Strategy I: "At Bats"
1) Summary
“At bats” is a strategy of learning that involves a heavy amount of repetition. The name “at bats” is based off of the baseball technique at bats, meaning being up at bat to strike a ball multiple times. In baseball practice, the key to becoming a better hitter is to have as many “at bats,” or chances to swing, as possible. The best predictor of how successful a student may be at a certain task is how many times the student had a chance to practice or review the material in question. This fact is reaffirmed in essentially all fields; successful baseball stars have had thousands of chances on the plate at bat, surgeons are better at operations they have had numerous tries (at bats) at and students will be better at particular subjects or tasks if they have practiced over and over again what is being evaluated. Once the teacher has explained information and students have a chance to independently work or practice, repetition over and over again is important because nobody masters anything the first time around. Numerous “at bats” allows general mastery of a topic or skill; and, repetition work ensures that when things do not go as expected a student will have plenty of cognitive space to overcome an obstacle because the rudimentary parts of a skill or topic have become muscle memory to the learner.
2) Explanation in Evidence
Too often, teachers rely on the working memory to ensure that a student has grasped a topic. Working memory refers to the component of memory that actively thinks about and processes information but only for a short amount of time. Often, the learning process requires that information be stored in long term memory. The executive control processes of the brain cannot direct learned knowledge unless it is properly stored and often metacognition is just not fast or effective enough. Declarative knowledge (or knowledge that concerns the nature of how things exist,) procedural knowledge (or the ability to do something,) and explicit knowledge (knowledge that a person is consciously aware of,) all can be strengthened by the “at bats” technique. Repetition, or rehearsal is center to the “at bats” theory, and rehearsal such as “rote learning” or “mnemonics” have proven to be an effective way for students to store needed information into long term memory. Rote learning most directly translates to the “at bats” technique. In rote learning, knowledge is rehearsed multiple times, over and over. Rote Learning could include note card repetition. “At bats” could be more meaningful than rote rehearsal however. Mnemonic devices are kind of a balance between simple repetition and meaningful learning because their succinct information allows students to create meaningful connections while speedily reviewing material over and over. Conditional knowledge (or the ability to respond under different circumstances,) will be strengthened once rudimentary principles have a concrete foundation built upon “at bats.”
“At bats” is also an appropriate and effective technique because it allows for differentiated instruction. According to the general principles of human development, individual children learn at individual rates. With that being said, it is important to remember that not every student will need the same number of repetitions to master a topic. For that reason, teachers should use the opportunity of “at bats” to develop further opportunities for enrichment so that students do not wait around on other students. “At bats” also will work in the classroom because the mode of repetition is up to the teacher. “At bats” allows for multiple variations and formats so that students will not only be able to solve questions systematically and on a dime, but also in different formats. Students who prefer visual aids could use the “at bats” technique by filling in a graphic over and over or scanning a graphic repetitively whereas students who prefer to write or read may instead benefit from notecards or repetitive writing of definitions or phrases.
3) Classroom Example
I will teach high school history and social studies, so here is an example of what the strategy “at bats” could look like in a high school United States History class. One of the goals of my instruction as well as a curriculum requirement for the state of North Carolina is that students be able to recall the names of each State and capitol as well as place their relative location on a map. First, I would want to ensure that my students know the State names as well as their correlating capitol. It is not enough to tell the students this declarative knowledge, so I would have the students make note cards with the name of each State on one side and their capitol on the back. Students must review these note cards over and over again, dozens of times perhaps in order to engrain this knowledge. To take the instruction a step further, I would teach students how to remember where each state and capitol is by having them individually look up and write in the states and capitols on a map. Doing this one time for fifty different states would not be effective, so in the manner of the “at bats” technique, I would instruct students to repetitively fill out a blank map like described until they could perfectly locate all the States and capitol locations.