{"id":6828,"date":"2022-11-20T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2022-11-20T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=6828"},"modified":"2022-11-20T09:12:36","modified_gmt":"2022-11-20T14:12:36","slug":"the-most-important-5-minutes-in-class-the-primacy-recency-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/the-most-important-5-minutes-in-class-the-primacy-recency-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Important 5 Minutes in Class: The Primacy\/Recency Effect"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we put our lesson plans together, we teachers want to know: are some minutes more valuable than others?<\/p>\n

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

That is:<\/p>\n

Do students remember most at the 10-minute mark of the lesson, because they’re mentally revved up<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Or, perhaps they remember most from the final five minutes, because the whole class has led to this grand conclusion<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Or, perhaps some other time slot generates the most learning, because psychology reasons<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What does the research tell us?<\/p>\n

Start Here<\/h2>\n

I occasionally see teaching advice that seeks to answer this question. That advice typically begins with a fascinating research pool.<\/p>\n

Here’s the story.<\/p>\n

Researchers present students with — say — a list of 15 words. After distraction, how many\u00a0 words do students remember? And, can we predict which ones<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Several studies suggest a consistent answer.<\/p>\n

Students tend to remember words\u00a0from the beginning of the list<\/em>. Researchers call that the “primacy” effect.<\/p>\n

And, they remember words\u00a0from the end of the list<\/em>. That result gets the moniker “recency effect.”<\/p>\n

Going all the way back to 1962, this primacy\/recency effect has a lot of research behind it. (For a more recent study, click here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Lab to Classroom<\/h2>\n

So, how should teachers plan our lessons based on this particular finding?<\/p>\n

Let’s imagine that I tell my students a list of 8 instructions<\/em>. Because of the primacy\/recency effect, I suspect they’ll remember the early and late instructionst better than the ones in the middle. (Hint: maybe I should\u00a0write down<\/em> a long list of instructions…)<\/p>\n

But: what does this effect tell us about the most valuable teaching time<\/em> during a class period as a whole?<\/p>\n

From time to time, scholars who translate psychology research for classroom teachers make this argument:<\/p>\n

The primacy\/recency effect suggests that the first several minutes<\/strong> of class, and the final several minutes<\/strong> of class, have the greatest effect on learning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is: For the same reason that students remember the first and last instruction from my list of 8, they’ll learn the most during the first and last minutes of class.<\/p>\n

Voila: a research-based answer to the question.<\/p>\n

I confess, however, that I myself have doubts.<\/p>\n

The argument says, in effect:<\/p>\n

Rules governing mental processes for 60-120 seconds also govern mental processes for 45-80 minutes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Honestly, I’m just not sure that’s plausible. My doubts spring from two sources.<\/p>\n

Doubts, and More Doubts<\/h2>\n

In the\u00a0first<\/strong> place, I doubt this advice because it extrapolates so far beyond the initial research conditions<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If research tells me something about — say — college students, that conclusion might also apply to 1st graders. But it might not<\/em>. 1st graders aren’t college students.<\/p>\n

If research tells me something about adolescents in Iceland, that conclusion might apply to teens in Brazil. But it might not<\/em>. Icelandic culture differs from Brazilian culture.<\/p>\n

And, if research tells me about mental functions over one minute, that conclusion might apply to 20 minutes. (Or 45, or 80.) But IT MIGHT NOT. One minute isn’t twenty.<\/p>\n

Long-time readers know I always focus on “boundary conditions.” From my perspective, this advice goes WAY beyond the boundaries of the initial research.<\/p>\n

By the way: I’ve asked SEVERAL wise people if they know of primacy\/recency research that goes beyond a minute or two. So far, the answer is “no.”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0second<\/strong> reason I doubt this advice because of the specific mental functions<\/em> involved.<\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, researchers explain the primacy\/recency effect by talking about short-term memory<\/strong> and working memory<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Both of these mental faculties describe\u00a0very short-term mental functions<\/em>. In my grad-school classes, our profs typically said that working memory holds information somewhere between 5 and 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

If, in fact, the primacy\/recency effect results from short-term and working memory functions, then those findings almost certainly won’t apply to mental processes that take 30+ minutes.<\/p>\n

Like, say, our classes.<\/p>\n

Just Answer the Question<\/h2>\n

If this advice doesn’t hold, what can research tell us about the “most important five minutes in class”?<\/p>\n

I’ve got two answers.<\/p>\n

Answer #1: <\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve asked lots of people if they have a resaerch-informed answer to this question. So far, no one has a strong “yes.” But, If I hear of one, I’ll pass it along.<\/p>\n

And, btw, a friend has answered “we really have to research that question!” So, I’ll let you know if\/when his results come through.<\/p>\n

Answer #2:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Long-time readers know my mantra: “don’t just do this thing<\/em>; instead, think this way<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

In this case, I don’t think we can plausibly identify any one time slot that consistently generates the most learning.<\/p>\n

Instead, we want to use core ideas from cognitive science to structure lesson plans effectively.<\/p>\n

Use retriveal practice.<\/p>\n

Beware working-memory overload.<\/p>\n

Foster attention.<\/p>\n

Activate prior knowledge.<\/p>\n

And so forth.<\/p>\n

If we follow this approach, every minute<\/strong> will build ultimately — and more-or-less equally — toward students’ learning.<\/p>\n

\n

Castel, A. D. (2008). Metacognition and learning about primacy and recency effects in free recall: The utilization of intrinsic and extrinsic cues when making judgments of learning.\u00a0Memory & Cognition<\/i>,\u00a036<\/i>(2), 429-437.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we put our lesson plans together, we teachers want to know: are some minutes more valuable than others? That is: Do students remember most at the 10-minute mark of the lesson, because they’re mentally revved up? Or, perhaps they remember most from the final five minutes, because the whole class has led to this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-6828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-classroom-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828","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=6828"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6836,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6828\/revisions\/6836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}