Learning method

Details Learning method Learning method

2000-03-28

2002-07-16

Cheng, Joe H. (Department: 3714)

Education and demonstration

Question or problem eliciting response

C434S323000, C434S118000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06419496

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods of education and in particular to methods of self-education. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of teaching oneself a large number of facts or principles about any one of a number of topics. More particularly yet, the present invention relates to such a method that enhances the retention of learned material in long-term memory. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to such a method that incorporates structured repetition of learned material, wherein the time interval between repeated presentations of already-learned material increases after each successful recall of that material, and conversely, wherein that time interval decreases upon an unsuccessful attempt to recall that material. Most particularly, the present invention relates to such a method that automatically optimizes the rules for each individual, determining when new material and previously learned material shall be presented, such a method that produces a continually evolving quantitative evaluation of the user's success in learning the material targeted for acquisition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some aspects of teaching have remained relatively unchanged for many years. Nearly every educated person in modern society has experienced a classroom setting in which a teacher directs a group of students through a text about a particular topic. Through the decades, such classroom lessons have sought to instill knowledge through the assignment of individual work, often in the form of homework. After a pre-determined amount of material has been covered, a test is administered to measure the students' retention of and proficiency with that material. After the test, the class moves on to cover new material, devoting no further attention to the already-covered material, with the possible exception of an end-of-term final exam containing a teacher-selected fraction of the material covered during the term.
It has long been observed that the structuring of the traditional educational program reflects a conflict of interest on the part of those maintaining it. By that, it is meant that the bodies such as school boards that have the responsibility for the education of young people have to meet goals that may not be consistent with applying the best teaching methods to the students. The most critical of these goals is to see that the educational program makes the most efficient use of scarce resources. That is, one wishes to develop and administer a program that benefits the greatest number of students affected by it. By its nature, the resulting program best serves the students with an average learning speed, and in so doing will short-change those students who learn at a faster or slower rate than the average. In summary, it is noted that the traditional mass-education program, in teaching an entire group of students at a pace that is optimal for the average student, will fail to recognize that students come to school from a wide range of backgrounds, bringing with them a wide range of learning aptitudes. Unless the individual student's deviation from the norm is large enough to be immediately recognized, teachers generally do not respond to that individual student's unique needs, a situation that might be partially alleviated were there easily obtained measures of each student's progress. The present unsatisfactory approach to the non-average-student's education is becoming increasingly harmful because of the rapidly increasing quantity and diversity of information that a student must assimilate in order to be even moderately well-educated. In passing, it can be noted that a particular student can be an above-average learner in one discipline, average in another, and below-average in a third. Even within a particular discipline, one may learn and retain some material quickly and yet stumble over other types of material, the latter being learned only with much repetition and effort.
The problem set out above is one that has certainly been recognized before. Since at least the 1960s, individualized courses of instruction have been designed with the goal of giving each student the opportunity to learn and to be tested at his or her own pace. Indeed, the phrase “programmed instruction” was coined during that period to refer to that method of instruction wherein the student progresses at his or her own rate. The student is presented with mini-exams every few pages and the results of those mini-exams determine the next set of material that is to be presented to the student. In general, these programmed courses allow the student to leave behind material once he or she has demonstrated a familiarity with it, again with the exception of a comprehensive examination at the end of a portion of the course.
Although programmed instruction was used long before personal computers were available to help implement it, the present ubiquity of such computers has led to their use with such material. For example, Ho et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,951; issued Mar. 17, 1998) discloses a computer-aided programmed learning system that allows the student to work at an individual pace. Seifert (U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,485; issued May 18, 1999) also discloses a computer-aided learning system that presents to the student material to be learned and assesses the student's mastery of it. If mastery is lacking, the system of Seifert will present the material in a different way.
The methods disclosed by Ho et al. and Seifert and others of that school of thought all have the drawback that the material to be learned, once mastered, is not presented again. Such approaches ignore the fact that, even though material may be well-learned at one point, it can subsequently be lost. Thus, a drawback inherent in both traditional classroom methods and in traditional programmed instruction (whether computer-based or not) is the failure to allow for a student's memory loss and/or confusion that develops over time following his or her one-time mastery of a certain body of knowledge. This failure is the more striking given the general agreement by researchers that a student is likely to have forgotten a large proportion of learned material within months or even weeks after the material has been “mastered.” Such rapid forgetting happens in spite of the fact that human memory is capable of retaining information over decades, indeed over lifetimes of 100 years and more.
To recognize and compensate for a fading memory of learned material, it might be thought that presenting the student periodically with information that he or she has already “learned” might be useful. One effort in this direction is disclosed by Collins et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,919; issued Nov. 26, 1996), which provides for re-asking questions that have already been answered correctly. In the method of Collins et al. the student is presented with a set of facts and asked to divide it into a first group containing already-known items and a second group containing facts not-as-yet known. A sequence generator then presents a mix of items to the student from the first and second groups. This approach is then repeated, with new material being continually introduced. In this way, there is some re-presentation of already-learned material, and this will have the effect of enhancing the student's long-term retention. The Collins et al. method, however, does not control the frequency with which known facts are re-presented to the student and in particular does not respond to the level of proficiency being demonstrated by the student in responding to the repeated presentation of questions.
Therefore, what is needed is a method of instruction that allows a student to learn at his or her own pace and that leads to longer retention of that which was once learned, be it in school, in on-the-job training, or while the student is working on his or her own. What is also needed is such a method that can provide the student or the student&apo

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