Thanks for reposting this. I saw something I didn't catch on the first reading:
The harder it is to remember something, the harder it is to later forget. This effect, which researchers call �desirable difficulty,� is evident in daily life...The more mental sweat it takes to dig it out, the more securely it will be subsequently anchored.
This is another reason why we need to challenge our kids instead of being satisfied with material that doesn't give them "desirable difficulty." The part about testing struck a chord with me since I was a master of study for the test and then brain dump. This was good for my grades but not so good for long term retention. Any advice on applying this part of the research?
Inky, I've read this elsewhere. If I recall correctly, some kids learn something instantly and effortlessly.....but their retention is low. That's my boy! He gets it quickly and wants to move on. But 6months later, it may be like he has never seen it. WHereas others who spent a week or more working hard to understand concept, will still retain it 6months later. Why? B/c more neurons were involved in the learning and there was time to cement those connections. WHen it's effortless, it doesn't go into long term storage. So while my boy gets concepts easily, so much so he feels like he knew it already (I guess like Deja Vu) but he needs to revisit ideas (mostly in math) every 3 months or so maybe 2 months to keep it fresh. While i need to move fast to keep him engaged, I'm constantly having to cycle back as well. Now that we've finished RS math, I'm going to switch to the later levels of Singapore math to give a different look and cement those concepts and extend them since RS didn't cover all of pre-Algebra.
Dazey
