"Retrieval practice" refers to the method of remembering or recalling information from memory. It involves actively trying to retrieve or bring back knowledge or skills that you have previously learned, rather than simply reviewing or passively reading over them. The purpose of
retrieval practice is to strengthen your memory and improve long-term retention of the information.
Full definition
Teachers will have the opportunity to discuss how specific learning strategies, such
as retrieval practice, can be adapted and differentiated for effective use in the classroom.
As a learning community, my students and I spent the semester studying, designing, and evaluating the potential
of retrieval practice to transform student approaches to learning.
We specialize
in retrieval practice games for knowledge retention, adaptive and personalized learning and offer unique game narratives for learning.
The company says each curriculum is designed by professionals, and uses techniques
including retrieval practice and spaced repetition to check how much information students are retaining.
The paper brings up a lot of interesting information about practice testing, also referred to
as retrieval practice.
With the increased understanding that homework offers a huge opportunity to assist students
with retrieval practice, a particularly necessary practice in light of the changes to content heavy curricula, you are sure to be hearing a lot more from Paul in the future.
Laraine and her colleagues have some challenging questions to consider concerning time to devote to this type of
retrieval practice quizzing versus covering new content, delivering assessments and feedback etc..
Research
on retrieval practice shows that testing can identify specific gaps in students» knowledge, as well as puncture the general overconfidence to which students are susceptible — but only if prompt feedback is provided as a corrective.
Not only does
retrieval practice help students remember the specific information they retrieved, it also improves retention for related information that was not directly tested.
In an article published in 2010 University of Texas at Austin psychologist Andrew Butler demonstrated that
retrieval practice promotes transfer better than the conventional approach of studying by rereading.
Karpicke's latest results, published in January, show that
retrieval practice also outstrips more active methods of study, such as drawing complex bubble diagrams to represent the information in a passage of text (Science, vol 331, p 772).
In an article published in 2011 in the journal Science, Karpicke and his Purdue colleague Janell Blunt explicitly
compared retrieval practice with a study technique known as concept mapping.
In Butler's experiment, students engaged either in rereading or in
retrieval practice after reading a text that pertained to one «knowledge domain» — in this case, bats» use of sound waves to find their way around.
McDaniel had long wanted to
apply retrieval practice in real - world schools, but gaining access to K — 12 classrooms was a challenge.
James Sumowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist, received $ 175,623 to pilot a randomized controlled trial to investigate
whether retrieval practice training (RPT) improves learning in adolescents with memory impairments after TBI.
Existing research
supports retrieval practice as an effective strategy to improve learning and memory in college undergraduates without disabilities.
So what did we learn about research and
memory retrieval practices that will help both our teachers and that reinforce and expanded upon what we learned in Make It Stick?
One school is investigating how best to coach and support learners in lower secondary classrooms to use evidence - informed learning strategies such as
spaced retrieval practice, interleaving, and interrogative elaboration.
Based on their findings, the researchers discuss several ways that educators can incorporate
more retrieval practice into their classrooms:
The researchers discuss that this may be because multiple - choice questions are less cognitively demanding, and research suggests that less
demanding retrieval practice activities promote stronger retention because they allow students to focus all of their cognitive energy on a simple task.
One way around this point that I know some other schools use is to set daily, short Look - Cover - Write -
Check retrieval practice as homework for students based on their Knowledge Organisers as supplementary to the more in - depth homework tasks.
Emma and her colleagues have been conducting
regular retrieval practice «revision quizzes» with their GCSE classes based on their fluency priority knowledge.
Interestingly, for their research cluster project this year, Emma and Karen are looking into the difference between
giving retrieval practice quizzes in free - recall or a multiple - choice answer formats.
Craig and his colleagues in science have been
delivering retrieval practice multiple - choice starter questions to GCSE classes at the start of every lesson.
Teachers Nasima Riazat and Julia Seggie discuss
how retrieval practice changed the way their business studies students use revision cards
As part
of retrieval practice for GCSE, students complete 10 questions on a previous lesson as a starter / bell task / settler activity - This allows students to consolidate their knowledge on previous lessons before moving forward and make links to the wider context.
Spaced and
retrieval practice help students retain content and give them a sense of what they know — and what they don't.
al. (2018) Learning to learn: using evidence to enhance knowledge retention and improve outcomes, Impact, Issue 2 Firth, J (2018) The application of spacing and interleaving approaches in the classroom, Impact, Issue 2 Sumeracki, M and Weinstein, Y (2018) Optimising learning
using retrieval practice, Impact, Issue 2
He went on to explain to Bain that what he and his colleagues refer to
as retrieval practice is, essentially, testing.
In an effort to make
retrieval practice a common strategy in classrooms across the country, the Washington University team (with the help of research associate Pooja K. Agarwal, now at Harvard University) developed a manual for teachers, How to Use Retrieval Practice to Improve Learning.
Affluent students who receive a top - notch education may acquire this skill as a matter of course, but this capacity is often lacking among low - income students who attend struggling schools — holding out the hopeful possibility that
retrieval practice could actually begin to close achievement gaps between the advantaged and the underprivileged.
Even with the weight of evidence behind them, however, advocates of
retrieval practice must still contend with a reflexively negative reaction to testing among many teachers and parents.
Hundreds of studies have demonstrated that
retrieval practice is better at improving retention than just about any other method learners could use.
Overall, Karpicke and Blunt concluded,
retrieval practice was about 50 percent more effective at promoting both factual and deep learning.
Although it is more than two millennia since Aristotle wrote that «repeatedly recalling a thing strengthens the memory», cognitive scientists have only recently come to appreciate the effectiveness of so - called «
retrieval practice».
In fact, if we consider MBE science and research around memory, the weeks ahead provide excellent opportunities to make the spacing effect,
retrieval practice, and formative assessment common occurrences in our classes.
For those who read my Part 1 article on the topic of memory and learning, I'll begin with
some retrieval practice.
There are 2 powerful mechanisms for gamification efforts; spaced retrieval and
retrieval practice.
It is often referred to as a «
retrieval practice», as a portion of the learning process is devoted to knowledge retrieval and review of already presented information.
Then, have a look at Dr. Karl Kapp's take on spaced repetition or «
retrieval practice.»