which use that topic
because the hope that many teachers have
is that if you repeat something enough
times and it will stick
which as we've established is not always
true personally i think that
interleaving is the best leader to math
and science problems
but i enjoyed using further subjects as
well because it did make revision a bit
more interesting as you're doing
a few more topics in one study session
rather than focusing on a single topic
the question then comes
how should we best incorporate into
leaving and whilst much
further research has to be done to fully
understand it i think that we can still
use existing research to make some small
changes to how we study rather than
mindlessly and repeatedly practicing a
single topic or skill
it can be helpful to mix up with other
topics and skills which can help
train you to recognize the problem type
and determine the best approach for that
type of problem for example
say you were learning about integration
by parts during a level rather than
doing 10 questions
all integration by parts it can be
helpful to mix up those problems with
normal integration and
integration by substitution and
gradually doing these problems will add
to your understanding
and help you realize when to use which
method of integration
or if you start teaching yourself a few
topics after learning one topic
it can be helpful to practice one or two
problems on that topic
to make sure you understand it and after
learning the next topic you can attempt
a problem to you on the next topic as
well as well as in one or two problems
from the first topic that you just
learned about to interleave all these
problems together so interleaving
problems on the current topic with
problems covered in the previous topics
can not only make sure your revision is
more interesting but also
improve your ability to distinguish
between different types of problems but
do remember that doing past papers is
also an excellent way to do this they
also give you a chance to train your
ability to distinguish between different
ideas
and topics so you can pick out the one
which is most relevant
for the question at hand for me
personally i found interleaving to be
most effective when doing challenging
maths and physics problems at a level
if i was stuck when doing a problem
rather than giving up and looking at the
solution
i did a problem on something completely
different and when i came
back to the first problem sometimes my
brain had figured out uh
in the background what was going on and
allowed me to see their solution much
more easily
whilst i was doing the second problem
ultimately the researchers said that
interleaving was a medium utility
and said that on the positive side
interleaved practice has shown to
have relatively dramatic effects on
students learning
and retention of mathematical skills and
teachers and students should consider
adopting it in appropriate contexts
also interleaving does help and rarely
hinders overcounter cognitive skills
on the negative side the literature on
interleaving is currently small
but it contains enough null effects to
raise concern although the nil effects
may indicate the technique does not work
consistently
well they may also reflect that we do
not fully understand the mechanisms
underlying the effects of interleaving
and therefore do not always use it
appropriately
they then go and say that more research
needs to be done to iron out any small
specific areas
of interleaving in which the research is
lacking anyways that's it for this video
and i'll see in the next one
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