Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning

by James M. Lang

As you are reading this, you are perhaps thinking to yourself that this all sounds very messy and might even provoke frustration from you and your students since it would be much neater and cleaner to march your way through the concepts in order. Indeed it would, and the research on interleaving confirms what you suspect: learners often find it frustrating. I experienced this frustration myself when I began using that Strengthen Skills tab in my language-learning program and found that I didn't know nearly as much as I thought I did. Research also tells us that massed practice works very effectively for short-term learning, which is why students like it and why they can often perform well on exams when they engage in massed learning exercises like cramming.