ESL Article: The Zeigarnik Effect

Hello bloggers, I bet you have not heard about this method and how we can apply it in our daily basis. Well, while reading the book Laugh and Learn by Doni Tamblyn I thought it would be a nice idea to apply it in my classes and see what are the results. To my surprise, it actually worked! I will try to sum the information up in the following paragraphs.

Bluma Zeigarnik

To begin with, the Zeigarnik Effect relies on the short-term memory we have for holding things in our minds, such as goals and tasks. In this way, we are focusing on finishing what we have started and our mind is always thinking how to do it. But there is a problem, the (in)famous procrastination stage, where we postpone our workload until the very end of the deadline, or even worse, we never retake it again.

By having this mind, Tamblyn recommended that instead of having a task that requires a lot of time, we can shorten it into 'smaller' and 'easier' tasks. The educational usefulness of this method is that our students will reach the end of the task faster and with better results. Thus, they will feel motivated to continue working in the complementary assignments.

The author also suggests that we should give a five-minute break between the tasks, so they will have time to relax and reflect upon what they have done. Such breaks depend upon the extension of the class. If your class is about 60 minutes, you can give them one break each 20 minutes. On the other hand, if you have a 3-hour module, the tasks and the breaks should be proportional.

The advantages that the method claims are:
1) The learning process becomes unconscious.
2) The information is more memorable than with other methods.
3) A meaningful learning is reached by cycles (task-break-task).
4) Lazy students do not feel they have 'a lot do' if the assignment is 'branched' into smaller and related tasks.
5) In the aftermath, each student will feel they have learned a lot of things in class when they just have worked on a single task but separately.

So, I think it is a great idea indeed. Let's take advantage of this effective yet seldom used method.