After reading Boxer’s (2019) article I became curious about using an example that I could more easily relate to. Even though I did well in chemistry in high school, I have not kept up with the field.
One of my previous mentors told me that when speaking to a group, provide no more than three main items. After three it is harder for people to retain what they are learning or what you are speaking about. Although Boxer indicates four to five as optimum I believe the concept for doing so is similar.
When I was teaching math to students (grades 1-9 over a number of years) I chose to have them repeat the two main concepts or formulas that they did the previous day. Rather than having them do page after page of math problems or applications, I encouraged them to work on a problem until they understood it and then leave it.
The next day I had them do one example of each new concept they had learned in the past four days. If they got the one problem correct then there was no need to do another problem. If they didn’t get it correct then we worked on why they were not understanding it. Then we added it in to the next four days of revisiting. Once they had a total of five days remembering the item we left that concept for a month and then revisited it once again.
The students I worked with all came to the classroom ‘disliking’ math and struggling. When they returned to the traditional classroom setting they received high marks and had improved confidence in doing the work.
Change management with my staff is similar. Small increments repeated over time to shift to a new habit is what works best.
Boxer, Adam. (2019, Oct 7). 5 invaluable lessons from cognitive science. Royal Society of Chemistry.
5 invaluable lessons from cognitive science | Feature | RSC Education.