There's so much pressure to churn through curriculum in most classes that there's little time for students to reflect on what they've learned. In an Atlantic article, Nanette Fondas writes that new research indicates reflection time could be a crucial ingredient to learning. Researchers found that students who were given fifteen minutes to write reflections at the end of the day scored 23 percent higher on end-of-year assessments.
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/05/study-you-really-can-work-smarter-not-harder/370819/
