{"id":7226,"date":"2023-08-28T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T13:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=7226"},"modified":"2023-08-28T15:55:14","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T20:55:14","slug":"getting-the-details-just-right-retrieval-practice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/getting-the-details-just-right-retrieval-practice-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting the Details Just Right: Retrieval Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we gear up for the start of a new school year, we’re probably hearing two words over and over: retrieval practice<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That is: students have two basic options when they go back over the facts, concepts, and procedures they\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n

Option 1: they could review <\/em>it; that is, reread a passage, or rewatch a video, or review their notes.<\/p>\n

Option 2: they could retrieve<\/em> it; that is, ask themselves what they remember about a passage, a video, or a page of notes.<\/p>\n

Well, the research verdict is clear: lots of research shows that OPTION 2 is the winner. The more that students practice by retrieving, the better they remember and apply<\/em> their learning in the long term.<\/p>\n

This clear verdict, however, raises lots of questions.<\/p>\n

How, exactly, should we use retrieval practice in classrooms.<\/p>\n

Does it work in all disciplines and all grades?<\/p>\n

Is its effectiveness different for boys and girls?<\/p>\n

Does retrieval practice help students remember material that they didn\u2019t practice?<\/p>\n

Do multiple choice questions count as retrieval practice?<\/p>\n

And so forth.<\/p>\n

Given that we have, literally, HUNDREDS of studies looking at these questions, we teachers would like someone to sort through all these sub-questions and give us clear answers.<\/p>\n

\"Student<\/a><\/p>\n

Happily, a research team recently produced just such a meta-analysis<\/a>. They looked at 222 studies including more than 48,000 students, and asked nineteen specific questions.<\/p>\n

These numbers are enormous<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Studies often get published with a few dozen participants \u2013 which is to say, a lot less than 48,000.<\/p>\n

Researchers often ask 2 or 3 questions \u2013 or even 1. I don\u2019t recall ever seeing a study or meta-analysis considering nineteen questions.<\/p>\n

As a result, we\u2019ve got a lot to learn from this meta-analysis, and can feel more confidence than usual in its conclusions.<\/p>\n

The Big Picture<\/h2>\n

For obvious reasons, I won\u2019t discuss all nineteen questions in detail. Instead, I\u2019ll touch on the big-picture conclusions, highlight some important questions about practical classroom implementation, and point out a few surprises.<\/p>\n

The high-level findings of this meta-analysis couldn\u2019t be more reassuring.<\/p>\n

YES: retrieval practice enhances long-term memory.<\/p>\n

YES: in fact, it enhances memory of facts and<\/em> concepts, and<\/em> improves subsequent problem solving. (WOW.)<\/p>\n

YES: it benefits students from kindergarten to college, and helps in all 18 (!!) disciplines that the researchers considered.<\/p>\n

NO: the student\u2019s gender doesn\u2019t matter. (I was honestly a little surprised they studied this question, but since they\u2019ve got an answer I\u2019m reporting it here.)<\/p>\n

I should note that these statistical results mostly fall in the \u201cmedium effect size\u201d range: a hedges g of something like 0.50. Because I\u2019m commenting on so many findings, I won\u2019t comment on statistical values unless they\u2019re especially high or low.<\/p>\n

So the easy headline here is: retrieval practice rocks<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Making Retrieval Practice Work in the Classroom<\/h2>\n

Once teachers know that we should use retrieval practice, we\u2019ve got some practical questions about putting it into practice.<\/p>\n

Here again, this meta-analysis offers lots of helpful guidance.<\/p>\n

Does it help for students to answer similar questions over multiple days?<\/p>\n

Yes. (Honestly, not really surprising \u2013 but good to know.)<\/p>\n

More specifically: \u201cThere is a positive relationship between the number of [retrieval practice] repetitions and the [ultimate learning outcome], indicating that the more occasions on which class content is quizzed, the larger the learning gains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don’t just use retrieval practice; REPEAT retrieval practice.<\/p>\n

Is feedback<\/em> necessary?<\/p>\n

Feedback significantly increases the benefit of retrieval practice \u2013 but the technique provides benefits even without feedback.<\/p>\n

Does the mode<\/em> matter?<\/p>\n

Pen and paper, clicker quizzes, online platforms: all work equally well.<\/p>\n

Me: I write “do now” questions on the board and my students write down their answers. If you want to use quizlet or mini-white boards, those strategies will work just as well.<\/p>\n

Does retrieval practice help students learn un<\/em>–tested<\/em> material?<\/p>\n

This question takes a bit of explaining.<\/p>\n

Imagine I design a retrieval exercise about Their Eyes Were Watching God. <\/em>If I ask my students to recall the name of Janie\u2019s first husband (Logan Killocks), that question will help them remember his name later on.<\/p>\n

But: will it help them remember the name of her second<\/em> husband? Or, her third<\/em> (sort-of) husband?<\/p>\n

The answer is: direct<\/em> retrieval practice questions help more, but this sort of indirect<\/em> prompt has a small effect.<\/p>\n

In brief, if I want my students to remember the names Jody Starks and Vergible Woods, I should ask them direct questions about those husbands.<\/p>\n

Shiver Me Timbers<\/h2>\n

So far, these answers reassure me, but they don\u2019t surprise me.<\/p>\n

However, the meta-analysis did include a few unexpected findings.<\/p>\n

Does the retrieval question format <\/em>matter? That is: is \u201cmatching\u201d better than \u201cshort answer\u201d or \u201cfree recall\u201d or \u201cmultiple choice\u201d?<\/p>\n

To my surprise, \u201cmatching\u201d and \u201cfill-in-the-blank\u201d produce the greatest benefits, and \u201cfree recall\u201d the least.<\/p>\n

This finding suggests that the popular \u201cbrain dump\u201d approach (\u201cwrite down everything you remember about our class discussion yesterday!\u201d) produces the fewest benefits.<\/p>\n

I suspect that “brain dumps” don’t work as well because, contrary to the advice above, they don’t\u00a0directly target<\/em> the information we want students to remember.<\/p>\n

Which is more effective: a high-stakes<\/em> or a low-stakes<\/em> format?<\/p>\n

To my astonishment, both worked (roughly) equally well.<\/p>\n

So, according to this meta-analysis, you can grade or not grade retrieval practice exercises. (I will come back to this point below.)<\/p>\n

Should students collaborate<\/em> or work independently<\/em> on retrieval practice answers?<\/p>\n

The studies included in the meta-analysis suggest no significant difference between these approaches. However, the researchers note that they don\u2019t have all that many studies on the topic, so they\u2019re not confident about this answer. (For a number of reasons, I would have predicted that individual work helps more.)<\/p>\n

Beyond the Research<\/h2>\n

I want to conclude by offering an opinion that springs not from research but from experience.<\/p>\n

For historical reasons, \u201cretrieval practice\u201d had a different name. Believe it or not, it was initially called \u201cthe testing effect.\u201d (In fact, the authors of this meta-analysis use this term.)<\/p>\n

While I understand why researchers use it, I think we can agree that \u201cthe testing effect\u201d is a TERRIBLE name.<\/p>\n

No student anywhere wants to volunteer for more testing. No teacher anywhere either.<\/p>\n

And \u2013 crucially \u2013 the benefits have nothing to do with \u201ctesting.\u201d We don\u2019t need to grade<\/em> them. Students don\u2019t need to study<\/em>. The retrieving itself IS the studying.<\/p>\n

For that reason, I think teachers and schools should focus as much as possible on the \u201cretrieval\u201d part, and as little as possible on the \u201ctesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

No, HONESTLY<\/i>, students don’t need to be tested\/graded for this effect to work.<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/h2>\n

Retrieval practice\u00a0— in almost any form\u00a0— helps almost everybody learn, remember, and use almost anything.<\/p>\n

As long as we don\u2019t call it \u201ctesting,\u201d schools should employ retrieval strategically and frequently.<\/p>\n

\n

Yang, C., Luo, L., Vadillo, M. A., Yu, R., & Shanks, D. R. (2021). Testing (quizzing) boosts classroom learning: A systematic and meta-analytic review.\u00a0Psychological Bulletin<\/i>,\u00a0147<\/i>(4), 399.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we gear up for the start of a new school year, we’re probably hearing two words over and over: retrieval practice. That is: students have two basic options when they go back over the facts, concepts, and procedures they\u2019ve learned. Option 1: they could review it; that is, reread a passage, or rewatch a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15,12],"class_list":["post-7226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-classroom-advice","tag-retrieval-practice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7226"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7234,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7226\/revisions\/7234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}