Interleaving benefits low-skilled students more than high-skilled students when learning math problem categories¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoretical r2 · q2 · i1 small
Currency · newest study 2022 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i1 In Ostrow et al.'s study, interleaved practice showed no overall benefit over blocked practice (g = 0.22), but low-skilled students showed a large interleaving benefit (g = 0.60), consistent with the discriminative-contrast prediction. → Ouhao Chen 2022

Evidence¶

Ouhao Chen 2022¶

Ouhao Chen, Fred Paas, John Sweller. (2022). Reply to Sana et al.'s (2022) Commentary on Rest-from-Deliberate-Learning as a Mechanism for the Spacing Effect. Educational Psychology Review, 34, 1851–1858. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-022-09678-1

q2 · i1 · theoretical · r2

Quoted from Sana et al.'s commentary as reported in this article: in Ostrow et al. (2015), middle school students practicing angles, surface area, and probability problems showed no overall interleaving benefit (Hedge's g = 0.22), but "a large interleaving benefit for low-skilled students, Hedge's g = 0.60".

"participants who practiced angles, surface area, and probability problems in an interleaved manner did not perform better on a final test than did those who practiced the problems in a blocked manner, Hedge's g = 0.22. What CPS omit, however, is that there was in fact a large interleaving benefit for low-skilled students, Hedge's g = 0.60."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Interleaving category examples improves inductive category learning for visual and mathematical materials, but not for expository texts or word categories — related
• Interleaved practice produces higher mathematics test scores than blocked practice in a classroom experiment — related
• The interleaving benefit is not caused by spacing, and the benefit extends to delayed tests — related
• Evidence on working memory capacity as a moderator of the interleaving effect is mixed, but WM does not appear to be a major barrier to classroom use — related
• Interleaving benefits are small for mathematical tasks and absent or reversed for expository texts and words — related
• Interleaved practice outperformed blocked practice across eight STEM classrooms — related
• Interleaved practice yields better category learning than blocked practice, and students who choose interleaved practice outperform those who choose blocked practice on novel materials — related