Examining the Influence of Continuity on Classroom Learning

Abstract

Children are expected to learn countless lessons in many different categories while they are in school. Continuity, i.e., the clustering of related information over time, is an aspect of structure which influences how well these lessons are understood. Learning is well served by continuity: previous related work examined the effects of continuity on word learning in 3.5- to 4.5-year-olds and found that discourse continuity positively influences word learning (Schwab & Lew-Williams, 2017). This research attempts to expand existing findings on discourse continuity to more general classroom learning. Specifically, this examination analyzes the effectiveness of two different varieties of continuity (operationalized as continuous with regard to the topic of the information versus continuous with regard to the type of the information) in order to see if either is relatively more effective at facilitating learning across four educational categories (historical figures, punctuation, insects, and planets). Results of this within-subjects experiment on 5- and 6-year-olds suggest that there is no significant difference between the two varieties of continuity in promoting children’s learning. These results contribute to the broader literature on learning structures within developmental and educational psychology. In addition, these results may point to translational possibilities for researchers, educators, learners, and beyond.