Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: On the basis of a substantial, robust and well-replicated cognitive science research literature, interleaving has been recommended across a wide range of professional literature as an evidence-based pedagogical strategy. This paper first notes the conflation of interleaving and spacing effects underpinning those recommendations and the limitations of some laboratory-based research as grounding for practice. It then reports on two large classroom experiments aimed at replicating the interleaving/blocking effect, alongside a more common teaching approach, for learning well-defined mathematical categories (angle relations). The failure to detect an interleaving/blocking effect, despite very large sample sizes, opens the question of whether this effect is relevant to learning defined mathematical concepts.
Authors: Paul Rowlandson, Adrian Simpson
Institution: Durham University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4410032789