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In our particular situation we had students who knew the first segments of the sequence by memory who "suddenly" couldn't remember what came next without looking. We also noticed that the newer students were taking much much longer to learn the sequence by memory than the senior students had.
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Interesting, Bronson, that you should say that. I have been researching accelerated learning techniques and strategies for over four years. A relating article I found on a website quite a while ago at
www.geniusbydesign.com
http://www.geniusbydesign.com/gbdpapers/learngob.shtml
(A good read)
It discusses mostly about learning to communicate but the strategy to learn may be applied to anything.
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Mastery is about being able to use all of the skills precisely, seamlessly, simultaneously, and most importantly, unconsciously (so our attention is focused on the people we're communicating with, not ourselves). And frankly, that seems to be too much to learn.
Think about it. You'll never cover every little possible contingency in any complex system. It doesn't matter if you're studying the weather, investing in the stock market, or learning conversational mastery. There are simply too many little things for the conscious mind (a.k.a. our awareness) to keep track. It is no wonder that so many people consider superior communication skills to be an innate talent rather than a learnable skill.
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So if its impossible what do we do?
The article continues
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Herein lies the genius of trainers such as Carmine Baffa. He understands that it is pointless to overwhelm a student with endless lists of rules and distinctions. If one has to consciously recall a skill in order to activate and use it, then he will lose focus on his outcomes and the feedback that he's receiving from his audience.
Instead, he presents and installs a system where he both implicitly and explicitly teaches the big chunks that elude most students (like mindset, clarity of outcome, etc) and meanwhile installs all of the little chunks (like analog markings, language patterns, etc.) through demonstration and the unique layout of his training.
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Basically, this reaffirms with your observations. Conscious recall during a real situation (either on the street or during a test) will result in ineffectiveness.
Just something I found interesting and may be helpful
You also mentioned that learning a MA should be a struggle. I just want to point out that this should not be confused with frustration. Frustration interferes with learning, causes anxiety, and mental blocks, where as struggling (or confusion/eustress) could be seen as actively participating and engaging in the subject that reinforces mental learning pathways. Learning, IMHO, does not necessarily have to be hard (not easy, frustrating [not that you implied it, just wanted to clarify]), but does have to be effective. (Frustration vs Confusion ideas learned from Book: Natural Brilliance by Paul R. Scheele)
In general, I agree that your student who gives out handouts and charts is probably ineffectual in teaching them techniques. However, charts can be useful when used correctly. If I recall, O Sensei used charts to explain one particular concept when I watched a short 20 min documentary about him.
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Some other things I've used and researched is Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), Photoreading, and Image Streaming to name a few. Its amazing how they can be applied to education, martial arts, daily life, or any learning.