> abandoning traditional lecturing in favor of active learning<p>I think this is a misunderstanding of what "lecturing" is supposed to do. It's supposed to _introduce_ you to the material at a high level. Think of it as of skimming a scientific paper. The actual "learning" is something you do on your own after the lecture (although some lecturers require that you _first_ study the subject and then listen to the lecture), and when doing assignments. IOW, it's not a be all end all, and it shouldn't be treated as the only thing you need to learn the material.
The top answer is a worthwhile read if learning is of even remote interest. I'm forwarding it on to a teacher I know, who is always looking for ways to improve children's learning.
> Instructional techniques that promote the most learning in experts, promote the least learning in beginners, and vice versa. This is known as the expertise reversal effect[0]. An important consequence is that effective methods of practice for students typically should not emulate what experts do in the professional workplace (e.g., working in groups to solve open-ended problems).<p>Does this also go for programming? Is this an argument for learning academic stuff in academia and not just hands-on vocational group projects?<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expertise_reversal_effect" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expertise_reversal_effect</a>
The top answer highlights a lot of different things but spaced repetition does seem to get quite a bit of emphasis. I first learned of it from my buddy's blog post on how he uses anki cards to do space repetition for basically everything: <a href="https://www.petemillspaugh.com/anki" rel="nofollow">https://www.petemillspaugh.com/anki</a><p>I tried to use them but haven't really stuck with it.
The top answer is written by Justin Skycak (<a href="https://www.justinmath.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.justinmath.com/</a>) who works on Math Academy (<a href="https://www.mathacademy.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.mathacademy.com/</a>).<p>Math Academy is awesome. I am a happy customer.<p>Previous HN comments about it: <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=mathacademy&sort=byDate&type=comment" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...</a>
I read Make It Stick [0] recently, and it seems to agree on almost everything on the science side that the top answer here brings up, if anyone is interested. It discusses many of the mentioned themes (spaced repetition vs. "blocking", mixed practice, testing effect, desirable difficulty) in more detail.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learnin...</a>
I'm sure I'm probably just less used to seeing StackExchange answers than StackOverflow answers but I am truly in awe at the length and thoroughness of the existing currently-top answer. By my quick + dirty JS console calculations, it's ~2930 words: <a href="https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/a/27841" rel="nofollow">https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/a/27841</a>
One of my favorite stories of basically successfully implementing this in practice was this anecdote of teaching linear algebra at Dartmouth in the 90s: <a href="https://bentilly.blogspot.com/2009/09/teaching-linear-algebra.html" rel="nofollow">https://bentilly.blogspot.com/2009/09/teaching-linear-algebr...</a>
Please check this excellent book Outsmart Your Brain for learning and teaching by Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychology professor.<p>Here's the HN post on the review:<p>Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38513721">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38513721</a>
Excellent and interesting read.<p>This question definitely does not pertain to the subject of the answer specifically but rather these Stack Exchange posts I see on here from time: this answer is so in-depth, so well written and so informative, it could be an entire article in a neuroscience magazine. Who goes to these kinds of lengths to post an answer on a niche Stack Exchange question? And why?
There is also a difference between "understanding" and "understanding and being practiced" at something.<p>In the real world is not necessarily important to be able to rattle off information off the top of your head. More import is simply knowing that a thing exists, so you can go and look it up. Lectures are good at providing the latter.
From computer science, read the title of the paper “attention is all you need” ;)<p>That’s not true of course, but motivation is key. Do they actually read the books, do they solve the problems themselves? Or do they read the summary before filling in the multiple choice question? The first stimulates learning, the latter temporary memorization
Something to remember is that spaced repetition is optimised for adults and teenagers. The memories of young children work somewhat differently and we don’t yet know what the optimal way to
teach them is.
seemingly a high percentage of people responds to changes in diet, 30 percent or so?<p>If they have any issues: depression, low energy, adhd, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ...?<p>It might be beneficial to those people, to try an elimination diet.<p>The idea I got eventually is this: We've all been wrecking our guts with fast food and unknown chemicals, so everyone is affected to a certain degree.
Here's my collection, feel free to add articles if you find something related.<p><a href="https://github.com/cutestuff/FoodDepressionConundrum/blob/main/DeficienciesSideEffects.md">https://github.com/cutestuff/FoodDepressionConundrum/blob/ma...</a>
> Most students are not motivated to learn the subject material.<p>Many students are demoralized by school because schooling doesn't bother telling kids <i>why</i> they are learning something.<p>In elementary school, when the teacher stepped into the hallway, a common complaint to hear was "what's the point of this?"<p>By middle and high school, the question became a mindset - "this is pointless."
Schools can't magic dumb students better.<p>School have know close to maximum learning for 100 years. Most of school is fluff. Better learning, or more efficient learning won't change it.<p>By far the largest issue currently is behavioral problems and worsening situation dealing with them.<p>This is bad students making good students fail.<p>Within the confines of what's currently allowed and dealing with politicians, drugging bad students seems the best solution.<p>The problem is good students are also being drugged.<p>The cognitive psychology solution is convincing parents of good students not to drug their kids.