{"id":2189,"date":"2017-07-13T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T08:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=2189"},"modified":"2017-12-25T02:36:51","modified_gmt":"2017-12-25T02:36:51","slug":"interrupting-skilled-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/interrupting-skilled-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Interrupting Skilled Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdobeStock_65282787_Credit\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a sentence that won’t surprise you: practice typically makes us more skilled at the activity we’re practicing.<\/p>\n

Here’s a sentence that might surprise you: practice makes us more vulnerable to mistakes after an interruption<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So, for example, if my students have just learned<\/span> how to solve for three variables with three equations, then an interruption will have some effect on them when they get back to work.<\/p>\n

If, however, they have spent some time<\/span> getting familiar with the process of solving for three variables with three equations, then an interruption will distract them even more.<\/em><\/p>\n

Said a different way: an interruption may distract your relatively advanced students\u00a0more than your less advanced students.<\/p>\n

Counter-intuitive?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My first response to this research finding<\/a> was straightforward puzzlement. Why are experienced students more distractible than neophytes?<\/p>\n

As I’ve thought more about this study, I’ve had an idea. If I’m experienced at a step-by-step activity, then I’m probably not paying full attention to each step as I go through the process. After all, my experience lets me work almost by rote. In this case, an interruption is quite a problem, because I wasn’t really focused on my place in the list of steps.<\/p>\n

However, if I’m a newbie, I’m likely to be focusing quite keenly on each step, and so–after a distraction–am likelier to remember where I left off.<\/p>\n

Teaching Implications<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the first<\/strong> place, this study by Altmann and Hambrick is the only one I know of that reaches this conclusion. Until their results are replicated, we ought to be interested in, but not obsessed by, their findings.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>, we should note that relative expertise does have occasional disadvantages. We shouldn’t assume that our accomplished students\u00a0won’t be fuddled by a classroom interruption–in fact, they might be more so than their still-struggling peers.<\/p>\n

Third<\/strong>, I for one will be on the lookout for this pattern in my own work. In theory at least, I’m the expert in my classroom, and so I might be more discombobulated than my students by a distraction during a rote task.<\/p>\n

Given this research, I now know to turn to my least confident students for a reminder of where were were.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a sentence that won’t surprise you: practice typically makes us more skilled at the activity we’re practicing. Here’s a sentence that might surprise you: practice makes us more vulnerable to mistakes after an interruption. So, for example, if my students have just learned how to solve for three variables with three equations, then an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15,41],"class_list":["post-2189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-classroom-advice","tag-experts-and-novices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2189"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2191,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions\/2191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}