Learning fast and slow
Is it better to learn intensively or slowly over time? Research suggests a mix might be best: start strong, then shift to continuous review. Could this approach apply to everything from language learning to design bootcamps? How do you prefer to learn?
Adult students performed better in an intensive course (110 hrs in 5 weeks) than in an extensive course (110 hrs in 7 months) in language education programs. (Hinger 2006)
🤔 But, there’s also evidence that learning a complex skill like a new language slowly and steadily improves our memory due to repeated exposure to materials over time (Spacing Effect). (Serrano and Muñoz 2007)
💡 One consensus is that people learning a new skill like a language will benefit from first intensively studying until they are conversational, then transitioning to continuous/period review instead of just studying 30 minutes per day from the start. I personally prefer to learn this way. (Zerr et al. 2018)
I wonder about the impact of intensive versus extensive learning experiences. Do students in UX design bootcamps forget more than their college counterparts who spread design classes over four years? Is a 21-day racial equity challenge worse for anti-racist thinking than training taken over a year?
How do you prefer to learn?
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Citation
@online{ali2023,
author = {Ali, Elham},
title = {Learning Fast and Slow},
date = {2023-02-13},
url = {https://www.elhamyali.com/blog/2023-02-13-learning-fast-and-slow},
langid = {en}
}