A week ago, the Scientific American reported on findings that demonstrated a fact at first counter-intuitive, but obvious with hindsight, and something Maths-Whizzers would do well to remember:
It is often better to fail something in order to learn it better.
Here’s how the SciAm summarises the findings from recent research in the Journal of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition:
In a series of experiments, [the researchers] showed that if students make an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve information before receiving an answer, they remember the information better than in a control condition in which they simply study the information. Trying and failing to retrieve the answer is actually helpful to learning. It’s an idea that has obvious applications for education, but could be useful for anyone who is trying to learn new material of any kind.
Quite. Drivers who don’t pass their test first time are apt to say (for their pride, if nothing else) that failure makes them a better driver. And this is something we at Whizz consistently tell students, parents and teachers: Don’t be afraid to fail.
Failure in Maths-Whizz is often constructive – it tells the tutoring engine that a student’s understanding of a subject may be incomplete, it allows the student to revisit the subject to reinforce her understanding and, given these recent findings, it may fix the solution – when the student finds it – more firmly in her mind.
This work has implications beyond the classroom. By challenging ourselves to retrieve or generate answers we can improve our recall.
This method is directly applied in a number of maths-whizz pencil and paper style exercises – where the student is asked to estimate the answer before proceeding with the detailed solution. But it also applies to those instances where a student at first fails a few questions, or an entire exercise.
The research is a reminder that whilst it seem unfair to expect students to provide answers beyond their comfort zone, this ‘pretesting’ effect could in fact better prepare them to hold onto that knowledge when later it is properly acquired.
So, if you’re a Maths-Whizzer stumped on a question don’t worry, just give it a try. If you fail first time, you might just remember it better! And if that isn’t encouragement enough, take it from Michael Jordan: