[albert_e]

> Still others believe—incorrectly—that more time spent on a task produces better results, or that because practice is required to be a good athlete or musician, it’s also at the heart of intellectual growth. It isn’t. You can’t “reinforce” understanding the way you can reinforce a behavior.

Really? The claim here is that if I do not fully understand a passage or a lecture on first pass, a second or third exposure to the same ideas do NOT contribute to any better understanding whatsoever?

This is stated as a universal and scientific fact.

All my life experience says otherwise. Can't take this article seriously past this.

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> In my experience, people with the least sophisticated understanding of how children learn, or the least amount of concern about children’s attitudes toward learning, tend to be the most enthusiastic supporters of homework.

There has to be some term to describe this style of writing.

"If you don't agree with what I am saying, you are too ignorant of the subject and your opinion is not worth much."

[SamBam]

Your anecdote, especially with it's reference to lectures, makes it sound like you're talking more about higher education. The author is clearly talking about K-12, and mostly pre-high school.

As an educational researcher, I think the author's conclusions are quite likely. A sixth grader isn't going back over their lecture notes and gaining more understanding.

[albert_e]

Watching a Khan Academy video a second time ... is unlikely to help understanding a concept better?

> Still others believe—incorrectly—that more time spent on a task produces better results

Even more foundational skills like reading, writing, speaking, and school math (addition, division, algebra) are unlikely to get better with practice?