The Gunner Solution: Knowledge Retention

Focus on Knowledge Retention, Not Just Acquisition

If the aim of medical education is to produce physicians who are capable of delivering high-quality medical care throughout their careers, the responsibility of educators does not end after knowledge acquisition. In fact, acquisition only marks the beginning of the knowledge management process.

Thankfully, research in educational psychology and neuroscience has proven that one method—Spaced Learning—can not only help us acquire knowledge more rapidly and completely, but also make it easier to retain our mastery over time.

Spaced Learning Works in Medicine

Five randomized, controlled trials at Harvard Medical School demonstrate that Spaced Training improves retention of medical knowledge:

To show that Spaced Learning was useful even within a short time frame, another randomized controlled trial at Harvard Medical School compared Spaced Learning to traditional web-based modules during a 10-week program. The trial found that, not only was Spaced Learning just as good at teaching the material, but the majority of students preferred Spaced Learning over the traditional web-based course.

The molecular mechanisms underlying Spaced Learning’s ability to induce long-term memory is an area of active inquiry at leading research institutions such as Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the results have been published in prestigious journals such as Cell and Neuron.


The Gunner Solution: Proven Learning Principles »

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