Planning & Spaced Practice

Planning & Spaced Practice

Josepha Castro, MSN-Ed, RN, CNEn

Planning

• Know thyself
• Be realistic
• Identify concepts to study
• Decide strategy
• Time or task
• Spacing
• Interleveling
• Consider
• Special Events
• Upcoming exams
• Group projects

Spaced Practice

• Scheduling study time accross multiple small, chunks of time
• Regular, periodic intervals
• Focus on new and old content make connections
• Plan your learning schedule
• By time on task
• Concepts to cover
• Use active learning strategies-this means retrieval practice

Not this...

This...

Calendar Activity-Part 1

• Insert all of your "must do" activities in your weekly schedule, including classes, family obligations, work, church, sleep, etc. It might be beneficial to color code. Ensure to include your daily tasks, such as checking email, Canvas, and calendar updates.
• Block out proposed study/HW times, can be as little as 15 minutes, but no more than 2 hours. Spread it out through the week.
• Schedule at least two sessions of spaced, retrieval practice for each class you are taking.

Calendar Activity-Part 2

On the next calendar

• Fill in with the proposed schedule you developed on the first calendar.
• Identify specific topics/content to study during the scheduled study times.
• Use this calendar to keep track of what you actually do during the next week.

Calendar Activity-Part 3

Ongoing – every week check yourself....part of developing new habits

• Identify distractors and things that “got in the way” of maintaining your schedule.

• Consider your learning – while it may have been harder to do retrieval practice, how are you doing on recalling information and flexible application of knowledge?

Interleaving

• Schedule 10 or 15 minutes of each day to focus on other than current materials.
• Use practice questions from textbooks and other resources
• If using flashcards, study materials from a previous unit or chapter, then the current materials.
• Be deliberate in trying to make connections between concepts.

Retrieval Practice

• Most effective when done BEFORE reviewing notes, texts, etc
• Use of different retrieval practice activities is more effective
• Best is used in conjunction with spaced practice
• Bringing information to mind

• Changes how we remember it
• Makes it more flexible
• Creates new connections

These are just some strategies to help you succeed in your nursing course. I will show you more examples of these strategies during your lectures.