Abstract
The use of spaced repetition within a physics higher education thermodynamics module has been analysed for: its pattern of use by students; its effect on memory and performance in the end of module exam; and performance in a delayed test after the summer vacation. A custom-built web app with the facility to generate a personalised repetition timetable was used to deliver practice questions on the material throughout the module. Just over a quarter of students, spanning the whole ability range of the class, made use of the app in some way, about half using it in a spaced manner and half using it for massed practice just before the exam. Students who engaged in a spaced manner had an adjusted mean exam score of 70%, compared to 64% for massed usage and 61% for non-usage. The spaced usage represents a positive effect size of 0.47 over non-usage, which is statistically significant (p = 0.000056). For the delayed test the mean adjusted scores for spacers and non-users were 45% and 34% respectively. Whilst less material had been retained over the summer, this revealed a statistically significant (p = 0.021) positive effect size of 0.54. This work provides evidence and mechanisms to involve students in repetitive practice during the learning phase of a course to advantage their long term retention of material.
Highlights
The benefit of spaced repetition on learning has been recognised for over a century, with Ebbinghaus (1885) making the first systematic investigation of memory, developing a ‘forgetting curve’
To examine the effects of spaced repetition in a university STEM module setting, trials were conducted on three successive cohorts of first year physics students at the University of Leeds over the academic years 2016-17, 201718, and 2018-19
To measure how large an impact the intervention had, the thermodynamics results were controlled for the first semester physics exam performance yielding the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA)-adjusted means for each group
Summary
The benefit of spaced repetition on learning has been recognised for over a century, with Ebbinghaus (1885) making the first systematic investigation of memory, developing a ‘forgetting curve’ This shows exponential decay of information from the memory when no effort is made to revisit that information. If the information is revisited the rate of decay reduces, allowing for ever increasing time intervals between repetitions to retain long term memory of it. This psychology research was first applied to education by Mace (1968) suggesting that regular revision of curriculum material would be much more effective than ‘massed’ study (all at once). A survey of 189 physics undergraduates (Curtis et al, 2018) revealed that students in all years study predominantly by reading and writing notes during term time, with 69% leaving any form of
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