Paced Practice News Today

In the context of a constantly evolving international higher education sector, this commentary emphasises the need for consilience between basic research on learning processes and observations from intensive modes of study. Following a discussion of conflicting evidence on optimal learning time frames, we advocate for seeking alignment between classroom practices with underlying learning mechanisms. We argue for a unified understanding of effective learning beyond notions of the credit point hou...

Abstract Spaced and interleaved practices have been identified as effective learning strategies which sometimes are conflated as a single strategy and at other times treated as distinct. Learning sessions in which studying information or practicing problems are spaced in time with rest-from-deliberate-learning periods between sessions generally result in better learning outcomes than massed practice without rest-from-deliberate-learning periods. Interleaved practice also consists of spaced sess...