Scheduling math practice: Students' underappreciation of spacing and interleaving.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Learning Sciences

Background:

• Classroom studies demonstrate that spaced and interleaved practice enhance mathematics learning.
• Students' understanding of these effective learning strategies is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate students' knowledge and perceptions of spaced and interleaved practice.
• To identify misconceptions students hold about effective learning schedules.

Main Methods:

• Two studies were conducted with undergraduate students.
• Participants designed or selected learning schedules and rated their perceived effectiveness, enjoyment, and utility.

Main Results:

• Most students incorrectly favored schedules with minimal spacing and interleaving.
• Schedules with more spacing and interleaving were perceived as more difficult and less enjoyable.
• Students showed mixed understanding of spacing and underappreciated interleaving.

Conclusions:

• Students generally fail to recognize the benefits of spaced and interleaved practice for learning.
• Misconceptions about learning strategies present opportunities to improve educational interventions.
• Reshaping student beliefs can foster the adoption of effective learning techniques.