After teaching for several years, I realized the importance of a strategy the last two years of my profession that completely altered my view of teaching and learning. My experiences have primarily been in a large-urban school district where teaching can be a challenge. But after finding how to repurpose an age- old teaching strategy, helping my students to learn new and complex information became less of a struggle. I learned the power of repetition.
I always thought that repetition equated to boredom. The key to repetition is presenting the information in various forms, which will reduce the likelihood of the students becoming apathetic toward the lesson. It is an unrealistic expectation to teach students a particular skill or concept one time and expect most of the information will be retained. Teaching a lesson on subjects and predicates on Monday doesn’t mean the students will remember the skill on Wednesday. General principles of effective instructional design state there are two methods known to enhance memory- organization and repetition (Alessi & Trollip, 2001). As one Chris Jocham suggested, learning occurs with active and purposeful encoding, thus making repetition extremely beneficial for learners.
Incorporating repetition in my classroom proved to be an effective strategy for the students I taught. For example, enhancing students’ vocabulary was an essential for their reading growth. In addition to assigning specific words for homework, the students were exposed to the words EACH day in class. During class students were able to view a timed PowerPoint presentation that displayed their vocabulary words on a large TV monitor. Throughout the week, my students were able to see the same words used in context, multiple meanings were provided, and visual images were used to help the students make connections with their new words. I have also found that infusing repetition into my professional development sessions has been beneficial for adult learners, too. Incorporating mini-quizzes and games during critical junctures in the sessions have enabled me to improve the learning experience for the participants.
According to Jensen (2009) the research is clear about the significance of providing learners with key information multiple times within one lesson, or returning to the information in later lessons. Also, according to Jensen (2009), repetition informs the brain that certain information is more important than a random bit of data. Repeating the content or concept several times within an hour is an effective technique to utilize in the classroom, then following up with learning the next day and up to seven days thereafter have proven to increase learners’ ability to remember essential concepts and content and allowing them to incorporate information into their existing knowledge structure. This process is known in the Instructional Design world as Information Processing Theory. Instructional Designers have recognized the importance of the developing instruction that involves three memory systems in the learner (sensory, short term, and long term memory) (Reiser & Dempsey, 2007). The premise behind the information processing theory is developing and designing instruction that will allow learners to store information in their short term memory and make connections with the information, so the transfer to their long-term memory can occur. Once the information is in long-term memory, it has been remembered and can be retrieved and applied when required. Repetition is a process that educators can use to increases the probability of information being stored in a learner’s long-term memory, which improves learning.
Most people equate repetition to rote memorization, and thus many scholars reject the idea of infusing repetition in the classroom. Scientists are becoming more knowledgeable about the positive effects repetition can have on learning. When incorporating repetition, it should be done to increase the transfer of knowledge from short-term memory to long-term memory and not incite boredom! This requires educators to be innovative when deciding “how” to incorporate repetition into their repertoire of teaching strategies. The teacher who understands the art of teaching and the science of learning knows repetition is ALIVE, and when used properly can assist learners with processing new information that will drastically improve students’ performance and motivation in the classroom.
Guest blogger: Terica Butler is a former middle school reading/language arts teacher. She taught in an urban school setting for six years. After teaching, she transitioned into the role of an Implementation Consultant for Scholastic. She now has the opportunity to serve teachers and students in Memphis, Tennessee and other large urban districts. Terica is presently pursing a doctoral degree from the University of Memphis. Her interest in education include: urban education, professional development for teachers, instructional design embedded in technology. After completing her degree, Terica plans to continue improving the lives of teachers and students in school districts across the country!
References
Jensen, E. (2010). Jensen learning . Retrieved January 25, 2010, from Jensen Learning website: http://www.jensenlearning.com/news/.
Jensen, E. (2009). Super teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Jocham, C. (2010). Rewired learning. Retrieved January 24, 201, from Rewired Learning : http://chrisjocham.typepad.com/rewired-learning-blog/2009/11/ memory-while-moving-showing-students-repititon-is-needed.html.
Alessi, S., & Trollip , S. (2001). Multimedia for learning: Methods and Development. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Reiser, R., & Dempsey, J. (2007). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Image courtesy of Pictures by Ann at http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturesbyann/2572204267/
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Terica,
I was reading your blog post after my class in statistics. I am so appreciative of the “repetition” that the professor does in this class. I think that certain concepts and types of information are better learned through repetition. I like how you stress the importance of repeating information in different forms to give way for the students to explore the information from different angles.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when we fail to repeat. Wow! It certainly worked for me. I recall those days of repeating time after time, 1 times 1 is one, 2 times 2 is four. And the ABC song. I certainly agree, from experience, that it is an effective means for learning. Repetition first, then the understanding of what has been repeated will soon follow. I can vouch that he repetition I experienced as a youngster was a instrumental to my learning. If we could only get back to some basics, I believe we would have more success in the long run. LONG LIVE REPETITION!!
I am glad you clarified that repetition does not mean identical. You pointed out how vocabulary words can be repeated throughout the week using a variety of methods. I think this is where most teachers miss the point. The same strategy does not have to repeated over and over to achieve repetition; rather the content has to be repeated. You are right on!
Terica, thanks for the references, they are going to come handy for me to justify better some things that I do for my Spanish classes. In foreign language teaching, for years, many textbooks and authors have undermined the power and usefulness of repetition. Anything that sounded even close it was automatically criticized. Even when you were asked to teach a class for your potential employer to evaluate your skills as a language teacher, people has been, and still is, trying to come up with entertaining, but most times ineffective ways to teach some lessons. However, in the beginners level, there are few things that can compete with the power of repetition, not only of the vocabulary sections by presenting the words in different contexts and situations, but also the repetition of the mechanics of conjugation in different tenses to learn how the verb system works. Curiously enough, I had today a breakthrough with my students and they asked me why they did not do practice in their previous classes with other instructors as we did the last week (we had to start combining tenses into complex sentences with at least 2 clauses). They were amazed that they could see the combination when last semester they were struggling with just one verb conjugated per sentence. In reality, I did not do anything fancy: we just took the time to see how some tenses shared some characteristics and how that affected the mechanics of conjugation and the semantic implications of the use of such complex sentences. We did that by repetition of structures, but with a variety of situations and combination of tenses.
Thank you for bringing this wonderful ray of light for teachers to realize that, as times change, the old ways also change, but do not need to disappear.
All of the posts you all made truly emphasize the importance of using repetition in ANY learning environment- from stats to a foreign language. Adults need repetition as much as school age children. Unfortunately, not everyone who works in academia has figured that out. Federico, your example is refreshing. My students were struggling readers so many of the words we learned were so unfamiliar to my students; it was like they were learning words from another language. Being in this program and understanding the research behind repetition has allowed me to value its purpose and embrace the use of repetition with instruction. Dot, I agree many “modern” strategies refute repetition and failed to remember the purpose is to improve learning and not hamper it! Great feedback and examples of how repetition has improved learning for you or your students!
Great example of using repetition for vocabulary words. Utilizing various methods to present the same information is effective when our learners have different learning styles. I think exposure to information in a myriad of ways increases comprehension.
All of the comments everyone made truly emphasize the importance of using repetition in ANY learning environment- from stats to a foreign language. Adults need repetition as much as school age children. Unfortunately, not everyone who works in academia has figured that out. Federico, your example is refreshing. My students were struggling readers so many of the words we learned were so unfamiliar to my students; it was like they were learning words from another language. Being in this program and understanding the research behind repetition has allowed me to value its purpose and embrace the use of repetition with instruction. Dot, I agree many “modern” strategies refute repetition and failed to remember the purpose is to improve learning and not hamper it! Great feedback and examples of how repetition has improved learning for you or your students!
Wonderful post Terica. As an American History teacher I too believe in the importance of repetition. By the time most of my 7th and 8th grade students have reached my classroom they have already had some American History in elementary school. However, once students reach my classroom they do receive some repetition to what they have already learned before about history, but now they are expected to expand on what they know. Where as in their elementary American History classes they learned mostly facts, in my class they learn the facts (again) as well as how history has a direct cause and effect relationship as well as how history and modern times correlate. Similarly, once my students get into high school they will again hear the same history facts. But, yet again, they will be expected to expand on their knowledge in high school and be able to use those facts to present arguments and defend decisions. Despite the fact that the history itself is not going to change much and they will receive many of the same facts; by repeating those facts, students become more comfortable in their knowledge of those facts and more aware of its significance.