Economical methods of learning

Economical methods of learning

Every one has to memorize many things. He has to remember names of his friends, there addresses door numbers , telephone numbers etc. Any one who has to use his knowledge in meeting a new situation has to remember many facts which have to be applied to later cases. Therefore there is a great need for memorizing. Different persons make use of different methods for memorizing. Some of these are more efficient and some less efficient. The economical methods are so named because there is a lot of saving in terms of time and energy. They are also called efficient methods of learning. A great deal of experiments are available on the relative efficiency of the different methods of learning.

The massed method and distributed method OR unspaced and spaced method :

In memorizing a certain lesson a learner may adopt one of the two methods mentioned above. If the time at his disposal is limited and he has to learn the lesson by heart with in that time, he may use the entire time for practicing the lesson continously without any interval or break this is called unspaced or massed method. Suppose the time in his disposal is only one hour, he may go on reading the lesson continuously through out the hour.

In the distributed or spaced method and individual would practice for some time, then rest for a while, resume practice once again, rest for a while and so on . For example : if the time available is one hour he would practice for 20 minutes then rest and relax for 5 minutes, again practice for 20 minutes followed by 5 minutes of rest which is again followed by 10 minutes of practice this procedure is known as distributed practice or spaced practice.

When the results of the two methods were compared, it was found that the distributed method was more efficient. Subjects could memorize more quickly by this method the reason for the superiority of the spaced method seems to be that it provides time for the consolidation of the memory trace. In the continous method where practice goes on without a break there is no time for consolidation.

The whole method and part method :

A lesson which is fairly long made in practiced entirely from the beginning to the end in each reading or trial. This is called the whole method. A lesson can be broken up into smaller parts and each part practiced separately. This is known as part method. For example : If a subject is required to memorize a poem consisting of twenty lines and go over the entire poem again and again and again until he is able to reproduced it or he may first memorize only the first five lines then go on the next five lines, after mastering the second part may go on to the third and so on. Thus learning the poem part by part. This is called the part method.

Although many students have a preference for part learning experimental study's show that all the whole learning is superior to the part learning except when the lesson is too long. In such a case the long lesson may be split into fairly big parts and each part and each part memorized by the whole method for example if a student has to memorize hundred lines of poetry, it would be too long a lesson to study by the whole method. It may therefore be split into four parts each containing 25 lines and each part study by the whole method thus, with very long lesson 2 combinations of the whole and part methods will be more advantageous.

There are at least two reasons for the superiority of the whole method to that of the part method. The first reason is that in the whole method the learner will grasp the central idea or theme of the lesson. This helps in memorizing. The second advantage is that it helps in knowing which part comes after which, so that the lesson is remembered in order. This continuity and order is generally lost in the part learning.

The repetition method and recitation method :

While learning a lesson a student may keep on reading or repeating through out the available time............READ

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