A Randomized Controlled Trial of Interleaved Mathematics Practice
Rohrer, Doug; Dedrick, Robert F.; Hartwig, Marissa K.; Cheung, Chi-Ngai (2020). Journal of Educational Psychology, v112 n1 p40-52. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1237752
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examining787Students, grade7
IES Performance Measure
Review Details
Reviewed: April 2020
- IES Performance Measure (findings for Interleaved mathematics practice)
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards without reservations because it is a cluster randomized controlled trial with low cluster-level attrition and individual-level non-response.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
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Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
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Author developed 7th grade math test (Rohrer et al. 2019) |
Interleaved mathematics practice vs. Business as usual |
43 Days |
Main sample;
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62.17 |
37.60 |
Yes |
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| Show Supplemental Findings | |||||||||
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Author developed 7th grade math test (Rohrer et al. 2019) |
Interleaved mathematics practice vs. Business as usual |
35 Days |
Pilot sample;
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51.00 |
22.00 |
Yes |
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Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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2% English language learners -
Female: 53%
Male: 47% -
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Florida
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Race Asian 6% Black 8% Other or unknown 25% White 62% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 19% Not Hispanic or Latino 81%
Study Details
Setting
The study took place in middle schools in Florida. Students in grade 7 were included in the analysis.
Study sample
In the analytic sample, 6 percent of students are Asian, 8 percent are black, 19 percent were Hispanic, 62 percent were white, and 6 percent had a race classification of “other.” Twenty-four percent of students were eligible for free/reduced price lunch, 2 percent were English learners, and 53 percent were female.
Intervention Group
Interleaved practice is a method of practicing math problems where types of problems are mixed together, as opposed to being blocked according to the lesson students recently learned. Interleaving problems encourages students to practice multiple problem-solving strategies and retrieve different types of information for each assignment. For the main contrast presented in this study, students in the intervention condition received eight worksheets over the course of 103 days, with four different types of problems (expressions, inequalities, graphs, and circles) mixed together. The intervention was delivered over 47 days for the pilot contrast. Students then received a review worksheet 5 or 10 days after the intervention’s conclusion, which also had interleaved problems.
Comparison Group
The comparison condition was intended to simulate business-as-usual mathematics instruction, in that students received worksheets with the four types of problems blocked together. Comparison students received the exact same problems as intervention students did (but ordered differently across the eight worksheets). Students in the comparison condition also received the exact same review worksheet with interleaved problems as the intervention students.
Support for implementation
No support for interleaved practice was provided for teachers participating in the study. Teachers were instructed to hand out worksheets, provide adequate time for students to complete the worksheets, provide as-needed one-on-one support to students as they worked on the problems, document the answers using a document camera, and provide an opportunity for students to ask questions and correct their errors (p. 7)
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
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The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
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The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
The WWC reviews studies for WWC products, Department of Education grant competitions, and IES performance measures.
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A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
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Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).