How people learn
Decades of research agree on a short list of things that help people learn: a tutor who guides, worked examples, pictures with words, quizzing yourself, spacing and mixing practice, explaining in your own words and quick feedback. Here are twelve, each with the papers behind it and what DuckyHelper's tutor does because of it.
Twelve principles
The evidence in one line each
| Principle | What the research found | What DuckyHelper does |
|---|---|---|
| Teach one on one | Tutored students scored about two standard deviations above a regular class (Bloom, 1984). | A live voice tutor for one learner. |
| Guide, don't hand over answers | Unguarded GPT-4 help cut exam grades 17%; safeguards largely fixed it (Bastani et al., 2025). | Try first, hints before answers. |
| Just enough help | Tutors handle what is beyond the learner and leave the rest to them (Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976). | The hint ladder, tutorials that wait for you. |
| Show a worked example first | Worked examples beat problem solving for beginners (Sweller and Cooper, 1985). | Worked steps, one move each. |
| Draw it as you explain | Words with pictures beat words alone (Mayer and Moreno, 2003). | Drawing on your screen and on the blackboard. |
| Quiz, don't re-read | A practice test beat re-reading a week later, 56% to 42% (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). | Check questions and quizzes. |
| Space it out | Spacing helps across 317 experiments (Cepeda et al., 2006). | Flashcards on a spaced schedule. |
| Mix it up | Mixed math practice did far better a week later (Rohrer and Taylor, 2007). | Reviews that mix your topics. |
| Explain it back | Prompting students to self-explain improved learning (Chi et al., 1994). | Asks what you think, checks after each step. |
| Feedback right away, on the step | Feedback about the task helps; about the self, it can hurt (Kluger and DeNisi, 1996). | Not quite and why, the first wrong line. |
| Keep the learner doing | Active learning raised exam performance across 225 studies (Freeman et al., 2014). | Simulations, graphs, tutorials you do. |
| What the evidence says about AI tutors | Built-to-teach AI tutors showed gains in early trials; plain answers hurt. | A tutor, not an answer machine. |
Every number belongs to the study cited beside it. DuckyHelper has not been tested in a study like these.
What these pages do not claim
These studies tested other people, other schools and other tools. DuckyHelper has not been tested in a study like these, so none of these results are DuckyHelper's results. They are the reasons behind how it teaches.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most effective ways to study?
A large review by Dunlosky et al. (2013) rated practice testing and spaced practice as the most useful of ten common techniques. Re-reading and highlighting rated low.
Which principle matters most for an AI tutor?
Not handing over answers. Bastani et al. (2025) found a plain GPT-4 chat hurt exam results, while a version built to give hints mostly did not.
Does DuckyHelper follow all twelve principles?
It is built around all twelve, and each page says what the tutor does today. Where a principle is only partly covered, such as interleaving or explaining it back, the page says so plainly.
Ready to learn
DuckyHelper is ready on your Mac. Learn with Eddy on its blackboard, or with Ducky right on your screen.
