'90% of what they learn when they teach someone else/use immediately.
75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned.
50% of what they learn when engaged in a group discussion.
30% of what they learn when they see a demonstration.
20% of what they learn from audio-visual.
10% of what they learn when they’ve learned from reading.
5% of what they learn when they’ve learned from lecture.'
(taken from http://www.psychotactics.com/blog/art-retain-learning/)
The expression 'There are lies, damned lies and statistics' spring to mind for the figures cited above. These 'statistics' have percolated through the education community and it is probably not surprising, as it presents learning as a very straight forward process with nicely rounded figures. Unfortunately, despite the attractiveness of these figures, learning is not such a simple process and even conducting educational research would rarely throw up such rounded figures. Besides, how does someone even define what teaching someone else means? Did I teach them by doing a demonstration, by getting them to read something, or by getting them to engage in group discussion? By combining all three strategies I suppose I would make 90%, because things are that simple, right?If one thinks about it, it becomes obvious that the above statistics are bogus. That is not to say that teaching someone or better saying 'explaining' something to someone else may enhance how much of the material you retain over other approaches. However, it would be very important to be careful in attaching numbers to how much is retained. If you are interested in reading a longer and much more detailed discussion discrediting the above statistics read: http://www.willatworklearning.com/2006/05/people_remember.html.
Here is to hoping I will not see these statistics quoted again in an academic presentation and that anyone looking for such statistics will stumble across this blog post instead!
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