Over the last fifteen or so years, retrieval practice, spaced distribution (spacing) and interleaving have become omnipresent in educational discourse (Perry et al., 2021; Weinstein, Madan & Sumeracki, 2018). These ideas are considered modern and scientific, justified with empirical evidence from numerous laboratory studies, randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses. However, long before these strategies were validated by scientific experiments and cognitive theory, the principles underpinning them were embraced by Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, and are clearly evident in early Buddhist scriptures. Systematic recall, distributed revision and varied application, therefore, formed the backbone of Buddhist education over 2,500 years ago.

I found myself reflecting on this on New Year’s Eve 2025 at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, where my wife, son and I often welcome in the new year. Having previously taught Buddhism at A level, I was already familiar with the Theravada tradition’s emphasis on preserving the Buddha’s teachings through regular recall. Nonetheless, I am consistently impressed, year after year, by the capacity of monks, nuns and a handful of lay practitioners to chant lengthy passages of Pali scripture from memory during such events. This is done without recourse to texts, preparation or any other prompts or scaffolding.

Retrieval practice

As suggested above, the ability of Buddhists to retain, recall and recite scripture and teachings results from a pedagogical tradition that goes back two and a half millennia. Its roots stem from a culture in which knowledge was largely preserved through oral traditions. This meant that memory, retention and retrieval were essential to the establishment of Buddhism as, depending on one’s view, a religion, a spiritual way of life, an ethical system or a philosophy. Moreover, although these oral teachings were eventually written down, the importance of memorisation remained – and continues to remain – a central tenet of Buddhist practice.

In the decades and centuries following the life of the Buddha, therefore, his teachings were scribed onto palm leaves in the Pali Canon, or Tipiṭaka, which comprised various suttas (discourses) as well as nikayas (collections of discourses). Not only do these scriptures emerge from retrieval practice, but they also advocate it. For example, the Anguttara Nikaya, a scripture largely concerned with the mind, repeatedly describes disciples of the Buddha who are ‘… learned, remember what they have heard and preserve it in memory’ (Bodhi, 2012). Moreover, this was not inactive or passive familiarity, as novice monks and nuns were expected to recall long doctrinal lists, discourses and analytical frameworks on demand, often in communal settings. Even the Anguttara Nikaya itself is arranged numerically for mnemonic purposes. This regular recitation of the scriptures functioned as a form of continuous retrieval practice, which reinforced learning through repeated and effortful recall.

Like the often-cited work of cognitive scientists such as Barak Rosenshine (2012) and John Dunlosky et al. (2013), as well as popular education writers such as Kate Jones (2019), the importance of deliberate remembering, or retrieval, is also evident in the Majjhima Nikaya, which covers various aspects of Buddhist dharma, or natural law. In several suttas, the Buddha’s early disciples were instructed to ‘review and rehearse’ teachings after hearing them (Ñāṇamoli and Bodhi, 1995). This should not, however, be seen as simple repetition of texts. Rather, it involved restating ideas in one’s own words, or paraphrasing, which is recognised as a retrieval strategy in modern educational discourse. In this context, discussing the Buddha’s teachings with peers and relating them to personal experience or prior knowledge was considered appropriate to the middle-length discourses found in the Majjhima Nikaya. Such practices align closely with what is now understood as elaborative interrogation as well as strategies like rehearsal: recalling information in ways that strengthen meaning and structure.

Spaced-distribution (spacing)

Early Buddhist pedagogy also advocated spaced distribution, or spacing, as a key strategy for retaining and recalling the Buddha’s teachings. For instance, as is self-evident to anyone who has read Buddhist scriptures or teachings, important doctrines such as impermanence (anicca), suffering – or, more specifically, unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) – and non-self (anattā) are revisited across hundreds of discourses and commentaries within the Pali Canon. Rather than philosophical, ethical or spiritual concepts being confined to a single discourse, or even a single aspect of Buddhist teaching, they are regularly repeated and applied in various contexts, including moral instruction, meditation teachings, doctrinal debates and accounts of the Buddha’s life. A monk, nun, or lay practitioner might encounter the same principle or idea in a sermon one week, a dialogue the next and a meditation instruction the following month. 

An example can be found in the Satipatthana Sutta, which provides direct, or explicit, instruction to space recall and practice over time. Here, practitioners are instructed to contemplate the body, feelings, mind, and mental phenomena ‘internally and externally’, ‘again and again’ and ‘over time’ (Anālayo, 2013). Although the specific intervals are not defined – a point of ongoing debate in the literature on spacing (Smolen et al., 2016; Carpenter et al., 2012) – there is a clear call to memorise teachings and engage in meditative practice regularly in order to embed the ideas of the Buddha, Buddhist teachers and one’s own understanding of Buddhist ontology and epistemology.

Interleaving

Interleaving, as advocated by cognitive scientists such as Elizabeth and Robert Bjork (Bjork & Bjork, 2019), is also evident in early Buddhist teachings, which are understood to emanate from the Buddha himself. In Buddhist discourse and practice, doctrinal, ethical and contemplative ideas and insights are rarely treated as isolated or stand-alone issues. As the Buddhist worldview holds that all phenomena are interdependent and emerge from the complexity of reality, concepts are understood as interconnected and can therefore only be fully grasped through comparison and contrast with other aspects of Buddhist teaching. A discourse on jealousy, for instance, may include reflections on craving, impermanence and mental discipline, which can also be considered in relation to notions of the self and the avoidance of intoxicants. Similarly, instructions on meditation are often interleaved with moral guidance and philosophical analysis found elsewhere in the scriptures. This integration of different aspects of dharma (whether understood as law or teachings), or, in more contemporary terminology, domains, requires learners to discriminate between related concepts and apply them flexibly, rather than relying on narrow, context-bound knowledge.

Buddhist commentarial traditions further reinforce these methods for practitioners. The fifth-century scholar Buddhaghosa, for example, in his systematic and comprehensive manual, the Visuddhimagga, repeatedly recommends returning to previously studied teachings (Buddhaghosa, 2010). Here, progress is portrayed not as a linear accumulation of knowledge built up in discrete blocks, but as a cyclical process of refinement, reinforced through repeated engagement with both prior and new content. However, while interleaving is typically understood as the mixing of subjects, or more precisely subtopics, the Buddhist application of this principle may be better described – in the words of education writer Mark Enser (2019) – as ‘interweaving’. This reflects the way in which distinctions between these subtopics or concepts often blur and merge, forming part of an interconnected whole, or, more accurately, a holistic understanding of reality.

Mastery through practice

It is also worth noting that many Buddhist texts explicitly evaluate and discuss the process of learning, or the nature of pedagogy, itself. For example, the Dhammapada warns that merely knowing many texts without practising or reflecting on them is like ‘counting another’s cattle’ (Roebuck, 2010, v. 19). Here, knowledge that is simply recalled is seen as superficial; true understanding emerges only through sustained interaction with material over time, its application and critical reflection.

In many ways, this is not dissimilar to the suggestions made in popular texts advocating the application of evidence-based research – or, more specifically, cognitive science – into everyday practice. Whether one chooses to use flashcards (Dunlosky, 2013), practise retrieval via Do Nows (Lemov, 2017) or use low-stakes quizzes (Kenny & Bailey, 2021), adapting and recontextualising a range of retrieval activities is central to their effectiveness. It could be suggested that the Dhammapada anticipates what the Bjorks (2011) refer to as ‘desirable difficulties’, in that contextual interference – or retrieving information in more complex yet achievable ways – enhances retention and recall over time.

Final thoughts

Modern cognitive science has given educators new language and measurement tools, but it has not invented these principles. The early Buddhist tradition demonstrates that effective learning practices can arise from sustained reflection on human experience. Long before classrooms had quizzes and flashcards, monks and nuns were reciting, revisiting and recombining ideas in ways that made learning endure.

However, before cognitive scientists claim the Buddha as one of their own, an important distinction between the Buddhist interrogation of reality and that of the scientist must be noted: the Buddha attained enlightenment not through rigorous laboratory and field experiments, randomised controlled trials or meta-analyses, but through intuition and lived experience – approaches that stand in stark contrast to the scientific enterprise.

Amaravati welcomes curious members of the public from all backgrounds and faiths. You can visit their website here.

References

• Anālayo, B. (2013). Satipaṭṭhāna: The direct path to realization. Windhorse Publications.
• Barak Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of instruction: Research-based strategies that all teachers should know. American Educator, 36(1), 12–19, 39.
• Bodhi, B. (2012). The numerical discourses of the Buddha: A translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya. Wisdom Publications.
• Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. In M. A. Gernsbacher, R. W. Pew, L. M. Hough, & J. R. Pomerantz (Eds.), Psychology and the real world: Essays illustrating fundamental contributions to society (pp. 56–64). Worth Publishers.
• Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (2019). The myth that blocking one’s study or practice by topic or skill enhances learning. In C. Barton (Ed.), Education Myths: An Evidence-InformedGuide for Teachers. John Catt.
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• Carpenter, S.K., Cepeda, N.J., Rohrer, D. et al. (2012). Using Spacing to Enhance Diverse Forms of Learning: Review of Recent Research and Implications for Instruction. Educ Psychol Rev 24, 369–378. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-012-9205-z 
• Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
• Enser, M. (2019, February 27). Interleaving: Are we getting it all wrong? Tes Magazine. https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/interleaving-are-we-getting-it-all-wrong
• Kate Jones (2019). Retrieval practice: Research & resources for every classroom. John Catt.
• Kenney, K. L., & Bailey, H. (2021). Low-stakes quizzes improve learning and reduce overconfidence in college students. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 21(2). https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v21i2.28650
• Lemov, D. (2017, October 6). Using the Do Now for retrieval practice: An update from Alex Laney. Teach Like a Champion. https://teachlikeachampion.org/blog/using-now-retrieval-practice-update-alex-laney/ 
• Ñāṇamoli, B., & Bodhi, B. (1995). The middle length discourses of the Buddha: A translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Wisdom Publications.
• Perry, T., Lea, R., Jørgensen, C. R., Cordingley, P., Shapiro, K., & Youdell, D. (2021). Cognitive science in the classroom: Evidence and practice review. Education Endowment Foundation. https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/production/documents/guidance/Cognitive_Science_in_the_classroom_-_Evidence_and_practice_review.pdf?v=1771152836 
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• Weinstein, Y., Madan, C.R. & Sumeracki, M.A. (2018). Teaching the science of learning. Cognitive Research 3, 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0087-y

Photo credit: Freerange (used under a Creative Commons Licence).