Protocol
Shrink the attempt–diagnosis–correction loop
Repeating an uncorrected error is still repetition.
When it fits
- When learners practise in long batches and only discover the same mistake at the end.
When to avoid it
- Immediate feedback is not always feasible or optimal for every skill. The principle is to avoid preventable repetition of misunderstood structure.
Why it matters
Shorten the loop around the specific skill: attempt, inspect, identify the consequential error, make one correction, retry on a fresh case. Lengthen batches only when performance is stable enough that constant interruption would add little information.
Steps
- Attempt a small representative unit.
- Inspect the result against a clear criterion.
- Correct the earliest consequential error.
- Retry on a fresh unit before doing a large batch.
An example
Instead of reviewing twenty faulty formulas after an hour, the learner checks the first two, fixes the reference-logic error, then continues with new items.
Check your result
The same structural error does not survive across a long batch simply because feedback arrived late.
Keep this limit in mind
- Immediate feedback is not always feasible or optimal for every skill. The principle is to avoid preventable repetition of misunderstood structure.
Connected ideas
Useful withBuild a task bank for variation, not repetition count
Evidence and sources
A meta-analysis of 435 feedback studies found a medium average effect on learning (d = 0.48) with substantial heterogeneity, and the information content of feedback materially moderated impact.
More feedback is not automatically better, and effects differ by outcome and feedback form.
The Power of Feedback Revisited: A Meta-Analysis of Educational Feedback Research · Abstract
A meta-analysis of adaptive training found that effects varied by instructional intervention, with adaptive difficulty showing the strongest results among the examined categories.
The literature was heterogeneous and much of the context was military training; this does not validate every adaptive-learning product.
Adaptive training instructional interventions: A meta-analysis · Abstract