Should good practice always feel easy?
No. Some of the conditions that make practice slightly harder in the moment, such as retrieving after a delay or discriminating between problem types, can improve durable learning.[1]
How Toku uses this
Toku can increase challenge as a skill becomes secure and can revisit knowledge after it is no longer immediately available.
What research shows
1
The desirable-difficulties framework distinguishes conditions that slow immediate performance but improve longer-term learning from difficulty that simply obstructs learning.[1]
Why this can matter for your child
Your child has to reconstruct knowledge rather than coast on short-term familiarity.
For parents
Useful challenge asks your child to think while still giving them enough knowledge to make progress.
Questions this helps answer
- desirable difficulty learning
- should maths practice feel hard
- productive struggle maths
- right level of challenge child
References
- Elizabeth L. Bjork & Robert A. Bjork (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. Psychology and the Real World.
- Sean H. K. Kang (2016). Spaced repetition promotes efficient and effective learning. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
- Doug Rohrer, Robert F. Dedrick & Sandra Stershic (2015). Interleaved practice improves mathematics learning. Journal of Educational Psychology.