Rethinking the Mathematics Worksheet in Higher Education: Embracing the Application of Spaced and Interleaved Practice

Abstract

Existing research in cognitive and educational psychology warns against overlearning and promotes spaced and interleaved practice. However, the practice of blocked overlearning is still the standard design of student practice in mathematics in higher education. This is despite the fact that transitioning to spaced interleaved worksheets would require only the resources already in place for traditionally designed blocked worksheets. Consequently, changing to spaced interleaved worksheets provides a straightforward, time-effective way in which higher education mathematics educators can implement evidence-based practice. This paper is a literature review with the intention of making explicit the educational benefits of a worksheet redesign in higher education mathematics and distilling it into recommendations on how to perform such a redesign. Negative impacts of the new design are also considered and suggestions are made on how to offset these.

Keywords

• Mathematics
• interleaved
• spaced
• distributed
• blocked