Retrieval practice – done well – is an almost magical thing. After teachers help learners to get new information ‘in there’, it’s the most important thing we can do to make that learning stick. But there are two scratchy problems with retrieval practice: the first is making sure the new information does get in there and the second is doing the right kind of retrieval practice afterwards, and doing it often enough, to convert the ‘new information’ to ‘learning’.
Making sure the new information gets ‘in there’
The main problem with retrieval practice is that if the new information is not at least partially ‘in there’, no amount of subsequent retrieval practice is going to make it stick. Retrieval practice activity that is unsuccessful, or largely unsuccessful, will not do the job – this is true even if the practice includes subsequent information-gap-filling, because given the time constraints under which teachers constantly work, the gap-filling invariably takes the form of providing ‘the answers’ and seeing the answers is very unlikely to present learners with the cognitive challenge required to make the learning stick; there’s the rub. The best way to combat that rub is for teachers to ensure at the earlier presentation-of-new-information stage that students are doing a lot of practice, or as it’s often called in cognitive science, ‘rehearsal’.
When teachers present new information, this typically includes students hearing and reading the new information – for example, the teacher may present information about the concept of erosion in geography in the form of a text with diagrams, and then guide the students through that information, explaining it, emphasising the key points and so on. The teacher will then typically check students’ understanding of what they have heard and read by asking questions, and depending on the students’ answers the teacher may explain or reteach something. Students should then be given work to do that obliges them to practise using the new information: ‘With a partner, have a go at answering these three questions about erosion’ etc… Meanwhile, the teacher circulates to provide support/feedback, with one to one attention for individual students who need it. Once all students have had the opportunity to do this guided practice, and they appear to be ‘getting it’, the teacher needs to oblige them to practise independently. In the classroom, clearly, the line between guided practice and independent practice is a blurry one – since the teacher is available to provide support during lessons, any practice is rarely entirely independent – but an activity such as getting students to close their textbook, turn to a new page in their exercise book and have a go at answering some questions about erosion on their own is a comparatively independent one. Students should be able to tackle this task independently with a good level of success; if they can’t, then they haven’t yet done enough guided practice. It is this extensive rehearsal that is essential for overcoming the problem of there being nothing, or very little, to retrieve later.
The right kind of retrieval practice
There are many ways of doing retrieval practice but to be effective any activity must force us to think, and to think about the right things – it is the attempt to retrieve, by thinking, that promotes the learning. That’s why questions/quizzes and tests are the best kind of retrieval practice: first of all, we can’t hide from a question – our brains want to seek the answer, it’s almost involuntary – and second, with specific questions teachers can target the retrieval practice on the key things; as opposed to just saying to students, ‘Tell your partner everything you know about erosion’ – that IS retrieval practice, of course – provided students are making the attempt to retrieve – but with that task the teacher has far less control over what is retrieved than if they use specific questions.
Frequency of retrieval practice
There is plenty of research about this, relating to the degree of ‘forgetting’ that is allowed to set in, the proximity to the final test and so on. I’m not going to go over that research here; my main point here is that retrieval practice needs to be systematised – planned – so that it is regular. In the content-heavy world of subject-based teaching and learning, alas, that is devilishly difficult to achieve – but there’s no way around it: regular retrieval practice is essential for good learning.
Take-aways
- Students need to have extensive opportunities to do rehearsal of new information, so that when they do their independent practice they can achieve a good level of success
- Teachers need to plan for students to do systematic retrieval practice of their key ‘learning’, to ensure it sticks
3. Students should mostly do retrieval practice through questions, quizzes and tests, because we can’t hide from a question – good questions both force us to think and they elucidate the key learning.
The problems with retrieval practice are well worth overcoming, as we strive everyday to help students remember what they are learning.
