Spaced Learning

Monkseaton High School in the North East of England (Tyne & Wear) is currently trying out some very interesting teaching methods called 'Spaced Learning', whereby they teach students chunks of the curriculum followed by an 'irrelevant' activity that engages different brain cells and then return to the same content and continue like this until the end of the lesson. 


The school refer to the process in the following way:

The core structure of spaced learning is based rigidly on Fields’ discoveries, with three stimulations separated by two 10-minute gaps, as follows:

• Teacher input of key facts/explanations (and therefore pathway stimulation).
• Ten-minute “break” from the input.
• Teacher input of key facts/explanations.
• Ten-minute “break” from the input.
• Teacher input of key facts/explanations.

This approach was developed by Paul Kelley and Angela Bradley and first reported in Kelley’s book, Making Minds.

The principle is based on memory acquisition and the theories of the Douglas Fields of the National Institute for Child Health and Development in the US, who noted that constant stimulus of the same cells does not lead to better acquisition of memory, but by adding time and our brains can create better links between cells and hence form memories more easily.


Interestingly, what is being taught in this lesson is the ability to think laterally to stimulate many parts of the brain simultaneously, which can be a very energising experience if modelled and encouraged by the teacher and especially if it can be brought back to reinforce prior learning. Often teachers who go off on tangents during their lessons are considered eccentric, but they are often the teachers that engage students the most and nurture an interest in their subject. Whether this leads to better exam results is difficult to say... but good memories often lead to a greater confidence in later life to continue learning about that subject.


To read more about 'Spaced Learning' please click here.