Retrieval Practice: Research & Resources for every classroom: Resources and research for every classroom

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No doubt, you would probably feel quite proud of yourself. You would start to feel competent in whatever subject you had decided to really commit to. It may seem counterintuitive, but that effortful struggle is exactly what produces the strengthened retrieval in future. In this episode of The Cult of Pedagogy podcast, Jennifer Gonzalez speaks to Pooja Agarwal about what retrieval practice is and how you can start incorporating it into your classroom right away.

Retrieval Grids include interleaving: Many grids include similar concepts (e.g., names for different historical figures) that require students to discriminate. Learners can select the correct answer from memory (higher challenge). Alternatively, you can scaffold the activity by making it multiple choice.

Evidence-based education resource

When I first began using test-enhanced learning I made a few mistakes that reduced the effectiveness of retrieval practice. Science teacher Adam Boxer explains that while retrieval practice isn’t the easiest way to revise, it’s definitely the most effective… I often begin planning a lesson by asking myself, “What are the five things that I want all children to remember by the end of this lesson?” These then become the targets for quiz questions in the following lesson.

Finally, information can have both high retrieval and high storage strength. An example might be the name of your current best friend. While this takes place, I’ll whizz around the classroom and make a note of any common misconceptions. The whole episode takes around five minutes. Second, we can consider how well connected and robust the knowledge is – known as ‘storage strength’.

If your pupils struggle to recall yesterday’s lesson, prompt them to retrieve information from memory by embedding regular quizzes into your curriculum design, with these ideas from Jon Hutchinson, director of training and development at the Reach Foundation… You can probably understand this article very easily, but if you sat a test on it next week would you remember all, or even most, of its details? Probably not. First, always begin a lesson with retrieval practice – a short quiz, including five, multiple-choice questions of previously learnt material. Participants who had done the least amount of retrieval practice thought that they would recall the most. Participants who had done the most amount of retrieval practice thought they would recall the least. Try throwing in some questions where the answer is already correct (ie where something is the same in both dimensions) and see if they notice! Memorise this…