Questions about the Desirable Difficulties poster

What’s on the Desirable Difficulties poster?

10 entries in 2 groups. Bjork's principle: current performance is a poor index of learning. Difficulties that help: Spacing practice across days, Interleaving related problem ty…; Difficulties that do not: Unreadable fonts and poor materials, Confusing instructions…. The distinction is whether the difficulty engages the processing the task needs. Undesirable difficulty just consumes working memory.

Who is the Desirable Difficulties poster for?

Desirable Difficulties belongs to the Education section rather than to a school year, because humanities is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning learning theory can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.

When should you use the Desirable Difficulties poster?

Whenever a lesson feels too smooth, this is the list to check it against. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Desirable Difficulties belongs on the wall where that humanities work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.

What other posters go with Desirable Difficulties?

Behaviourism, Cognitive Load Theory and Constructivism sit alongside Desirable Difficulties in the Education section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.BehaviourismCognitive Load TheoryConstructivism

Is the Desirable Difficulties poster free to download and print?

Yes. Desirable Difficulties downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Education section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence

What size does the Desirable Difficulties poster print at?

Desirable Difficulties is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Desirable Difficulties loses nothing.Printing guide