Transcript The Spacing Effect

Research Evidence to
Support the
Consultation Model in
Itinerant Early
Childhood Special
Education Services
Shelby County, AL
February 23-24, 2009
William McInerney, Ph.D.
Laurie Dinnebeil, Ph.D.
University of Toledo
Judith Herb College of Education
Distributed Instruction
vs. Massed
Instruction……
The Spacing Effect
What It Is and Why It Should
Matter to Itinerant Early
Childhood Special Education
Professionals
Research and
Development Support
Margie Spino, M.A.
Doctoral Student - U. Toledo
Consultation vs. One-to-One
and Small Group Instruction in
Itinerant ECSE Services

This is the primary consideration in current IECSE
practice. Which is the more efficient approach to
teaching?
• The adoption of a consultation model as the
primary mode of intervention in IECSE
services must be based on the efficacy of
instruction vs. traditional patterns of
practice
Rationale for Consultation /
Coaching in IECSE Services

If periodic or episodic intervention (usually 60-90 minutes per week
in traditional IECSE service delivery) is as efficient as distributed or
spaced instruction (or practice), then there is no need to adopt a
consultation model as the primary mode of intervention
• However, if distributed or spaced instruction or practice is a more
efficient model of learning, then adoption of a consultation approach
to IECSE intervention is warranted
Rationale for Consultation /
Coaching in IECSE Services

If consultation is to be considered as a preferred
alternative to 60-90 minute, one-to-one or
teacher-directed small group instruction, then
the research base related to efficiency of child
learning must be examined
What is the Spacing Effect?

The tendency for spaced (distributed)
presentations to yield much better learning
than massed presentations

Examples of Spaced Practice
 In 1 day: Study 2 hours, break, study 2 hours,
break
 Across days: Study on Mon, Tues, Wed

Example of Massed Practice
 “Cramming”
What is Interstudy Interval
(ISI)?



The interval separating different study
episodes of the same materials
In most studies are at least 2 study episodes
separated by an ISI
Example: Study 2 hr, ½ hr break, Study 2 hr

Means ISI = ½ hour
Research with Adults - 1
Donovan & Radosevich, 1999


Meta-analysis: reviewed 63 studies involving
acquisition of a skill or knowledge with adults
Results:


distributed practice was significantly superior to
massed practice
differences in size of the effect depending on the type
of task

“the size of the spacing effect declined sharply as
conceptual difficulty of the task increased from low (e.g.
rotary pursuit) to average (e.g. word list recall) to high (e.g.
puzzle).” (Rohrer & Taylor, 2006, p. 1210)
Research with Adults - 2
Cepeda, Pashler, Vul, Wixted & Rohrer, 2006
 Meta-analysis: reviewed 317 studies using
verbal memory tasks with children and adults
 Results:

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Spaced learning of items consistently showed
benefits over massed learning
Longer Interstudy Intervals (ISI) benefited
learning
Most studies showed children doing better with
spaced practice
Research with Children - 1
Rea and Modigliani,1985
 3rd graders (8.5 years) taught spelling words
and math facts


Students ranked as Level 1 (top half of class) or
Level 2 (bottom half of class)
Results:


Better on spelling and math tests when had
spaced practice rather than massed practice
Spaced practice was better for both Level 1 and 2
students (ability level didn’t matter)
Research with Children - 2
Seabrook, Brown & Solity, 2005


Participants ranged from 5-yr olds to undergrads
Experiment 1

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Task: shown a list of words (3- and 4-letter concrete
nouns) and then given a recall test.
Schedule: Words were presented for study with 0
intervening words (massed), and 1, 3 and 8
intervening words (spaced/distributed).
Results: all age groups benefited from increasing
lags.
Seabrook, Brown & Solity, 2005

Experiment 2

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Task: to recognize words previously shown on a list
under conditions that more closely resembled a
classroom
Schedule:


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massed condition = one word was presented four times
in a row.
clustered (an intermediate condition) = one word was
presented twice in a row followed by eight intervening
items then a further 2 consecutive presentations.
distributed condition = one word was presented four
times with four intervening items between each
presentation.
Seabrook, Brown & Solity, 2005

Experiment 2 Results


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distributed condition produced significantly better
results on the test than either the clustered or massed
conditions
the clustered condition resulted in performance that
was not any better than in the massed condition
these results held for both the children and the adults;
there were no significant differences in performance
between children and adults
Seabrook, Brown and Solity, 2005

Experiment 3


Task: 34 children (mean age 5 years.6 mos.) taught
phonics over two weeks
Schedule:
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Clustered = one, 6-minute session per day within a
regular classroom setting.
Distributed = three, 2-minute sessions per day within a
regular classroom setting
Results: Children in distributed condition had test
scores 6 times greater than children in clustered
condition
Research with Children - 3
Childers and Tomasello, 2002
 How many times (and how many days) does
a 2-yr old need to hear a word to learn it?
 In 2 experiments, 2 yr olds were taught novel
nouns and verbs over course of one month in
sessions lasting 5 – 10 min


Noun = “This is a wuggy.”
Verb = “It’s dacking. See? It dacks.”
Childers and Tomasello, 2002

Experiment 1: 6 experimental conditions
= 1 day

Massed 4
4x

Massed 8
8x

Daily 4
1x

Widely Spaced 4
1x
1x
1x
1x
1x
1x

Clumped 4
2x
2x

Clumped 8
2x
4x
1x
2x
Childers and Tomasello, 2002
Experiment 1 Results:
•
Best learning occurred when practice
distributed over 4 days regardless of
number of intervening days
•
•
•
Best = Daily 4, Widely Spaced 4, Clumped 8
Worst = Massed 8, Massed 4, Clumped 4
Children learned words better if they heard
it 1x/day for 4 days rather than 8x/day for I
day
Childers and Tomasello, 2002
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Experiment 2
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only nouns
only 4 exposures to new word in 1 day (not 4
& 8)
varied number of days heard the words
 1 to 4 days
Varied number of intervening days (ISI)
 1, 2, 5 or 10 intervening days
Childers and Tomasello, 2002

Experiment 2 Results
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The more days children heard the words, the
better able they were to learn the words
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Best = 4 days, 3 days
Worst = 1 day, 2 days
The number of intervening days (ISI) did not
matter and was not helpful.

Children did poorly with 1, 2, 5 and 10 intervening
days.
Major Findings

Spacing (distributing) practices benefited
children and adults whether tasks were
physical or conceptual.

Spacing practice within the day (e.g., three 2min sessions/day) or across days (e.g.,
1x/day for 4 days) benefited children’s
learning.
Implications for
Education Practice

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Current laws state that educational practice needs
to be research-based (NCLB; IDEIA, 2004)
How should we schedule instruction for young
children?

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Massed vs Spaced ? Research supports Spaced
How should we schedule the itinerant SPED
teacher’s time?

Direct instruction vs. Consultation / Coaching ?
Research suggests Consultation/Coaching