Using learning decomposition to analyze student fluency development

This paper introduces an approach called learning decomposition to analyze what types of practice are most effective for helping students learn a skill. The approach is a generalization of learning curve analysis, and uses non-linear regression to determine how to weight different types of practice opportunities relative to each other. We are able to show that different types of practice differ reliably in how quickly students acquire the skill of reading words quickly and accurately. Specifically, massed practice is generally not effective for helping students learn words, but may be acceptable for less proficient readers. Rereading the same story is generally not as effective as reading a variety of stories, but might be beneficial for more proficient readers.