Immediate feedback and repetition in learning

One of our favorite quotes is from Anders Ericsson. He does research into the development of expertise or (as we often translate it) the research into excellent learning.

He claims that learners “… should receive immediate information feedback and knowledge of results of their performance.”*

But his next sentence is at least as important.

“The subjects should repeatedly perform the same or similar tasks.”

With DigLin+, we see how important it is to use these “rules” in literacy learning. The code must be cracked and this requires repetition and immediate feedback. And for literacy, also speed must be developed so that it is not only possible to “read” but also to understand what is being read. As long as grapheme-phoneme correspondence, analysis and synthesis take too long, there is no room in the working memory to give meaning to an entire sentence and to the meaning of the sentence in the whole text.

With  “paper” learning both of Anders Ericsson’s “rules” for effective learning are virtually impossible.

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Directe feedback en herhaling…

Een van de quotes die we vaak aanhalen is van Anders Ericsson. Hij doet onderzoek naar het ontstaan van expertise of (zoals we dat vaak vertalen) naar excellente leerders.

Hij zegt dat het van groot belang voor effectief leren is dat leerders onmiddellijk feedback krijgen.

(The subjects should receive immediate informative feedback and knowledge of results of their performance.)*

Maar zijn volgende zin is minstens zo belangrijk..

Leerders moeten dezelfde (soort) taken regelmatig herhalen.

(The subjects should repeatedly perform the same or similar tasks.)

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Diglin – The Educated Guess

It is the last physical meeting of our Diglin project. We have been working for three years on a project for Low Educated Second Language Learners. We have developed software with automatic speech recognition for four languages. It has been exciting and very interesting to work on this. All these different aspects. The differences between the languages, the pedagogical approach in this project, the differences in teaching in the four countries. The task of building something that could make a real difference.

It has also been frustrating sometimes.  There is the difference between the four countries and the languages. And we have so many different experts working in this project. Automatic Speech Recognition experts and software developers work together with experts in the field of learning a second language and becoming literate in this new language. In some cases it is really hard to understand each other. We went through difficult periods the past three years. We have encountered numerous (technical) problems in this project.

But I think somehow we all know we are working on an important project.

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Be a mother duck!

A teacher once sent me this video. She thought it was an excellent example of working with high expectations. Actually, it’s a movie about learning. It is looking at learning and to some extent also looking at leadership. And in only a few minutes so many dilemmas come along. We use the video in workshops for teachers and supervisors of students. It triggers people.

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