In the previous post, we read about what Desirable Difficulty is and some benefits of it. In this post, let’s look at practical ways we can create it in an effort to love our students well.
How do I create Desirable Difficulty?
Significant learning results in a change in the learner (Fink, 2013). Bjork & Bjork, in their work regarding desirable difficulty posit that learning does not always equal performance. Performance can be quite high if a student is diligent at memorizing content. Because performance is measurable, where learning is not always, we are often fooled by high-performing students.
Here are some ways Bjork & Bjork suggest we can create desirable difficulty:
- Varying the Conditions of Practice: Changing the methods of studying and the physical locations of studying will enhance the learner’s knowledge and ability to transfer the learned content. This will help them when it comes time to assess their learning because they have already made mental modifications relating to the content they studied, and will likely be able to do so again.
- Spacing Study or Practice Sessions: Everyone has crammed for a test or two in their educational careers, but to what avail? While this strategy generally works to accomplish short-term goals, spacing out the learning over the duration of the course, or established period of time, allows for the information to take root and grow, building upon itself, leading to more long-term success in learning.
- Interleaving vs. Blocking Instruction: Blocking instruction involves learning similar skills or topics repeatedly for a set amount of time, and being tested shortly thereafter. Interleaving, on the other hand, aims to weave instruction of multiple topics or content characteristics leaving time in between before returning to any given topic. This practice of interleaving is proven to allow students to form more competency in a skill over a longer period of time versus a shorter period of time on focused topics. When tested, students who practiced interleaving may have struggled initially, but ultimately out-performed their counterparts who had practiced blocking instruction.
- Generation Effects and Using Tests (Rather than Presentations) as Learning Events: Generation practice refers to the act of risk taking vs. taking hints. When students are presented with opportunities to generate content based on what they’ve learned, even if their answers are incorrect, they are learning to take risks based on their learning. When they do this effectively and repeatedly, they begin to internalize the content rather than it being fed to them.
Where can I find more information about Desirable Difficulty?
- Creating Desirable Difficulties to Enhance Learning | Bjork & Bjork
- Bjork’s Desirable Difficulties | Durrington Research School
- The Downsides of Desirable Difficulties | Learning & The Brain
- Teaching & Learning: Desirable Difficulties | SecEd: A Voice for Secondary Education (Sherwood, 2018)
- Learning Out Loud with Karen Caldwell | Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast
- Use Desirable Difficulty to Master the Universe, Fisher, 2019
- Desirable Difficulties: If at First You Don’t Succeed…You May Have Learned More than You Thought | Global Cognition, Duran, 2021
- Jaffe, Desirable Difficulties in the Classroom
- Desirable Difficulties in Learning | BOLD
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