“Unless we remember, we cannot understand.” – E.M. Forster

As we try to develop our students’ power as critical thinkers, we must keep in mind that memory is the foundation of learning. Recent research supports the idea that answering questions about new material—engaging in “retrieval practice”—does more to promote long-term retention than rereading. With college students reporting that highlighting and rereading are their primary study strategies, retrieval practice can become an important tool for student success.

Easy to implement, students can derive the most benefit from retrieval practice if we follow three guidelines:

1. First, select strategies that fit your personal teaching styles. Retrieval practice is most helpful if done regularly, so using strategies that are comfortable makes it easier to incorporate them frequently.
2. Open-ended questions are more powerful than multiple-choice items. Consider giving students an open-ended question, and having them exchange responses with classmates to respond.
3. Make students partners in monitoring their learning. Explain why retrieval practice is beneficial, and you should see more engagement from your students as a result.

The most obvious use of retrieval practice is building frequent low-stakes quizzes into a course, where technology can help with the grading. Here are three simple, ungraded activities that also provide retrieval practice.

1. Begin class by asking students to recall, without checking their notes, what they learned in the previous session.
2. Pause every fifteen minutes or so and ask students to share with a partner the important points made so far, a personal example of the principle under discussion, or their own definition of a key term.
3. End class with a Minute Paper, a short and anonymous paragraph that explains the main point of the day’s class and mentions any lingering questions.

Resources:

• Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L. & McDaniel , M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard UP.
  • This is a very readable and practical account of recent research into memory.
• Lang, J. M. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Lang emphasizes research-based teaching strategies that are easy to implement; two of the ideas mentioned above came from his chapter on retrieval practice.
• Putnam, A. L., Sungkhasette, V. W. & Roediger, H. L. (2016). Optimizing learning in college: Tips from cognitive psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science 11(5), 652-660. DOI: 10.1177/1745691616645770.
  • Written for students, this article explains why research-based study strategies work, even though they may initially feel less effective than familiar approaches.

To follow up on any of these ideas, please contact me at fglazer@nyit.edu. This Weekly Teaching Note was adapted from a contribution to the Teaching and Learning Writing Consortium hosted at Western Kentucky University.

Contributor:
Susan Hall
Director, Center for Teaching and Learning
University of the Incarnate Word