{"id":6849,"date":"2022-12-06T16:45:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=6849"},"modified":"2022-12-06T23:28:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T04:28:51","slug":"getting-the-details-just-right-retrieval-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/getting-the-details-just-right-retrieval-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting the Details Just Right: Retrieval Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can we ever research a topic too much<\/em>? Can we reach a point where, well, there\u2019s nothing really more to say about teaching better and learning more?<\/p>\n

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

Perhaps, for instance, we\u2019ve reached peak retrieval practice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Blog readers \u2013 and conference attendees \u2013 know that actively recalling information<\/em> results in greater learning than simple review<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For example: rather reminding<\/em> my students of yesterday\u2019s discussion of the Harlem Renaissance, I can ask them to write down the key details from memory<\/em>.\u00a0 When they make the mental effort to remember, they learn more.<\/p>\n

This blog and many authors have written about this topic at length. What more is there to say?<\/p>\n

I recently found a study that reminds us: there\u2019s always more to say<\/em>. If we want to combine teaching experience with researcher insight, we need to take time to get the details just right.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the story.<\/p>\n

A Problem, a Solution, Another Problem<\/h2>\n

One problem with retrieval practice: it takes time<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I ask the question.<\/p>\n

The students write<\/em> their answers to the question.<\/p>\n

I check their answers.<\/p>\n

The minutes tick by.<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t it be great if we could skip a few steps. How about this abbreviated version:<\/p>\n

I ask the question.<\/p>\n

The students think about<\/em> their answers to the question.<\/p>\n

I move on.<\/p>\n

If my students truly think about<\/em> the answers, then they\u2019ll get the retrieval practice benefit in much less time.<\/p>\n

This solution, however, creates its own problem.<\/p>\n

If my students don\u2019t write anything down, how can I know they actually think about the answers? Couldn\u2019t they just nod and look earnest?<\/p>\n

After all, what\u2019s their motivation<\/em> to do the thinking?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Check<\/h2>\n

A respected research team in this field has explored this set of problems, and their potential solutions.<\/p>\n

In a recently published study<\/a>, Megan Sumeracki and Johanny Castillo wanted to see if that first problem exists.<\/p>\n

They had college students read a short passage. Some wrote<\/em> answers to review questions; some were instructed to think about <\/em>answers to those questions.<\/p>\n

What happened a few days later?<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the students who just thought about<\/em> (but did not write down) answers were relatively confident that they\u2019d remember information. (That is: they were more confident than those who wrote answers down.)<\/p>\n

However, the thinkers actually remembered less<\/strong> than the writers.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, as we predicted, students don\u2019t always follow instructions to think about answers.<\/p>\n

In other words: when I solve the first problem (retrieval practice takes time) by asking students simply to think<\/em>, I create a second problem (students don\u2019t really think).<\/p>\n

How do we solve this conundrum? Can I solve BOTH problems?<\/p>\n

Despair Not<\/h2>\n

Sumeracki and Castillo had an idea.<\/p>\n

They repeated the \u201cthink about it\u201d strategy, but this time with an additional ingredient: cold calling<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That is: they asked students to try retrieval practice by thinking about the answer. AND then they cold-called one student at random. (That is, they called on one student who hadn\u2019t raised a hand.)<\/p>\n

The researchers hoped to communicate this message: when told to think about the answer, students really should think about it \u2013 because they might actually have to<\/em> answer the question<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What did they find?<\/p>\n

Sure enough: students who thought about the answer<\/em> now remembered as much as the students who wrote down their answers<\/em> \u2013 presumably because they really did the thinking.<\/p>\n

This two-part strategy \u2013 \u201cretrieval practice by thinking\u201d plus \u201ccold calling\u201d \u2013 takes less time AND produces the learning benefits of retrieving.<\/p>\n

Problem solved!<\/p>\n

One More Problem?<\/h2>\n

Some readers will have noticed that I raced past a potential controversy.<\/p>\n

Truthfully, people do worry about cold calling.<\/p>\n

Teachers worry that it creates a hostile, punitive environment. One grad school professor told me that cold calling ramps up stress, and stress destroys the hippocampus, so cold calling is malpractice.<\/p>\n

Honestly, we don\u2019t have lots and lots of research here.<\/p>\n

One study<\/a> I\u2019ve found pushes back on the \u201cramps up stress\u201d narrative. Others support that narrative.<\/p>\n

And, as far as I know, we just don\u2019t have good research in K-12 classrooms.<\/p>\n

My own instincts say: yes, cold calling can be done badly. But, anything<\/strong> can be done badly. The key point is that cold calling can be done well<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If we create a classroom environment where making mistakes is an entirely normal part of the class routine \u2013 an environment that Doug Lemov calls a \u201cculture of error\u201d \u2013 then the potential stress of cold calling shouldn\u2019t be a problem.<\/p>\n

But, until we have actual research in many different classrooms, I can\u2019t make that recommendation too emphatically.<\/p>\n

The Sumeracki and Castillo strategy strikes me as a sensible solution to a real problem. More research on cold calling will make it more persuasive still.<\/p>\n

\n

Sumeracki, M. A., & Castillo, J. (2022). Covert and overt retrieval practice in the classroom.\u00a0Translational Issues in Psychological Science<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can we ever research a topic too much? Can we reach a point where, well, there\u2019s nothing really more to say about teaching better and learning more? Perhaps, for instance, we\u2019ve reached peak retrieval practice. Blog readers \u2013 and conference attendees \u2013 know that actively recalling information results in greater learning than simple review. For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6849"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6852,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions\/6852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}