Students perform worse on interleaved homework than blocked homework and misjudge its learning value¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Students correctly solved more blocked than interleaved homework problems, with mean deficits on interleaved assignments of 0.05 and 0.09 proportion correct in Stages 1 and 2. → Joshua Samani and Steven C. Pan 2021 q3 i? Students tended to rate interleaved assignments as more challenging and yielding less mastery than blocked assignments. → Joshua Samani and Steven C. Pan 2021 (2)

Evidence¶

Joshua Samani and Steven C. Pan 2021¶

Joshua Samani and Steven C. Pan. (2021). Interleaved practice enhances memory and problem-solving ability in undergraduate physics. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-021-00110-x

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Homework accuracy analysis from the same classroom experiment, computer-scored by research assistants blind to condition. The article attributes the deficit to interleaved assignments containing nine problem types versus three on blocked assignments, making blocked assignments easier.

"students correctly solved more blocked than interleaved homework problems (Table 2), with a mean deficit on interleaved assignments of 0.05 and 0.09 proportion correct in Stages 1 and 2, respectively."

Joshua Samani and Steven C. Pan 2021 (2)¶

Joshua Samani and Steven C. Pan. (2021). Interleaved practice enhances memory and problem-solving ability in undergraduate physics. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-021-00110-x

q3 · i? · causal · r2

End-of-assignment metacognitive judgments collected on each homework assignment; a higher proportion of medium-to-difficult ratings followed interleaved assignments and a higher proportion of well-to-extremely-well learning judgments followed blocked assignments.

"students tended to rate interleaved assignments as more challenging and yielding less mastery (Table 2)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Interleaved homework yields higher surprise criterial test scores than blocked homework in undergraduate physics, with larger effects in Stage 2 — reports the opposite
• Learners Misjudge Spacing Benefits — related
• Learners overwhelmingly judge blocking more effective than interleaving even when their test performance favors interleaving — related
• In Experiment 1, students' prospective judgments of learning were higher for blocked studying even though actual test performance was higher for interleaved studying — related