Introducing Desirable Difficulties for Educational Applications in Science

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Introducing Desirable
Difficulties for Educational
Applications
in Science
www.psych.ucla.edu/iddeas

• Robert A. Bjork
• University of California, Los Angeles
• Marcia C. Linn
• University of California, Berkeley

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Desirable Difficulties

• Spacing rather than massing study
• Interleaving rather than blocking practice on
  separate topics or tasks
• Varying contextual cues
• Reducing feedback to the learner
• Testing rather than re-presenting

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Learning versus performance

• What we can observe is performance, what we must
  infer is learning
• and the former is an unreliable index of the
  latter
• Instructors are, therefore, susceptible to
  choosing less-effective conditions of learning
  over more-effective conditions
• And as learners, we, too, are susceptible to
  confusing performance with learning

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Generation Interleaving
Spacing
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Goals of the IDDEAS project

• Do such findings extend to to-be-learned
  materials and retention intervals that are
  realistic from an educational standpoint?
• And, more broadly, what design principles are
  fundamental in optimizing educational materials
  and practices?

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WISE (web-based inquiry science environment)
http//wise.berkeley.edu

• Advantages as a tool for teachers
• Supports authoring and customization
• Contains a library of tested projects
• Enables collaborative learning, visible thinking,
  autonomous investigation
• Transportable
• Advantages as an IDDEAS research tool

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Current Projects

• WISE Platform
• 2 laboratory studies, UCLA
• 2 classroom studies, UCB
• Design Principles
• 2 studies, UCLA

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Interleaving

• Motor tasks patterns, force production, bank
  machine transactions (Lee Magill, 1983, Simon
  Bjork, 1990 Charles et. al, 1990, Jamieson
  Robers, 2000)
• Sports badminton, volleyball, baseball (Bortoli
  et al, 1992, Goode Magill, 1986, Hall et al,
  1994)
• Abstract learning tasks mazes, tracking
  (Carleson et.al, 1989, Jelsma Van Merrienboer,
  1989, Jelsma Pieters, 1989)
• Logic rules, boolean operators (Schneider et al,
  1995, Carleson Yaure, 1990)

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Example of generation effects
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Study 1 Overview

• Uses an existing WISE astronomy module
• How scientists determine the habitability of
  planets
• Design4 groups
• Mass and distance slides either blocked or
  interleaved
• Some evidence re-studied via generation or
  reading
• Forty-eight hour retention interval
• Posttest

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Posttest questions

• Simple sentence-completion Information presented
  and re-studied via generation or reading, or only
  presented
• E. g. The amount of heat and light emitted by
  the sun in our solar system has increased by
  ____ since the beginning of earths history.
• Integration questions across mass slides or
  across distance slides
• E. g., Would an object weigh more on the planets
  in our solar system made mostly of gas or made
  mostly of rock? Why?
• Integration questions across mass and distance
  slides
• E. g., Imagine a planet that is smaller than
  Earth and that was located 1.5 AUs from its sun,
  which is the same strength as the Earths sun.
  How would this planets potential for life
  compare to Earths?

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Figure 1. UCLA Study 1 - Interleaving by type of
Posttest Integration Question.

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Figure 2 UCLA Study 1 -Generation effects on
single fact materials
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Generation manipulations

• Study 1 (UCLA) Sentence Completion
• Generate ____-type planets are mostly made up
  of gases.
• Read Jovian-type planets are mostly made up of
  gases.
• Study 2, (UCLA and UCB Classroom Studies 1 and
  2)
• Sentence level generation
• E.g., Describe in a sentence how the size of one
  planet's mass can affect another planet.
• Knowledge required for successful generation
• Mass or distance Only
• Both mass and distance

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Projects in Progress using WISE

• Interactions between Generation Interleaving
  (UCLA and Classroom)
• Integration of M D
• Integration of M or D
• Increase Contextual Interference (UCLA and
  Classroom)
• Habitability and Detectability
• Visual Support for Generation (Classroom)
• Static versus Animated

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Design Principle Interleaving

• Interleaving as spacing Practical advantages
• But are effects of interleaving more than the
  effects of spacing?
• Contextual interference ideas (Battig, 1972,
  1979)
• Benefits dues to
• Reloading/ Reconstruction (e.g. Lee Magill,
  1983, 1985)
• And/or Development of a higher order
  representation to differentiate interleaved
  materials (Shea Zimny, 1983, 1988)

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Disentangling Interleaving and Spacing

• Initial experiment with second-language materials
  (courtesy of Hal Pashler)
• Designed to
• Maximize contextual interference
• Co-vary (i.e., unconfound) interleaving and
  spacing

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Learning Materials
English word
bird
dege
lind
Estonian
Swahili
-8 English words learned in both foreign
languages (16 word pairs total) -6 repetitions
(anticipation trials) of each word pair
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Sample anticipation-method learning trial
What is tree in Swahili?
mufuma
?
The correct word is mfufumaji
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Sample Test Trial
What is tree in Swahili?
?
in Estonian?
?
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Implications and necessary next steps

• Interleaving can cause intrusions and errors
  during learning that then foster long-term
  retention--and, possibly, transfer
• The effects of interleaving and spacing
• May be independent and additive,
• But contextual interference (competition) maybe
  be necessary to demonstrate benefits of
  interleaving that go beyond the benefits of
  spacing
• And, from an educational standpoint, it is
  essential to see whether the same pattern obtains
  with more complex and cumulative materials

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Our thanks to

• The Institute for Education Sciences and the
  Cognition and Student Learning program
• Other members of the IDDEAS research team
• Lindsey E. Richland, Ph.D, (UCLA)
• Britte H. Cheng (UC Berkeley)
• Jason R. Finley (UCLA)
• And a number of undergraduate students,
  especially Jeff Beyers, Fernando Cervantes, and
  Alexandra Hessenius
• Relevant Links
• IDDEAS http//www.psych.ucla.edu/iddeas
• WISE http//wise.berkeley.edu
• SCALE (Synergy Communities Aggregating
  Learning about Education) - http//scale.soe.berke
  ley.edu
• TELS (Technology Enhanced Learning in Science) -
  http//www.telscenter.org