Aubree Tschudy Professor Brand English 1010 21 September 2013 The Science Behind Learning While education is necessary

ary in this society scientists are working on ways to increase retention rate in the long term by employing methods that differ from the current norm of teaching methods. While scientists are trying to pinpoint the area associated with learning certain tasks while sleeping suggesting that different teaching methods coupled with sleep can greatly improve a childs learning ability. In America, the amount of time a child spends on homework has increased over the past three decades but American students are only in the middle of the international rankings at 17th in Reading, 23rd in Science, and 31st in Math. Homework in Science, English, and History have little to no impact on test scores and four in ten [parents] said they believed that some or a great deal of homework is busywork(Paul). These test scores can be improved by a technique known as spaced repetition where instead of concentrating the information in large scale one shot doses readers should encounter the same information in briefer session spread over a larger period causing the students to be re-exposed to the information a number of times during the semester nearly doubling retention rate. By exposing students to information repeatedly over time fixes it more permanently in their minds. A second possible practice to improve test scores is retrieval practice employing tests to reinforce what students know using the memory as a storage tank and the test to measure how much information weve put in there. This technique

focuses less on the input of knowledge and more on the output leading to higher test scores. If information feels easy to absorb the opposite is true because when we work harder to understand we retain more of the information permanently fixing the information in our brains. The third technique is called interleaving where assignments are mixed with different kinds of situations or problems to be practiced instead of being grouped by the type. This causes the brain to work harder to come up with a solution resulting in the material being learned more thoroughly. As a part of an educational experiment using cognitive psychology, focusing on the mental dynamics behind thinking, remembering, and problem solving (Cognitive) forces students to focus on several topics at once. The process behind it is called interleaving, the opposite of the current school curriculum, which is concentrating or blocking where the students practice one skill repeatedly until believed to be mastered. While blocking is preferred, interleaving leads to higher test scores as the result. This is because mixing in old material with the current lessons lead students to make quick and accurate distinctions among problems instead of blindly applying one formula to problem solve which increases comprehension. When tested on a Math class no new material was added and the current material was just rearranged instead of blocking them together under a subject heading. The students then believed less time was needed to study for the test partly because interleaving helps to reinforce the brains association between specific problem types. In the end the average test score on the interleaved material was a 72 and on the usual material only a 38. This process is extremely adaptable into a classroom setting while learning by interleaving starts off at a slow pace if you give the people doing interleaving a little extra time at the beginning then the benefits of mixed practice will be even

larger(Cognitive). Lastly and possibly the most important there is sleep. Sleep helps the brain consolidate what weve learned but scientists have struggled to determine what goes on to make that happen for different kinds of tasks. In an experiment, researchers pinpoint the region associated with sleep-enhanced learning of a finger-tapping task much like typing or playing piano. EEG censors are used in studies of how the brain consolidates learning visual tasks which after being analyzed show that speed and accuracy improve after only a few hours of sleep was significantly associated with changes in fast-sigma and delta brainwave oscillations in their supplementary motor area, a region on the top-middle of the brain(Sciencedaily). Believing this would improve motor tasks they took fifteen volunteers, the first three nights nine subjects slept whenever they preferred while their brain was scanned. On the fourth day, subjects learned the finger-tapping task on the nondominant hand and then slept for three hours while being scanned, after they were then woke and an hour later asked to preform the task. The other six were not allowed to sleep but were asked to preform the task four hours after learning the task, those who slept completed the task faster and with more accuracy than those who did not sleep. On the fifth day each volunteer was scanned with MEG to see where their MEG were located in each subjects brain, the findings were of five different oscillation frequencies in eight regions (four on each side of the brain). The most significant activity was expected to take place in the M1 brain region, which governs motor control, but instead the significant changes occurred in the SMA on the opposite side of the trained hand(Sciencedaily) the strength of the change directly correlated with the degree of improvement on the task. While one would believe the amount of time a student spends on homework would

directly correlate to the grade received in not only the class but also the test this is not the case. While students are spending more and more time on homework, they are still ranking in the middle among international standards partly due to the teaching techniques being employed by schools. By concentrating on one area at a time and grouping problems together students are blindly applying one strategy to the problem and not actually learning how to distinguish one problem from the other. This makes the student feel the subject material is easy to learn when they are essentially learning barely any of it making for virtually no retention rate. This can be reversed with three simple changes that can easily be applied to current classroom curriculums. The first easy change comes from interleaving which while takes more time in the beginning has greater long term benefits by simply mixing up the work problems. Instead of grouping them together, mix the old material and the new material so students do no blindly apply one formula to one problem and have to make connections between the problem and the strategy. The second technique is using tests as a way to measure how much information is retained by focusing more on the output of information instead of on how much we can put in. The third one focuses on getting rid of the blocking of information and exposing the student to the same material repeatedly throughout the semester in small doses instead of one large dose all at once. All three of these coupled with increase sleep would increase test scores and retention rate because sleep helps consolidate learned material, which is a vital part of the memory conversion process. In conclusion, schools are not yet employing the learning techniques needed to benefit the students the most. Instead, they are essentially teaching children to learn just for a test instead of learning for a lifetime. However, but making subtle changes and

coupling learning with an adequate amount of sleep learning comprehension and retention would greatly be increased.

 Works Cited "Cognitive Science Meets Pre-Algebra - NYTimes.com." The New York Times Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/science/cognitive-science-meets-prealgebra.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>. Paul, Annie Murphy. "When Homework is a Waste of Time | TIME.com." Ideas | Essential Insights. Great Debates. Informed Opinions. | TIME.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2013. <http://ideas.time.com/2013/09/05/when-homework-is-awaste-of-time/>. "Sciencedaily." How Sleep Helps Brain Learn Motor Task. Brown University, n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/ 130820185657.htm>.

I took most of the advice I received in the peer editing forum, because as shown by my previous draft I wasnt completely sure what was expected out of the assignment. I found some very helpful quotes that supported my summary paragraphs and helped to explain the topics. My summaries now are more in depth and worded in a way easier to read with a much better flow. The major strengths are the summaries because I spent the most time on them both trying to shorten them but also not lose the key details in the process. Another major strength is the readability and flow of the paper. My personal response paragraphs are the weakest point and could use some improvement because I didnt have much to say, the information speaks for itself, we need to change the way schools operate in order to save the educational systems. The biggest specific revisions I made were quotes that were almost nonexistent in the peer review forum and my organization of the paper. Surprisingly I didnt make very many editing changes except in MLA formatting and a few grammatical errors.