How does learning happen? Part 3

GIF from Nick Harvey Smith’s series on how learning happens. Click to view animation.

GIF from Nick Harvey Smith’s series on how learning happens. Click to view animation.

Working memory and cognitive load help us to understand how learning happens at a particular moment in time.

Zooming up a level, medical illustrator Nick Harvey Smith shows how that moment in time is part of a longer learning cycle that requires:

  • forgetting (the stuff that doesn’t matter)

  • consolidating (the stuff that does matter)

  • interleaving (the stuff we just learned with other stuff, because this maneuver strengthens memories)

  • coaching (through carefully designed feedback adds a positive charge to our learning; hence KiSH)

When you design learning experiences, are you taking into account all the parts of the cycle, and not just the moment that learners are in the room with you?

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Christian Talbot