Applied Coaching Research Journal Research Journal 3 | Page 43

APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2019, Vol. 3
retrieval practice, spacing your learning episodes
out over time (known as spaced practice) and
interleaving, which is varying and interweaving the
topics you are learning. These three key strategies
are explained through the research findings and
also through interesting and varied stories of how
people have applied and used them in many walks
of life.
This is a main strength of the book and what makes
it different from others covering this content area.
This comes from the brilliant decision to allow Peter
Brown, a writer and novelist, to write the whole
book, using Roediger and McDaniel as content
experts and reviewers. The way Brown explains
the academic findings in real terms is appealing to
people from all backgrounds due to these stories
bringing the academic research to life with concrete
examples that we can all relate to. Fascinating
insights from US marines jump school, how pilots
use flight simulators to best effect and sports such
as ice hockey illuminate learning effects that have
traditionally used lab-based, memory tests.
The other unique result of this one writer approach
is that instead of the typical ‘take chapters each’
method often seen in academic research-based
books, the authors were able to write the book
utilising and including some of the strategies
identified in the book, such as spacing and
interleaving. So, as retrieval practice, spacing and
interleaving are introduced through the first three
chapters, some of the main concepts arising are
interwoven and revisited throughout subsequent
chapters to ensure a spaced interleaved approach,
leaving readers practising retrieval as they go.
So, the key messages arrive early in the book,
beginning with retrieval practice. This is essentially
getting information out of the brain, rather than in
to it. Also known as the testing effect, this effortful
strategy requires trying to remember things we
have previously learned. This testing arrests the
‘forgetting curve’ that frighteningly suggests we
forget around 70% of what we have learned after an
hour. Testing is good for learning as the act of trying
to answer or solve a problem, known as ‘generation’,
creates the required effortful difficulty for the brain
to create memories that we can have at hand to
make sense of arising problems.
The key message for spaced practice is that spacing
out your learning into separate episodes is far
more effective than cramming it all into one. Linked
to the forgetting curve, the research in chapter 4
explains this consistently found effect by the fact
that memory traces in the brain that are formed
when a new piece of information is received, needs
to be strengthened, given meaning and connected
to prior knowledge to form a mental model that
can be considered learning. This process can take
hours or even days and sleep for example has been
shown to supplement this effect. Chapter 3 tells of
a study with surgeons who were given instruction
followed by practice in reattaching blood vessels in
two conditions. Group 1 received all four procedures
in one day and group 2 received one procedure
per day with a week in between (spaced learning).
On a test a month later, surgeons in group 2
outperformed group 1 across all variables, including
group 1 damaging 16% of their vessels beyond
repair.
The findings for interleaving are brought to life
using research from learning motor skills, a domain
where ‘practice, practice, practice’ still remains at
the forefront. The first intriguing study showing
findings to suggest it’s not as simple as the one
with eight year olds tossing beanbags into a bucket,
one group from three feet and another mixing
it up between two and four feet. The group who
performed best on a retention test at three feet
was not the group who had practised from this
distance, but the group who had interleaved their
practice between two and four feet! Similar findings
are shown from baseball batters practising hitting
different types of pitches – those who practised
using varied pitches outperformed those who
practised in a ‘blocked’ method of a set series of
fastballs, followed by a set of curveballs etc.
Some of these findings give anyone designing or
delivering learning plenty of food for thought, with
a mixture of theory and application. Whilst How
we Learn by Benedict Carey digs deeper into the
theory of this area of learning research, Make it
Stick has more universal appeal, illustrated by the
last chapter, which gives some top tips for teachers,
coaches and students to consolidate the learning.
This is a nice touch and provides the reader with
some ideas they can go away and try.
Overall, this book is a fascinating read for anyone
involved in learning, coaching or teaching and is the
kind of reference guide you will come back to time
and time again.
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