The Research Behind the Everyday Mathematics Spiral

The Research White Paper explores the benefits of a spiral curriculum, emphasizing its effectiveness in promoting long-term learning through distributed or spaced practice. Unlike massed approaches, which concentrate learning in short, continuous blocks, spiral curricula revisit material over time, enabling deeper retention and mastery of facts, skills, and concepts. Everyday Mathematics (EM) employs this method, showing that students using EM outperform peers on long-term assessments like standardized tests. The spacing effect, a key principle behind spiraling, has been supported by over a century of research and is recognized as a robust learning strategy across ages and domains. Spaced learning enhances retention by encouraging effortful processing and creating stronger cognitive connections. Despite its proven efficacy, spiral curricula are less common due to misconceptions about short-term performance benefits of massed learning, the complexity of designing such curricula, and challenges faced by educators and students in adapting to spaced learning. Everyday Mathematics demonstrates the potential of spiraling to address learning difficulties early and improve outcomes for all learners, including struggling students.