‘Spacing’ refers to revision throughout the course of study, while ‘interleaving’ means switching between ideas while you learn. Both techniques can help boost students’ long-term memories and retrieval of key information. Helen Webb explains

Having embedded a variety of retrieval strategies into my own practice (SecEd, 2017) I have focused this academic year on introducing interleaving and spacing as effective learning strategies to students.

In this article, I will give an overview of some of the research, and how this has had an impact on my own practice and in our science department to improve student learning.

For a more in depth review of the research I recommend the excellent book – Understanding How We Learn (Weinstein, Sumeracki & Caviglioli, 2018) – where much of the inspiration for this project came from.

The two concepts are similar but essentially spacing is revision throughout the course, whereas interleaving is switching between ideas while you study. Although interleaving and spacing are different interventions, the two are linked because interleaving inherently introduces spacing.

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