SMART Learning Objectives |
Upon completion of the following reading and video sequence, you will be able to:
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Content Summary
Chapter 3 summary, Mix Up Your Practice
In order to make practice and learning more retentive, spacing practice and learning by allowing time between sessions produces stronger memory learning. This is called Spaced Repetition, which is the practice of increasing intervals of time between the subsequent review of previously learned material (Brown, et al, 2014).
If you combine interleaving of two or more related subjects during practice with varied spacing, you can improve your ability to distinguish different problem sets with their appropriate conclusions. Learning is greater when interleaved and learned over a broader time period versus an all-at-once presentation (Brown, et al, 2014). Rather than relying solely upon simple memorization during a single session, mixing up learning practice with timed variation and interleaving of subjects produces a stronger learning and retention relationship which assists in long term memory recall and practical retrieval for problem solving (Brown, et al, 2014). |
Chapter 4 summary, Embrace Difficulties
Complex learning tasks which are effort centrist are Desirable Difficulties, a term which sums spaced repetition, varied, and/or interleaved learning methods. The more complex a task is, one which is solvable, creates a stronger, deeper learning foundation and ultimately stronger memory recall (Brown, et al, 2014).
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Making Learning Stick: Evidence and Insights to Improve Teaching and Learning, Video by Mark McDaniel
Making Learning Stick: Evidence and Insights to Improve Teaching and Learning, by Mark McDaniel promotes to eliminate lecture in the classroom and replace it with student groups in an active classroom that are working on problems with penetrating discussion questioning (McDaniel, 2015). Furthermore, McDaniel Proposes the following concepts to be applied in student classrooms that do not require extensive revision:
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The Science of Expertise, Video by Anders Ericsson
The Science of Expertise, by Anders Ericsson defines an expert is someone who can objectively demonstrate their superior performance over others in their field, or anyone who can perform at a higher level than what is considered normal (Ericsson, 2016).
Aside from focusing on the fundamentals of a trade or subject area, an expert sees all the relevant factors involved in a subject and can address what is the next step. And if something is missing, such as a skill or production outcome that is undesirable, an expert has the drive to work towards an outcome that addresses soft areas in their knowledge or skill-set. This is known as Deliberate Practice (Ericsson, 2016). |
Connections to Field and/or Discipline
Spaced Repetition may be applied towards AGILE development when you are contributing to a project’s development life cycle. Initial documentation subjects are first identified early in the project’s concept phase, especially if it is known that the project affects a software’s user-interface. Once the software’s user-interface is designed and developed, the documentation subject is then revisited at a later time.
Identifying and using Spaced Repetition throughout a project’s development, combined with analyzing and identifying Desired Difficulties hones writing skills based on challenging, practiced repetition. Once difficult areas are identified, it’s easier to revisit them over time in order to refine documentation techniques, or conduct retrospective critiques of not only the documentation itself, but also the practices and methodologies used to produce written material. Repeating and practicing processes necessitated from a Spaced Repetition techniques and addressing Desired Difficulties are sound foundations towards writing expertise.
Spaced Repetition is repeated throughout a software’s development because even though a subject is initially identified as needing documentation, the actual implementation of documentation does not occur until later dates as the project grows towards completion. As the project develops, so does the documentation, building over time versus everything being documented up front. Also, documentation is often revisited time and again until it is ready for public use.
Such revisiting, or Spaced Repetition, may be influenced by difficulties arising from the software’s development life cycle. A project always has its initial concept, but this concept may change once, twice, or several times until the AGILE project team decides the project is ready for implementation. Even then, there is often constant change. Desired Difficulties arise when concepts are changed and modified, and knowing a project’s development life cycle intimately allows a writer to be flexible in producing documentation for a project. Knowing how to identify, and even embrace difficulty when writing documentation forges a more sound, flexible writer when challenges occur. |
Suggestions for Implementation
Identify and use Spaced Repetition within your AGILE study methods
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Analyze and identify how Desired Difficulties may be applied to AGILE production
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Describe and justify Deliberate Practice when improving your documentation
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Formative Assessment
References
Brown, Peter., Roediger III, Henry L., & McDaniel, Mark A. (2014). Make it stick; The science of successful learning. Cambridge, MA : The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Franklin & Marshall College. McDaniel, Mark. 2015. Making Learning Stick: Evidence and Insight to Improve Teaching and Learning. [Video File]. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=japP8Cr0q6g
King, Larry. 2016, April 22. Anders Ericsson on the science of expertise | Larry King Now | Ora.TV. [Video File]. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gn3f8sEb8Y
Franklin & Marshall College. McDaniel, Mark. 2015. Making Learning Stick: Evidence and Insight to Improve Teaching and Learning. [Video File]. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=japP8Cr0q6g
King, Larry. 2016, April 22. Anders Ericsson on the science of expertise | Larry King Now | Ora.TV. [Video File]. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gn3f8sEb8Y