1. Chunking lectures to improve the learning experience [EN] SM1

Long-term Memory

Working Memory

What subject did they teach?

What was their name?

Who was your favorite teacher in college?

What is chunking?

You were probably able to come up with an answer relatively easily, given that this information came from your long-term memory: Once extracted from long-term memory, information enters your immediate working memory in order to form your answer. In short, your long-term memory holds vast amounts of information, while your working memory is very limited in comparison.

To show the difference between working memory and long-term memory, consider the following questions:

Definition

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CHUNKING LECTURES TO IMPROVE THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

• Easily overloaded

• Site of active awareness

• Limited in storage space

• Not easily overloaded

• Site for permanent storage of memories

• Nearly limitless capacity

Human beings can pay a sustained amount of attention to a task for around seven to ten minutes at a time. This is because the amount of space in our working memory—where our conscious awareness and thinking occurs—is limited.

Chunking is a research-based power concept for advanced learning that consists of breaking up a long lecture into seven to ten-minute 'chunks' that will help students learn more effectively.

In this section, we will talk about what it is, as well as how, when, and why to implement it.

Despite spending thousands of hours in classrooms, most students still rely on sub-optimal or ineffective learning strategies. The big idea of this module is that this can be changed, using the science of learning and the three principles that we will cover in this module, the first of which is chunking. This principle is a great starting point for using the science of learning to improve classroom instruction.

How does chunking help us create an active learning environment?

The spaces or pauses between the seven to ten-minute streams of information will effectively open up space in students' working memory, which will give them time to consider what the instructor is saying and develop meaningful cognition around the content.

They remember what they learned for longer periods of time, and are more able to use the knowledge in the future. With this in mind, we constantly want to be thinking of ways to create an active learning environment in our classroom, which chunking helps us to do.

When we are exposed to a steady stream of information, even if we are passionate about the topic at hand or if engaging visual elements are being used, our working memory runs the risk of overloading as students are left with no choice but to sit and passively listen. It is a well-known fact that when students are more active in classrooms, they are more motivated to learn:

10 min

10 min

10 min

10 min

10 min

50 minutes

How do our brains interpret long strings of information?

"Chunking up" a lecture encourages active rather than passive learning, which provides a number of benefits for students' ability to retain and use the acquired information in the future.

Important

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In a traditional lecture, a single stream of information will be delivered over the course of 45 to 60 minutes. A chunked lecture, on the other hand, will be comprised of chunks of around seven to ten minutes long, with spaces in between each chunk.

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF CHUNKING

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A one-minute paper is a combination of the pause method and an open-ended prompt. For example, we may tell students to spend one minute writing about something that they found interesting regarding what has been discussed so far. Alternatively, we may ask them to write down everything that they remember about the content up to that point.

One-Minute Papers

Using polls or quizzes during a pause is a very powerful tool. Students could be asked to write down an answer to a question on a piece of paper, they could be given a multiple-choice quiz or they could be given clicker questions or peer instruction. This will allow students to open up space in their working memory and to have cognition over the content that has been presented, while providing them with a meaningful experience. Try to use only one or two questions if you choose to give a quiz or make a poll.

Content Polling or Quizzing

As the name suggests, the pause method consists of making a small pause (30 to 60 seconds) that gives students a chance to catch up with the information provided up to that point and open up some space in their working memory. Try it now! Take 30 seconds to reflect on all of the information we have covered so far before moving on with the rest of the module.

The Pause Method

As mentioned previously, dividing a lecture into chunks of seven to ten minutes is a great starting point, regardless of whether we are teaching a class in-person or online. In chunking, even the time between chunks is useful for active learning, but how should we use it? There are four useful ways to take advantage of the spaces or pauses in between your seven to ten minute information chunks. These include:

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF CHUNKING

Chunking up lectures is a simple but powerful way of creating an active learning environment that can dramatically improve students’ learning experience. Your lectures can be broken up into seven to ten-minute chunks of content. In between those chunks, use some of the tools discussed in this section to encourage students to engage in active learning and to help them open up spaces in their working memory.

Conclusion

Discussion questions are a great option for pauses, especially in an online setting. Learning management systems used in online learning environments such as Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle, allow the option to host discussion forums where students may interact among themselves and answer questions posed by the instructor.

Discussion Questions

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MAKING THE MOST OUT OF CHUNKING