Abstract
AbstractA systematic review was conducted into the effect of interleaving the order of examples of concepts in terms of both memory of items and transfer to new items. This concept has important implications for how and when teachers present examples in the classroom. A total of 26 studies met the inclusion criteria; a subset of 17 studies (with 32 constituent datasets) formed the basis of a meta‐analysis, and the remainder were analysed within a narrative review. Memory (as tested by presenting studied items from a learned category) showed an interleaving benefit with effect sizes (Hedges’ g) of up to 0.65, and transfer (as tested by presenting novel items from a learned category) a benefit with effect sizes of up to 0.66. Interleaving was found to be of greatest use when differences between items are subtle, and the benefit extended to both art‐ and science‐based items, with implication for practitioner decisions over how and when to apply the technique. It also extended to delayed tests. The review revealed that the literature is dominated by laboratory studies of university undergraduates, and the need for future school‐based research using authentic classroom tasks is outlined.
Highlights
Background to the reviewIn this paper we present the findings of a systematic review into interleaving as a learning strategy
Each target concept constitutes a category with boundaries, and learners come to be proficient at correctly categorising new examples
Following Gough (2007), we considered two main aspects of quality: (i) sample size and methodology, and (ii) relevance, which here included both the type of items used for testing memory and transfer, and the mundane realism of the task with respect to common classroom activities
Summary
Background to the reviewIn this paper we present the findings of a systematic review into interleaving as a learning strategy. Each target concept constitutes a category with boundaries, and learners come to be proficient at correctly categorising new examples. Such learning plays a role in numerous aspects of education and everyday life. When people learn to distinguish different species of tree, they may do so by seeing multiple examples in their surroundings, and being told or otherwise finding out what each one is With time, they form a mental category (or schema) for each tree species, allowing them to independently categorise previously unseen examples as either belonging to the category or not, even though each specimen that they see is slightly different from those seen before. The learner thereby develops the capacity to transfer their learning to new examples
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