What strategy can be used to enhance retention of knowledge in learners?

Spaced repetition is a highly effective strategy for enhancing knowledge retention in learners. This method involves spreading out learning sessions over time rather than cramming all the material into a single session, which is characteristic of massed practice. By revisiting the material at increasing intervals, learners are more likely to move information from short-term to long-term memory, as the retrieval process engages the brain and solidifies the learned concepts.

Research supports the idea that the spacing effect—where learners remember information better when it is learned and reviewed in spaced intervals—is a more effective way of ensuring that knowledge is retained than studying the same material repeatedly in a short period. This approach helps prevent cognitive overload and allows more time for reflection and processing of the information learned.

While immediate feedback, content summarization, and massed practice have their own benefits in certain contexts, they do not provide the same level of retention enhancement that spaced repetition does, particularly for long-term mastery of complex information.