Click here to view the video transcript
So as you think about how to apply retrieval practice into your own courses, whether you use one of those four strategies I’ve recommended or something you come up with on your own, keep in mind the three core principles, frequency does matter with retrieval practice. That’s the first and most important thing. So you want to try to give your students lots of opportunities to retrieve. And I would argue the ideal way to do that is to do small, low stakes opportunities.
So the retrieval practice activities that I recommended, for example, at the beginning and ending of class are ones that can be low stakes, don’t require any grading and only require a few minutes of class time from you. Frequent low stakes or no stakes opportunities for retrieval are going to give you kind of the most power from this particular teaching method.
Secondly, make sure that you align practice with your assessments. If ultimately at the end of the semester, you’re asking your students to remember material from the course throughout the whole semester. And you’re going to have them do that in short answer questions. They should have some opportunity to retrieve three short answer questions along the way. If you’re having them do multiple choice questions at the end of this semester, they should have had some opportunities to do multiple choice retrievals throughout. So try to find some alignment between the kinds of retrieval activities that you asked during the semester and what you’re ultimately going to ask on their higher stakes assessments.
Lastly, remember that retrieval is most powerful when it combines a recollection of facts or knowledge with thinking. So whenever possible, ask students to do a little bit of thinking along with their retrieval, which in the activities I recommended, for example, asking them to identify the most important concept, which requires a little bit of judgment or asking them to take something that they’ve learned and use it to answer a question or solve a problem. Retrieval is most powerful when it combines a recollection of facts or knowledge with thinking. So keep those three principles in mind as you go forward and try to determine how to adapt retrieval practice into your courses.
When considering how to apply and adapt retrieval practice to your own teaching, there are a few principles worth remembering:
- Frequency matters – Put simply, the more students practice retrieval, the better they learn, so make sure to incorporate practice frequently. The easiest way to achieve this is through quizzing. If you don’t want to rely on quizzes, mix quizzes with retrieval questions at the opening and close of teaching sessions. Whatever strategy you adopt, promote retrieval practice as frequently as possible.
- Align practice and assessments – Make sure that whatever knowledge students are expected to recall in high-stakes assessments, they have plenty of time to practice retrieving this information throughout the course of study. Make sure the low-stakes assessment mirrors the high-stakes one. Giving students time to practice assessments under supervision is helpful in any case.
- Require thinking – Help your students to remember by giving them something to think about. When you ask students to think about the ‘primary’ or ‘most important’ things covered in a session, you are asking them to retrieve and process information to aid learning.
Discussions
Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.