Interleaved practice improves mathematics learning.

Interleaved Practice Improves Mathematics Learning

A typical mathematics assignment consists primarily of practice problems requiring the strategy introduced in the immediately preceding lesson (e.g., a dozen problems that are solved by using the Pythagorean theorem). This means that students know which strategy is needed to solve each problem before they read the problem. In an alternative approach known as interleaved practice, problems from ...

Title : An Efficacy Study of Interleaved Mathematics Practice

Brain-behavior correlates of optimizing learning through interleaved practice

Understanding how to make learning more efficient and effective is an important goal in behavioral neuroscience. The notion of "desirable difficulties" asserts that challenges for learners during study result in superior learning. One "desirable difficulty" that has a robust benefit on learning is contextual interference (CI), in which different tasks are practiced in an interleaved order rathe...

The benefit of interleaved mathematics practice is not limited to superficially similar kinds of problems.

Most mathematics assignments consist of a group of problems requiring the same strategy. For example, a lesson on the quadratic formula is typically followed by a block of problems requiring students to use that formula, which means that students know the appropriate strategy before they read each problem. In an alternative approach, different kinds of problems appear in an interleaved order, w...

Improving Mathematics Teacher Practice and Student Learning through Professional Development

We propose to study how to provide, on a large scale, the professional development and continuing support teachers need to improve student achievement in mathematics. Over five years of a longitudinal study, we will examine how the use of specific research-based instructional strategies in the classroom— supported by professional development and highly rated curriculum materials—relate to lasti...