Interleaving: Why Mixing Up Your Learning Can Help You Learn Better

Repeating the same type of task until you can perform it successfully seems like a sensible way to learn.

If you are learning three different skills, for example, the obvious approach might be to practise the first skill until you feel confident, then move to the second, and finally practise the third.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach. However, learning science suggests that, in the right circumstances, mixing related types of learning together can produce stronger results.

This approach is known as interleaving.

Interleaving can make practice feel more difficult, but that difficulty is part of what makes the approach interesting. It challenges learners not only to remember how to do something, but also to recognise which knowledge or skill is appropriate in a particular situation.

What Is Interleaving?

Interleaving is a learning strategy that involves mixing related topics, skills or types of problems during practice rather than concentrating on one type at a time.

Imagine that someone needs to learn three related skills: A, B and C.

A traditional practice session might look like this:

AAA – BBB – CCC

The learner practises A repeatedly before moving to B and then C. This is commonly described as blocked practice.

An interleaved session might instead look something like:

ABC – BCA – CAB

The same skills are being practised, but they are mixed together.

That apparently simple change can significantly alter the thinking required from the learner.

Why Blocked Practice Feels So Effective

Blocked practice has an important advantage: improvement can happen quickly.

After completing several similar problems or practising the same technique repeatedly, learners begin to recognise the pattern. Each attempt becomes easier.

This creates a satisfying sense of progress. The problem is that the learner may partly be succeeding because the context is providing the answer.

If every problem on a page requires the same method, there is no need to decide which method to use. The learner already knows because of the way the practice has been organised.

This can create an important distinction between performing well during practice and genuinely learning something for later use.

Why Interleaving Feels More Difficult

With interleaved practice, the next problem or situation may require a different approach.

The learner must therefore ask:

• What kind of problem is this?
• Which knowledge applies here?
• Which method should I use?

That extra decision-making makes practice harder. Performance during the learning session may even appear worse than it does during blocked practice, but immediate performance is not always the best measure of learning.

If learners have to distinguish between different types of problems and select the correct response, they are practising something extremely important: recognising when particular knowledge should be used.

Learning to Tell the Difference

One reason interleaving can be valuable is that it encourages discrimination.

In learning science, discrimination means becoming better at noticing the differences between similar concepts, situations or problems.

Imagine someone learning how to respond to several types of workplace conversation. Reading about each type separately may help them understand the individual techniques. Real workplace conversations, however, do not arrive with labels.

The learner must first recognise what kind of situation they are facing before deciding which approach to use.

Interleaved practice can help develop this ability because learners repeatedly have to distinguish between related situations.

An Everyday Example of Interleaving

Consider someone learning photography.

They are practising three areas:

• Shutter speed
• Aperture
• ISO

One approach would be to spend an entire session adjusting shutter speed, another session practising aperture, and another focusing exclusively on ISO.

An interleaved approach might involve working with different photography situations and deciding which settings need to change each time.

The learner is no longer simply practising how to adjust a setting. They are learning to recognise when and why a particular adjustment is needed. That is much closer to how the knowledge will eventually be used.

Interleaving in Workplace Learning

The same principle can be particularly useful in workplace development.

Real work rarely presents challenges in neat categories. Employees need to recognise situations, interpret information and decide which skills or knowledge are relevant.

Someone developing management skills, for example, might need to distinguish between situations requiring:

• Coaching
• Feedback
• Delegation
• Conflict management
• Performance management

Practising these skills entirely separately can help build initial understanding.

But once the fundamentals are established, mixed scenarios can require the learner to identify which approach is most appropriate.

This moves learning closer to real-world decision-making.

Interleaving Does Not Mean Mixing Everything Together

Interleaving can easily be misunderstood.

It does not mean randomly switching between completely unrelated subjects every few minutes.

The greatest value usually comes from mixing material that is sufficiently related for learners to benefit from comparing and distinguishing between it.

For example, practising different types of mathematical problems may be useful because the learner has to decide which method applies.

Switching repeatedly between mathematics, French vocabulary, presentation skills and accounting simply because they are different subjects is not necessarily interleaving in a meaningful sense.

The relationship between the topics matters.

Learners Still Need Foundations

Interleaving is also not an argument against focused practice.

When someone is completely new to a skill, some concentrated practice may be helpful. Learners often need to understand the basic principles before being asked to distinguish between several variations. A useful approach can therefore be:

Learn the basics → practise the skill → introduce related alternatives → mix the practice.

The balance will depend on the complexity of the subject and the learner’s existing knowledge.

Interleaving is another tool in the learning toolkit, not a rule that must be applied to every situation.

Combine Interleaving With Spaced Practice

Interleaving and spaced practice work particularly well together. Spacing means returning to learning after periods of time. Interleaving means mixing related learning during practice.

A learner might therefore revisit a topic several days after initially learning it and, rather than practising one type of problem repeatedly, complete a mixture of related problems. This creates two useful challenges.

First, the learner has to retrieve previously learned knowledge.

Second, they have to decide which knowledge applies.

This is considerably more demanding than simply rereading information, but that additional thinking can help create more flexible learning.

Why Harder Learning Can Sometimes Be Better Learning

Interleaving highlights a recurring theme within learning science: the learning strategy that feels easiest is not necessarily the one producing the strongest learning.

Blocked practice often feels successful because performance improves quickly.

Interleaving can feel frustrating because learners make more mistakes and have to think harder.

But learning should not always be judged by how easy practice feels.

A more useful question is:

Will I still be able to recognise and use this knowledge when the answer is no longer obvious?

That is the challenge interleaving is designed to address.

How to Use Interleaving in Your Own Learning

Suppose you are learning four related concepts.

Instead of completing every activity about concept one before moving to concept two, you could first establish a basic understanding of each concept and then create mixed practice.

You might:

• Alternate between different types of practice questions.
• Mix examples requiring different methods.
• Compare similar concepts and identify their differences.
• Use scenarios without being told which technique is required.
• Return to previously learned material alongside newer material.

The important element is that you have to identify the appropriate knowledge or strategy, rather than being told in advance what to use.

Key Takeaways

Interleaving is a learning strategy in which related topics, skills or problems are mixed during practice rather than studied entirely separately.

Remember:

• Blocked practice focuses repeatedly on one type of task.
• Interleaving mixes related types of practice.
• Blocked practice can produce faster improvements during the practice session.
• Interleaving can require deeper thinking because learners must decide which approach to use.
• The strategy works best when the material being mixed is meaningfully related.
• Beginners may still benefit from learning the foundations before practice becomes interleaved.
• Interleaving can be combined with spacing and retrieval practice.

The purpose is not to make learning unnecessarily difficult. It is to prepare learners to recognise and use knowledge when the correct answer is not already obvious.

Common Questions About Interleaving

What is interleaving in simple terms?

Interleaving means mixing related types of learning or practice rather than completing all practice of one type before moving to another.

What is the difference between interleaving and spaced practice?

Spaced practice is about when learning occurs by distributing it over time. Interleaving is about what is mixed together during practice. The two strategies can be used together.

Is interleaving better than blocked practice?

Not in every situation. Blocked practice can be useful when first learning a new skill. Interleaving can become particularly valuable when learners need to distinguish between related concepts or decide which approach to use.

Why does interleaving feel harder?

Because learners cannot simply repeat the same response. They have to identify the type of problem or situation and retrieve the appropriate knowledge.

Can interleaving be used for workplace learning?

Yes. Mixed scenarios can help workplace learners practise recognising when different skills, procedures or approaches should be used.

Learner Self-Check

Think about something you are currently learning and ask:

• Am I repeatedly practising the same type of task?
• Are there related concepts I could practise together?
• Can I recognise when each approach should be used?
• Could I answer questions if they were presented in a random order?
• Am I learning the solution, or am I also learning when to use it?

These questions can help identify whether interleaving could strengthen your learning.

Final Reflection

Good learning is not simply about being able to repeat something successfully during practice.

Eventually, learners have to use knowledge without being told which technique, formula, principle or skill applies. Interleaving helps prepare for that moment.

By mixing related forms of practice, learners have to look beyond the surface of a problem, recognise what they are dealing with, retrieve the appropriate knowledge and decide how to respond. That may make learning feel more difficult, but sometimes, the extra thinking required during learning is precisely what makes knowledge more useful later.