Proactive and Retroactive Facilitation of Long-Term Retention by Curriculum Continuity

Author:

Arzi Hanna J1,Ben-Zvi Ruth1,Ganiel Uri1

Affiliation:

1. The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Abstract

A longitudinal research study was designed to investigate effects of mutual interrelations between courses in sequential teaching on long-term retention of learning. This paper mainly relates to the following question: Is the retention of previously learned course material facilitated by new content taught in subsequent courses? Students were followed up for 3 consecutive years from junior to senior high school. Two groups were investigated: Both had studied the same introductory physical science course in grade 7, but only one group continued to study related physical science topics in grade 8. Analysis of longitudinally matched data detected significant proactive and retroactive effects of courses: (a) Prior knowledge acquired in grade 7 facilitated further learning in grade 8; and (b) retention of the grade 7 subject matter over a 2-year interval was higher in the group that had studied physical science continuously during grades 7 and 8. These long-lasting effects are not due to mere rehearsal, since the content of the grade 7 course is used but not retaught in subsequent courses. Explanations are provided by Ausubel’s assimilation theory. The main educational implication is that a program composed of a hierarchical sequence of learning units is superior to a discontinuous array of discrete courses.

Publisher

American Educational Research Association (AERA)

Subject

Education

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