Retrieval Practice

Over the past term the topic of Retrieval Practice has been of real interest to me and is taking an increasingly high profile across education. However it is with most interest that I reflect on the implementation of this as a learning strategy, how this varies across different classrooms and how the research needs to be interpreted and utilised for retrieval practice to have notable impact.

My thinking all begins with the work of Dr Pooja Agarwal et al. in ‘How to use Retrieval Practice to Improve Learning’ and the idea that teachers should “use retrieval practice as a learning strategy, not an assessment tool.”

I feel this statement highlights the crux of whether retrieval practice will be a truly powerful learning experience for students or becomes another ‘tick box’ that staff perceive as being a fruitless expectation due to it lacking impact.

Having gathered feedback from a range of teaching staff it is clear that it is relatively easy to grasp the underlying concept of retrieval practice: ‘Retrieval practice is about recalling information from memory without referring to support sources’. Kate Jones writes extensively about what Retrieval Practice is in her book ‘Retrieval Practice, Research and Resources for every classroom’.

However, it is also apparent that having reached the stage of using basic retrieval techniques to help ‘Make the Learning Stick’, for many, this has now become just a part of their classroom routine – effectively saying “I do retrieval practice because I use a quiz in my lesson that includes questions on previous learning.” By all means this is not to say this statement is incorrect, and undoubtedly the classroom teacher who uses regular low-stakes quizzing in their classroom is far more likely to see progress than the teacher who ploughs through content without opportunity for revisiting and linking learning. But it does raise the possibility that the true power and potential impact that retrieval practice strategies can have will be lost. It will be lost because retrieval practice is being considered as an isolated action rather than an essential part of a coherent Learning Journey.

This has lead me to begin to consider how can I now move staff on from ‘doing retrieval practice’ (with a basic metacognitive impact and the risk of becoming an assessment tool) to using retrieval practice as an effective learning strategy?

Again, this is where the ‘retrieval practice implementation checklist’ published by Agarwal et al. comes in as incredibly useful. In considering each point of the checklist I believe it is possible to categorise the statements broadly into two groups of success criteria which I have titled ‘implementation’ and ‘planning’. In doing this it is then clear that if you meet the majority of the ‘implementation’ criteria you can be that teacher, the one that ‘does retrieval practice’. However when you take a step back and consider the ‘planning’ criteria more deeply, and in combination with the ‘implementation’ criteria, you have the potential to become the teacher who uses retrieval practice to enhance learning most effectively.

The Implementation criteria – being the teacher who ‘does retrieval practice’ (quoted from Agarwal et al.:

• Make retrieval practice low-stakes or no-stakes (i.e., not for a grade), to reduce anxiety and encourage trial-and-error.
• Provide retrieval practice frequently, as often as possible. Practice makes perfect!
• Provide retrieval practice after a lesson is complete, perhaps even a few days or weeks later. Space it out.
• Use retrieval practice with a variety of students, subject areas (science, history, etc.), and grade levels.
• Reassure students that challenging learning (via retrieval practice) is a good thing!

When you consider these statements, you can tick these off with very little effort. You could quite feasibly just insert a quiz into your lesson, create a low-stakes context and there it is retrieval practice – albeit in the crudest sense of the word.

It is when you consider the ‘planning’ criteria that you can truly begin to use retrieval practice as an effective learning strategy. Consider what would happen if you:

• Use a variety of strategies to implement frequent retrieval practice: clickers, index cards, bell work, quick writing prompts, etc
• Encourage metacognition by giving students feedback.
• Examine your existing teaching strategies – do they focus on getting information “in” or “out” of students’ minds? Are students being challenged, or is learning easy and “fluent?”
• Use a variety of question types: fact-based, conceptual, and higher order/transfer.

Immediately, by taking the first and last points here and applying them to the quiz you are using, it takes on new meaning, it develops a greater sense of purpose. You select a strategy that will suit your class, and you word the questions in way that suits what you want the students to recall. A subtle, low effort alteration that enhances retrieval practice because you have given a little thought to why you have ‘shoved’ a quiz into your lesson.

Next, you begin think about what happens after students answer the questions: feedback. What are students likely to give in answer to my question? What will I do if they get it wrong? The starting point is to inform students of whether their answer is correct – and here is your choice – do you continue to ‘do retrieval practice’ and move on to give the answer to the next question or, if students have got it wrong do you act responsively? Do you explain the right answer? Do you explain why other answers are incorrect too? Immediately we see an opportunity for a powerful learning phase in the lesson. You may have already preempted the most likely responses and errors, but you need to be ready with your whiteboard pen to dispel these misconceptions through direct instruction and the use of effective models.

Finally, consider the last point of the checklist, do you take the time to reflect on your own practice and whether the strategies/activities you are designing create the opportunity for students learn effectively? Are they going to ‘think hard’? Are they going to demonstrate their learning to you? Are you going to get the information ‘out’ of their heads? It is by using this cycle of reflection and then responding accordingly in the planning of future lessons that students will really benefit and retrieval practice will become a powerful learning strategy.

In conclusion, on the surface it is straight-forward to introduce retrieval practice and become a teacher who ‘does it’, however to be a teacher that ‘uses it’ takes an increasing level of finesse and attention to detail; especially in the planning, responsive teaching and reflection stages of teaching.

Below are a selection of references used in this post and some other sources that although not directly referred to have been influential in encouraging my self-reflection.

1. http://pdf.retrievalpractice.org/RetrievalPracticeGuide.pdf
2. Jones, K 2019, Retrieval Practice, John Catt Educational, England
3. https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2016/06/learning-memory
4. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224943434_Examining_the_Testing_Effect_with_Open-_and_Closed-Book_Tests
5. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0130/2b7670c540cdea04878d697feaa65959f6c9.pdf
6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291166244_Ten_Benefits_of_Testing_and_Their_Applications_to_Educational_Practice
7. http://pdf.retrievalpractice.org/guide/McDermott_etal_2014_JEPA.pdf
8. McCourt, M 2019, Teaching for Mastery, John Catt Educational, England