Trends in Adult Education - Spacing

What is spacing? It is not flying into outer space.
And it is not when you mind drifts off into Lalaland. 

“Spacing promotes long-term retention by spreading learning out into manageable portions over time” as stated in the article on The Learning Agency Lab by Dr. Yana Weinstein-Jones.

 

https://www.the-learning-agency-lab.com/science-of-learning-research-spacing.html

 

When I was in College, many years ago, we saved up all our studying until the night before the exam. This not only causes stress on your body, not getting enough sleep, but does not allow you brain time to process the information. Spacing this out over a length of time will allow you brain to process and catalog this information which allows you to recall it for the exam. I am sure you have heard the phrase “Practice makes perfect”. This is spacing. Whether you are trying to learn how to play guitar or write a final exam doing this action repeatedly is how your brain will retain this knowledge.

 

One way an instructor can use spacing to help their students is have smaller exams more often during a course. Not only are these lower stakes for the learners but they will repeat the information more regularly during the course.