Friday, July 22, 2005

Aha...surprise helps learning

Cool article...at first glance, there appears to be little (if any) finance content, but given that many of you are teachers, I think you might be interested.

Short version: The surprise "or aha" moment that comes about from something unexpected, improves recall of the material. So in class, if we can "create scenarios", find surprises, and not spoon feed the students too much, it may increase retention.

Penn State Live: "Twenty-five years ago, it was commonly thought that providing people with straightforward information that they could easily process was a key to learning facts effectively. Today, Penn State Abington researcher Ted Wills will tell you that this doesn't necessarily hold true. In fact, creating an 'aha' moment for the person processing the information could well be the key to better retention."

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