LEARNING HOW TO LEARN
Retrieval Practice for Learning
“Being educated is no longer about how much one knows, but about having the skills and motivation for lifelong learning so that one can learn new knowledge whenever one needs to.” — Lego Foundation.
Unfortunately, most of the times the focus is on content and exams — to get certified. But if teachers shift their focus from content delivery and exams to how students learn, it will promote lifelong learners.
Students typically learn by highlighting key points, rereading, stay up late, and cramming right before exams. Surprisingly, a large number of them get good marks and as a result they see it as success. But eventually they forget almost everything immediately after the exam. That’s because short term focused learning leads to easy forgetting. And unfortunately students believe it as an effective learning method even though it’s not serving the ultimate purpose of education.
According to cognitive psychologists, the key to long-term retention is getting students to access knowledge from their memory. Learning and memory are related concepts that go hand in hand. Teachers usually focus on getting information into students’ heads. But instead, if the focus shifts to getting information out of students’ heads, learning will build a solid set of brain links. So a paradigm shift from ‘what to learn’ to ‘how to learn’ will help promote students as lifelong learners.
Although teachers help students ‘encode’ information with videos, presentations, and hands-on activities, research shows that most durable learning occurs when students use what they know and practice their knowledge whether practicing basketball or guitar or Sanskrit or Mathematics. During the pandemic students had learning difficulties, which resulted in significant academic gaps. It is here that teachers can help bridge the learning gap with practice to boost long-term memory and improve academic performance.
Research shows that students learn their best during practice called ‘Retrieval Practice’. It is a learning technique that focuses on recalling from memory what has been learned to strengthen that memory. So teachers need to start teaching in class with Retrieval, Not Review. Ask students to pen down an entry ticket — “What did we learn in last class?” Or ask students to pen down an exit ticket — “What did you learn in today’s class?”. It ensures engaging all the students without spending extra time or preparation or anxiety of grading but is still powerful for learning.
“Practice makes perfect. After a long time of practicing, our work will become natural, skillful, swift, and steady.” ― Bruce Lee
In the context of learning, the “Practice” in Retrieval Practice is to engage students in retrieving or recalling the information multiple times. When students frequently revise what they know, long-term memory and retention of information improves compared to re-reading notes or the chapter.
Memory strengthens through retrieval or calling information to mind. This form of learning enables students to have a mental struggle of ‘desirable difficulty’, a term coined by Robert Bjork, a cognitive psychologist. The mental struggle can be further challenged by teachers by asking them what they learned in the previous chapter or previous grades, which in cognitive psychology is called “Spaced Practice.”
If students don’t put effort in revising the knowledge they have learned, most of it will be forgotten in a matter of time. Students need to revisit and review it over time for it to stick. The spacing effect is about the time gap –hours, days, and weeks between revisiting learning material. The purpose of the spaced repetition is to let students almost forget before they revise the information. It makes them work harder to recall that information.
In a cram session, all the information is stored in short-term memory and quickly forgotten. Spaced practice leads to long-term memory giving the mind time to form connections between the ideas and concepts so knowledge can be built upon and easily recalled later.
Retrieving information with spaced practice leads to memorisation and increases understanding. For instance, the strategy: think-pair-share may be replaced with retrieve-pair-share so that students can adapt their knowledge to new situations, novel questions, and related contexts. It is flexible to all subjects or content areas too — languages, mathematics, science, sports, music, etc
“Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know.” — Rembrandt
Retrieval practice is a learning strategy, not an assessment tool or test for grading students. So as teachers, take advantage of all opportunities to infuse it consciously throughout the lessons — either with brain dumps, flashcards, tech tools like kahoot, low stake mini quizzes or other techniques followed by feedback and discussion. It enables to switch from all the frustration with forgetting and move beyond to the long term memory.
Teachers can increase student understanding and achievement, but the best strategies will only be effective if they are motivated to practice them regularly. The age-old adage about teaching — “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”. This applies here too as teaching students content may help them succeed in any given class but making them to practice “how to learn” will make them successful lifelong learners.
About the author: Gayethri Mote is a teacher educator and an expert at Innerscore on Learning skills.
