Things Every Learner Needs to Know About Effective Learning

Re:Things Every Learner Needs to Know About Effective Learning by yesenadam on Saturday November 24, 2018 @07:01AM (#18521634)

Sorry, guess I'm kind of contrarian - reading a claim like "spaced repetition is the best way for learning facts. And it's not just my fancy - here's one of the many studies that prove it" just makes me think "Uh, that sounds highly unlikely" and download the paper and read it. (I mostly studied philosophy, so probably that's more pedantic about accurate language than most humanities areas, or should be.)

Anyway.. So, unsurprisingly, it doesn't prove spaced repetition is the best way. It talks about another paper that looked at 10 methods, and found only 2 were 'highly effective'[0], spaced repetition and practice tests. Even if spaced repetition had been the single best way, and they had tried every possible learning method, not just 10 methods, that would be nowhere near proving it. (The next study might find something entirely different, as continually happens in science.)

So, sorry if that seemed uselessly pedantic. p.s. I do use Anki though. Or I did. Not sure how useful it is, although better than no study, if that's the alternative. I used an ancient Windows program years ago for learning Spanish, which was similar, but also had audio of a Spanish woman saying the words to go with the written word; I seemed to learn more from that.

[0] The 'utility' scale in the other paper seemed to have only 3 degrees - low, moderate, high.

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Re:Things Every Learner Needs to Know About Effective Learning by thatoldfool on Saturday November 24, 2018 @07:21AM (#18521708)

Howdy, I love to be wrong so that I can be right :)

The paper I linked is the shortest one on the topic, and you're right, it doesn't have all the info for those that want to go deeper.

Again, my claims are that: 1. Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve is real, although probably not as bad as he/we thought (two latest papers that I have on it: DOI: 10.1016/j.jmp.2010.08.009, DOI: 10/f7vfcn); 2. Spaced Repetition is the best way to beat Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve for most people (I read a bunch of articles--the DOI's I still have saved are the following, but I can't remember which papers were better than others - DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00012.x, DOI: 10.1177/1529100612453266 <-this one is the one on which the article I linked is based, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/stl0000036).

I could look for more, I haven't had to prove this for a long time, however, like I said, I love to be wrong (especially since I use this for my students, so if there's a better way, I'd like to know!). Do you have any links to studies that contradict 1. Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve and 2. Spaced Repetition as the best way to learn facts?

Cheers man, I'm happy you forced me to dig up these papers :)

-TOF

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Re:Things Every Learner Needs to Know About Effective Learning by yesenadam on Saturday November 24, 2018 @07:36AM (#18521741)

OK thanks. Nah, don't have links to any papers. Well, even that one I read didn't say spaced repetition is the best way. I've made my point, not sure I'm glad I did[0], but glad you got something out of it, cheers to you too. :-)

[0] I guess it was a 'philosophical' objection - no, I don't have a better method on offer, just being sceptical of..loose claims.

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Re:Things Every Learner Needs to Know About Effective Learning by thatoldfool on Saturday November 24, 2018 @07:51AM (#18521794)

Hey man, I really appreciate it--it's so important to challenge loose claims, and I'm happy your training has made you leap on them when spotted! Don't stop! While it might bug some people, the fact of the matter is more important than my ego.

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Re:Things Every Learner Needs to Know About Effective Learning by yesenadam on Saturday November 24, 2018 @08:16AM (#18521857)

You're too kind, thanks. Best wishes.

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