The Generation Effect

There seems to be endless chatter about generations in the fire service lately. This typically surrounds the values of work ethic and entitlement but sometimes it is used to reference how an instructor can best reach a certain group of people to make their class as effective as possible. We wanted to take a different approach after stumbling across a study about the Generation Effect and it’s not what you think. This has everything to do with how you personally learn, process information, retain it and how to make it stick!

The generation effect basically says that a learner will have much better retention rates if they put concepts into words and ideas that they themselves create as it relates to the initial information. This is why most professors now encourage students to not just highlight text in a book (if at all) but instead jot down quick notes as to why the information is relevant. This concept is also why online learning classes make you answer a question and reply to fellow students throughout each week to help solidify learning. The crazy thing about the Generation Effect is neuroscientists don’t really know why it actually works…they just know it does!

So how can we integrate this into our own learning as well as when we teach classes to recruits, peers, or even at conferences? One simply way is to allow space and time for the student to take an active role in their own learning.

• Give 5 minutes on purpose to allow students to put important concepts in their own words 
• Have them draw a picture, expand on the doodle that they started in their notebook or simply jot down a couple words that trims the whole concept down into useable information for them 
• Have a class volunteer reframe the concept for everyone to help simplify or expand upon the material

Whatever it is is up to you or the student who’s actually trying to retain the information. So often we as instructors just vomit a ton of information because we’re passionate about the topic at hand. We can even go so far as to expect students to take good enough notes that take our words and cement the concepts into their brains. Unfortunately that’s just not how actual learning or retention takes place according to the generation effect so carve out some time and empower the student to take some ownership of their own learning!