John Medina's experimental high school

You recall that the hippocampus is wired to receive information from the cortex as well as return information to it. Declarative memories appear to be terminally stored in the same cortical systems involved in the initial processing of the stimulus. In other words, the final resting place is also the region that served as the initial starting place. The only separation is time, not location. These data have a great deal to say not only about storage but also about recall. Retrieval for a fully mature memory trace 10 years later may simply be an attempt to reconstruct the initial moments of learning, when the memory was only a few milliseconds old! So, the current model looks something like this:

1) Long-term memories occur from accumulations of synaptic changes in the cortex as a result of multiple reinstatements [spaced repetitions] of the memory.

2) These reinstatements are directed by the hippocampus [in the temporal lobe], perhaps for years.

3) Eventually the memory becomes independent of the medial temporal lobe, and this newer, more stable memory trace is permanently stored in the cortex.

4) Retrieval mechanisms may reconstruct the original pattern of neurons initially recruited during the first moments of learning.

[snip]

The day of a typical high-school student is segmented into five or six 50-minute periods, consisting of unrepeated (and unrelenting) streams of information. Using as a framework the timing requirements suggested by working memory, how would you change this five-period fire hose? What you’d come up with might be the strangest classroom experience in the world. Here’s my fantasy:

In the school of the future, lessons are divided into 25-minute modules, cyclically repeated throughout the day. Subject A is taught for 25 minutes, constituting the first exposure. Ninety minutes later, the 25-minute content of Subject A is repeated, and then a third time. All classes are segmented and interleaved in such a fashion. Because these repetition schedules slow down the amount of information capable of being addressed per unit of time, the school year is extended into the summer.

[snip]

In the future school, every third or fourth day would be reserved for reviewing the facts delivered in the previous 72 to 96 hours. During these “review holidays,” previous information would be presented in compressed fashion. Students would have a chance to inspect the notes they took during the initial exposures, comparing tem with what the teacher was saying in the review. This would result in a greater elaboration of the information, and it would help the teachers deliver accurate information. A formalized exercise in error-checking soon would become a regular and positive part of both the teacher and student learning experiences.

It is quite possible that such models would eradicate the need for homework. At its best, homework served only to force the student to repeat content. If that repetition were supplied during the course of the day, there might be little need for re-exposure. This isn’t because homework isn’t important as a concept. In the future school, it may simply be unnecessary.

Could models like these actually work? Deliberately spaced repetitions have not been tested rigorously in the real world, so there are lots of questions. Do you really need three separate repetitions per subject per day to accrue a positive outcome? Do all subjects need such repetition? Might such interleaved vigor hurt learning, with constant repetitions beginning to interfere with one another as the day wore on? Do you really need review holidays, and if so, do you need them every three to four days? We don’t know.

Years and years

Today, students are expected to know certain things by certain grades. Curiously absent from this model is how durable that learning remains after the student completes the grade. Given that system consolidation can take years, might the idea of grade-level expectations need amending? Perhaps learning in the long view should be thought of the same way one thinks of immune booster shots, with critical pieces of information being repeated on a yearly or semi-yearly basis.

In my fantasy class, this is exactly what happens. Repetitions begin with a consistent and rigorous review of multiplication tables, fractions, and decimals. First learned in the third grade, six-month and yearly review sessions on these basic facts occur through sixth grade. As mathematical competencies increase in sophistication, the review content is changed to reflect greater understanding. But the cycles are still in place. In my fantasy, these consistent repetition disciplines, stretched out over long periods of time, create enormous benefits for every academic subject, especially foreign languages.

Brain Rules, by John Medina
p. 141-142; 143-145

Brain Rules web site
hippocampus
Neuroscience for Kids