Jonathan Firth's Memory & Metacognition Updates #10 – Types of Desirable Difficulties
Hello, and welcome to another memory and metacognition update!
I've had a really good trip to the Czech Republic and Germany. In particular, the EARLI SIG11 conference was pretty awesome. I love this organisation because the research shared is so applied and so technically skilled. If you like the sound of it, consider taking a look at the main EARLI conference which takes place in Greece next August.
I wrote last time about desirable difficulties, and now I want to briefly explain why these help.
The key thing is that real-life situations where we need to use our knowledge and skills are often quite different from classroom practice. Typically (though not always):
Classroom practice happens straight after an explanation, while real-life use happens after a delay.
Classroom practice is quite predictable and recognisable in its format.
Classroom practice does not require you to remember/retrieve older learning out of context.
The reason that desirable difficulties help is that they make practice more similar to real life. Instead of being predictable, passive and short-term, it becomes varied, active, and requires the retrieval of previously-learned memory and skills.
That is why things like the spacing effect, variation and retrieval practice are useful.
I focus on a couple of these phenomena especially in this blog post:
Applying spacing and variation to the classroom — Jonathan Firth — www.jonathanfirth.co.uk
So, what else could be termed a desirable difficulty?
Clearly not everything that makes learning more difficult is going to help. Some things (e.g. greatly increasing cognitive load) would make it harder in an unhelpful way.
Again, the way to tell the difference is to ask: does the approach make practice more similar to later use?
Of course, it's ok to use practice that is simplified in some way, but at some point tasks should become complex and authentic. If they don't, then they won't fully prepare learners for using their new knowledge and skills in the real world (like – beyond the exam!).
And if we don't do that, then what's the point?
Recommended read
A lot of what I have discussed so far relates to how well learners can transfer from practice to later use. This article by Pooja Agarwal is very insightful, and challenges the traditional assumption that if we teach facts, skills will take care of themselves:
Retrieval Practice & Bloom’s Taxonomy: Do Students Need Fact Knowledge Before Higher Order Learning?
I really love Pooja's work, and she has done a lot to raise awareness of retrieval practice as a strategy. But while quizzes are great, her paper reminds us not to rely on simplistic solutions.
Retrieval practice helps because real-life situations generally involve retrieving knowledge and actively using skills. But by the same token, if all we do in the classroom is practice individual facts, that isn't particularly realistic.
For all the reasons discussed so far, practising more complex, higher-order, interconnected and authentic uses of knowledge would be desirable.
Next time
At the EARLI conference there has been a lot of discuss of professional reflection. Everyone seems to agree that new teachers need to reflect on their practice, but what can cognitive psychology do to guide this process? That will be my focus next time.
Until then, all the best :)
Jonathan
Last week: Desirable difficulties
Website: www.jonathanfirth.co.uk