The flashcard system developed by Sebastian Leitner is a learning system that draws practical benefits from the findings of psychology of learning and is particularly applicable to all types of cramming material.
Leitner demonstrates the principles and advantages of his flashcard system using the example of Vocabulary Learning. Successful vocabulary learning is based on Repetition at certain intervals (interval learning) and success control. Traditionally, vocabulary is learned with the help of a bound vocabulary book. The following deficiencies are inherent in the system:
- Repetitions necessarily involve material that has already been mastered - This makes the time spent uneconomical in relation to the learning success. - the overlearning of known material is boring and motivationally unfavorable. - vocabulary is learned in its random context with other vocabulary, which in turn serve as retention aids; if the vocabulary is needed isolated from its context, it is often not available - writing out hard-to-learn vocabulary is very time-consuming - the vocabulary notebook does not give a reliable and quick answer as to which vocabulary is finally mastered and which is not. - The vocabulary book prevents adaptation to the individual learning speed and the learning rhythm of the shill because of its compulsion to paralyzing repetition.
The flashcard system tries to eliminate these shortcomings of memorization, the learning principle being to avoid superfluous repetition and, as a result, to reduce the psychological consequences that inhibit learning.
# Flashcard Technique
*Index cards:* The index cards of the Lernkartei (Flashcards) consist of paper or cardboard cards in DIN A 7 format (7.4 X 10.5 cm). This standard format is available in specialized stores, or you can easily make your own by folding a DIN A 4 sheet three times.
*Card index box:* The card index box made of solid cardboard or wood with the dimensions 11 cm X 5 cm X 30 cm can be made by yourself or bought in a store. The card index box is divided into five compartments of different sizes according to Fig. 1.
Now you can start working. From the relevant textbook, transfer the vocabulary and idioms to be learned to the flashcards. For each word and phrase, one index card is used, with the German expression written on the front and the foreign expression on the back. The same procedure is used for other learning material, e.g. the question on the front, the answer on the back.
The first 30 or so labeled cards are placed in the first tray and learned.
How is it learned? You take out the first card, read the German label and try to remember the foreign language expression. If you don't succeed, you turn the card over, memorize the word and put the card back in the first pocket, but in the last place of the row of cards, so that it will be taken up again in the second learning session. Then the second card is taken out and all the others are taken out, whereby the known vocabulary is placed in the last position of the row of cards and the unlearned vocabulary is left in the first pocket and repeated until it can be placed in the second pocket as learned vocabulary. For the next lessons, proceed in the same way until the 2nd tray is filled with cards. To make room for more cards in the 2nd tray, you clear it out from the front by about a finger's width and check which of the vocabulary you have confidently mastered there. These go into the 3rd tray, while the forgotten ones go back into tray 1 to be learned all over again.
In the same way, boxes 3 and 4 fill up and empty. When the last box 5 is full and you need space there, you take out another finger-wide packet of index cards and check their knowledge. If you are still sure that you know them, you can destroy them without hesitation, because they remain in the long-term memory, and the other "forgotten" ones go back into box 1 to be learned again. The learning process from subject 1 to subject 5 can take several months, depending on the intensity and rhythm of learning.
This learning system can easily be transferred to other subjects and is suitable for learning mathematical and scientific formulas: - mathematical and scientific formulas - historical data and events - geographical data - definitions of terms - grammatical rules, e.g. conjugation and declension series - foreign language phrases.
# Advantages of the Flashcard The use of the flashcard has advantages in terms of learning psychology, learning ecology and practice. These are the key words:
## In Terms of Learning Psychology - immediate learning control (feed back) - short-term experiences of success as a reinforcer - retention-effective interval learning (distributed repetition) - Promotion of the ability to concentrate by adapting to the individual learning rhythm.
## In Terms of Learning Economy - Individual design of the learning pace and the number of repetitions - Avoidance of overlearning and useless repetitions - Limitation of control repetitions of learned material to a maximum of five repetitions; forgotten material is repeated as often as necessary; - cheap production and versatility of use
## From a Practical Point of View - Card packs can be easily carried along and waiting times on the train, bus or at the doctor's office can be overcome economically. - The learning process always starts at the right place, which saves tedious searching and thinking. - The learning process can be interrupted and resumed at will.
~
Leitner, Sebastian: So lernt man lernen, Freiburg-Basel-Wien (Herder), 7th ed., 1972.
.
⇒ Lernkartei ⇒ Anki