Article I Read: PNAS Article: An astonishing regularity in student learning rate
I recently was pointed to this article and it reminded me of some really important aspects of teaching that I didn't realize until later in my career. First I will break down what the article says. The research examined over 1.3 million observations of students across a range of subjects and age groups. One key finding stood out: while students start with varying levels of knowledge, their learning rates were strikingly consistent. On average, students improved by 2.5% in accuracy with each practice opportunity.
For me, this challenges the misconception that some students simply are just slower learners. Instead, it underscores the critical importance of focused practice. When all students are given similar, high-quality opportunities to practice a specific task, their growth becomes more predictable and equitable.
The secret ingredient here is focused attention to learning. This also leads to the 1million dollar questions, how to get kids to focus or maybe we have to step back a bit more and define what exactly focus means.
Focused Practice vs. Engagement
It’s tempting to equate student engagement with effective learning. After all, engaged students look attentive, interact with peers, and may even ask thoughtful questions. But engagement alone isn’t enough. To drive measurable growth, engagement must translate into focused practice—students directly working on a task that explicitly targets the teaching point.
For instance, engagement might look like a group discussion where students enthusiastically share their thoughts on a concept, but this this is a poor proxy for knowing if they are learning.
Group Work is not always the Best Work
I am very careful of how I use group work in class. While there are benefits to kids working with others and having discussions, group work often falls short of qualifying as focused practice because it can diffuse responsibility and attention among participants. In a group setting, students may engage in discussions or collaborative efforts that appear productive but don’t necessarily require each individual to directly and independently manipulate the core learning task.
Inevitably, some students will rely on more active peers to carry the workload, while others may focus on peripheral tasks rather than the teaching point itself. For practice to be truly focused, every student must actively engage with the material in a way that demonstrates their understanding and challenges their current skill level, something group work alone doesn’t always ensure.
How do we know kids were focused or not?
This is the kicker, truly focused attention to a topic is an internal thing. It’s the brain working behind the scenes, forming invisible connections between new information and existing knowledge in long-term memory. While we can’t directly observe these connections being made in real time, we have a powerful tool to reveal their effects: assessments. This one of the many powers of assessment—it allows us to determine whether students were able to focus on the content and successfully make those vital connections.
This is a topic that doesn’t get enough discussion among teachers, even though it’s a frequent source of frustration. “But I taught this content!” is a common refrain. The real challenge lies in getting students to individually focus on learning. Understanding that this focused effort not only drives learning but also helps level the playing field for all students is a critical realization for educators. Prioritizing strategies to foster this kind of focused practice is pivotal to effective teaching. The better we become at ensuring this, the better outcomes we can achieve for our students.
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