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sequence #2, the response papers should focus on developing and giving feedback on particular
analytical skills that will be required in the examinations.
However, our more radical advice on sequencing and ramping up assignments follows
from moving to a learning-centered approach to teaching, and a return to the science of learning.
After reviewing the empirical research in cognitive science on learning, Halpern and
Hakel recommend that the basic goal of teaching should be for long-term retention and transfer.
They find that “the single most important variable in promoting long-term retention and transfer
is ‘practice at retrieval.’…Simply stated, information that is frequently retrieved becomes more
retrievable.” “Practice at retrieval” is not only how many times something is accessed, but also
requires a variety of conditions under which it is accessed; this aids the ability to apply the
material to seemingly new or novel circumstances. These circumstances can be ones that arise
when a few of the initial conditions of a model are changed, but also when the medium of
presentation is changed. For instance, you might ask students to present information in one
format (e.g. in writing) and then re-present it in another (e.g. explain it to a fellow student, or
make an in-class presentation). You might ask students to draw a concept map or network in
order to understand the relationship between ideas visually, then you ask students to write it up
in prose form. Finally, Halpern and Hakel report that what students are asked to do with what
they learn determines what and how much is learned and retained over the long-term. Therefore,
asking the students to regularly and actively interact with the course material, in a variety of
settings and in a variety of ways, is the best way to impart disciplinary knowledge.
Assignments should be sequenced in such a way as to get students to re-access the same
material, but at different times, in different ways and for different purposes. A sequence might
include in an international relations course, for instance, asking students to assess a theoretical
Convention