When I told my mother that I was reading about research on education, she said, "They should consider how much time people spend looking at the sky, because that helps you learn. People should spend more time looking at the sky. But not when they're driving." It's true. A fancier way to say it is that we should consider whether allowing ample processing time enhances learning. I remember when Chak was finishing up his PhD, he often mentioned that in his Acknowledgements section, he was going to mention his shower, because that's where he got many of his inspirations.
Sometimes with all the emphasis on No Child Left Behind and being competitive in the global marketplace, it seems like we should be jamming information into students as much as possible, but maybe that's not the best approach. Maybe students' time should be more balanced, so they have time to chew on and digest what they have learned before they spit it back out for the exam and then promptly forget it.
