“When we think about learning, we typically focus on getting information into students’ heads. What if, instead, we focus on getting information out of students’ heads?”
— Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning
What does it mean?
According to Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like a Champion 2.0, retrieval practice is defined as occasions when learners recall and apply multiple examples of previously learned knowledge or skills after a period of forgetting. Of course, the definition of retrieval practice can vary from one author to another, but the core stays the same, which is getting information out of our memory actively, as opposed to merely listening to information provided in a lecture or reading information as presented in our notes. Therefore, the goal of retrieval practice is to prompt learners to regularly and frequently retrieve information from their memory so that the information can be retained for a longer period of time in our memory.
Are retrieval practices only designed for superficial learning, such as memorization of facts? Depending on the type of questions we include in the retrieval practice, learners are afforded the opportunity to retrieve factual information in response to factual questions, or apply the retrieved information and synthesize it to construct their response to high-order thinking questions. Indeed, not all “questions” are created equal! Those with application questions can be helpful for boosting higher-order thinking. That is, if we want learners to think on a higher-order level, then we should make sure our the prompts in the retrieval practice could elicit higher-order thinking.
How to incorporate retrieval practice in learning design?
1️⃣ Brain Dumps/Free Recall
Ask learners to write down everything they remember.
2️⃣ Two Things
Ask learners to write down Two Things about a specific prompt.
3️⃣ Mini Quizzes
Develop mini-quizzes with higher-order thinking questions.
References
Agarwal, P. K., & Bain, P. M. (2019). Powerful teaching: Unleash the science of learning. Jossey-Bass.
Lang, J. M. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. Jossey-Bass.
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