Time to mix it up? Using interleaving in L&D.

The use of interleaving is now viewed by many educational experts as having some advantages over blocking as an effective way to improve information retention. Since the 1980s research into interleaving has shown that it can develop long-lasting benefits. Essentially, interleaving involves teaching two or more tppics together to form a mixed practice (Pan, 2022) that helps learners transfer their newly acquired knowledge to different contexts.

Can interleaving be applied to work-related L&D? It might be a good approach to increase confidence in language usage for non-native English-speaking employees. Many international orgsanisations have large cohorts of non-native speaking workers. We know that workers, and especially millennials, want support to develop their knowledge and skills. These workers are highly driven and want to excel within their organisation but their availability is limited. Interleaving could address both the need for improved language skills and management training.

Given time constraints, combining business English tuition with traditional and current management topics and using role play to emulate day-to-day meetings and presentations can help learners acquire multiple skills and connect different concepts. This approach may take longer than block learning but there is some evidence that it ultimately delivers better learning outcomes over the long term.

References

Pan, S., 2022. The Interleaving Effect: Mixing It Up Boosts Learning. [online] Scientific American.

Available at: <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-interleaving-effect-mixing-it-up-boosts-learning/> [Accessed 5 April 2022].