09-05-2026, 09:32 PM
Teach Less, Teach Better, Teach It Again and Again
Author: Stephen Seyfer
Published: December 6, 2023
Topic: Memory, retention, repetition, and effective teaching
The article argues that teaching something once is not the same as students learning and retaining it. Seyfer draws on Hermann Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve, which shows that forgetting is especially rapid soon after learning, and uses this to argue for frequent retrieval, review, and repetition. Rather than trying to cover every item in a curriculum, teachers should identify essential knowledge and skills, teach them clearly, connect them to students’ existing knowledge, and repeatedly revisit them throughout the year. The central message is captured in the article’s formula: “Teach less, teach better, and teach it again and again.”
The author also discusses Edgar Dale’s “Cone of Experience”, emphasizing more active and meaningful engagement with material: using examples, visuals, discussion, application, and personal relevance rather than relying exclusively on passive presentation. Seyfer recommends breaking information into manageable chunks, using graphic organizers, connecting new material with prior knowledge, and asking students to actively work with what they learn. In practice, this means periodically returning to earlier chapters or topics instead of assuming that once a unit has been completed it remains permanently accessible in students’ memory.
There is, however, an important qualification. The famous claims that people remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, etc. are not Edgar Dale’s research findings. Dale’s original Cone of Experience contained no such percentages, and those numerical “learning pyramid” claims are widely regarded as an unsupported later addition. Similarly, Ebbinghaus established the general pattern of rapid initial forgetting followed by slower decline, but precise universal figures such as “50% forgotten in 24 hours and 90% in a week” should not be treated as fixed laws applying to every learner and every type of material.
Key takeaways
ARTICLE
Author: Stephen Seyfer
Published: December 6, 2023
Topic: Memory, retention, repetition, and effective teaching
The article argues that teaching something once is not the same as students learning and retaining it. Seyfer draws on Hermann Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve, which shows that forgetting is especially rapid soon after learning, and uses this to argue for frequent retrieval, review, and repetition. Rather than trying to cover every item in a curriculum, teachers should identify essential knowledge and skills, teach them clearly, connect them to students’ existing knowledge, and repeatedly revisit them throughout the year. The central message is captured in the article’s formula: “Teach less, teach better, and teach it again and again.”
The author also discusses Edgar Dale’s “Cone of Experience”, emphasizing more active and meaningful engagement with material: using examples, visuals, discussion, application, and personal relevance rather than relying exclusively on passive presentation. Seyfer recommends breaking information into manageable chunks, using graphic organizers, connecting new material with prior knowledge, and asking students to actively work with what they learn. In practice, this means periodically returning to earlier chapters or topics instead of assuming that once a unit has been completed it remains permanently accessible in students’ memory.
There is, however, an important qualification. The famous claims that people remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, etc. are not Edgar Dale’s research findings. Dale’s original Cone of Experience contained no such percentages, and those numerical “learning pyramid” claims are widely regarded as an unsupported later addition. Similarly, Ebbinghaus established the general pattern of rapid initial forgetting followed by slower decline, but precise universal figures such as “50% forgotten in 24 hours and 90% in a week” should not be treated as fixed laws applying to every learner and every type of material.
Key takeaways
- Coverage is not mastery: completing the syllabus does not guarantee durable learning.
- Revisit important material: spaced review and retrieval help counter forgetting.
- Teach for understanding: chunking, examples, visual organization, and links to prior knowledge improve comprehension.
- Make students cognitively active: discussion, application, explanation, and practice can strengthen learning.
- Be cautious with the “learning pyramid”: the famous retention percentages attributed to Edgar Dale are a myth, even though the broader idea of making learning meaningful and active remains pedagogically useful.
ARTICLE
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