As part of our new knowledge-rich curriculum, Year 7 pupils at my school are required to self-quiz each evening. We require them to self-quiz as one strand of our strategy for retrieval practice. We are convinced that the crux of our efforts as a school must begin...and end...with retrieval practice. More about this later. Pupils have a two-week rotational timetable for self-quizzing, and each evening they spend approximately 30 minutes self-quizzing in one subject against the specific Knowledge Organiser for that subject. They have a self-quizzing exercise book in each subject, and are required to complete a page of self-quizzing in their respective books. We created a help-sheet with 3 clear guidelines:
1: Take some time to review the knowledge on the Knowledge Organiser;
2: Write down what you remember in your self-quizzing book;
3: Go back and check your retrieval against the Knowledge Organisers - make corrections in your self-quizzing book in a different coloured pen.
Year 7 pupils have been doing this for 10 weeks now. I say to my pupils that I can probably tell those who have self-quizzed most effectively if I see the different colour of pen in their books. I encourage the notion of corrections, and emphasise how making mistakes in retrieval will ultimately enhance our learning. I showcase great examples of self-quizzing under the visualiser.
Last week, one of my Year 7 pupils came up to me and said ' Sir, I have discovered a new way to self-quiz! And it works really well!' I looked at him with a sense of bemusement and dread. I half knew what was coming. 'I read the Knowledge Organiser and then just copy it out. I think I remember it best this way.'
My heart sank.
But the anecdote above gets to the heart of the matter. Retrieval practice is challenging for our pupils. Instinctively, it goes against what some of them wrongly believe works best - the notion of just reading, re-reading and writing out notes. We constantly have to reinforce with our Year 7 pupils how to self-quiz best. We regularly have to orient their attention to the importance of retrieving from memory and of correcting. Having just re-read the excellent book 'Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning' by Brown, Roediger and McDaniel, I am as a school leader utterly, utterly convinced that the crux of our efforts in school -whether through CPD or otherwise - must be to create the conditions for real learning. Our approach and strategies within school must begin...and end...with retrieval practice.
What is Real Learning ?
The discrepancy between performance and real learning is well documented. If we ask our students to recall information at the end of a lesson or indeed if we give them a test at the very end of a topic they have just studied, there is a strong chance they will 'perform'. Why? Because some, if not most, of the information will still be in their working memory. The danger with such superficial performance, however, is that we are lulled into a false sense of security that our students have 'learned' the material. In reality, they most likely have not. Real learning only occurs when the mental map in long-term memory has been altered, when the schema of knowledge they possess about a discipline has been consolidated and enhanced through new connections with prior learning. This does not happen in a lesson, overnight or indeed in a short period of time. We can only ascertain if real learning has taken place if students remember and recall material months or years afterwards.
This throws up many implications for the strategies we employ in the classroom. The strategy of teaching Topic A, doing a test on Topic A, moving on to Topic B, doing a test on Topic B, moving on to topic C, doing a test on Topic C, then doing an exam on Topics A, B and C is surely not fit-for purpose if our prime goal is to embed knowledge in long-term memory. Learning is not linear. In fact, it is very messy. Study after study has confirmed that the best way to support real learning is to afford students as many opportunities for retrieval as possible - in a repeated manner and in spaced out sessions so that the recall requires cognitive effort.
What is Retrieval Practice?
Retrieval practice, put very simply, is the act of trying to recall information without having it in front of you.
You might be thinking, This is nothing new. And you would be right. Over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle wrote "exercise in repeatedly recalling a thing strengthens the memory". And as far back as 1885, the psychologist Ebbinghaus was working on his 'forgetting curve', illustrating just how quickly we start to forget things. The small amount that our pupils retain in working memory after a lesson will start to be forgotten very quickly. In fact, in a very short space of time we forget up to 70% of what we've heard or read. How many times have we, as teachers, undertaken a plenary with pupils in which they have been asked to recite back to us at the end of a lesson what they have 'learned', only to be gutted a week later when we ask them again - and they have forgotten some if not most of it.
Study upon study indicates quite clearly that the way to counter this is not through some superficial 'exit pass' plenary when we ask pupils to recount what they were taught fifteen minutes prior, but rather when we ask them to retrieve from memory after a period of time - after a few days, weeks, months. And if we constantly return to the same knowledge repeatedly and in an increasingly spaced out manner (with increasingly long gaps in time), we are expediting the potential for real learning.
Therefore retrieval practice must be frequent, spaced, and relevant. What do we mean by relevant? It must be very tightly bound to the core knowledge outlined in the Knowledge Organiser, and the most effective retrieval practice will prepare pupils for new knowledge they are about to encounter.
As a school, we have a multi-layered approach to retrieval practice:
1: Self-Quizzing. As mentioned at the start of this article, we require our students to self-quiz against their Knowledge Organisers. We try to space and interleave this self-quizzing. For example, whilst my Year 7 French class are currently studying family members and relationships in French, their self-quizzing at home is focusing on the numbers 1-70 which they studied some months ago. Not only does this introduce Bjork's desirable difficulties of 'spacing' and 'interleaving', but it is also designed to prepare pupils for upcoming lessons in which they will learn to give the ages of family members. We are careful in school to compare self-quizzing with revision, as self-quizzing is most probably one of the most effective revision techniques, alongside getting someone to test you and explaining concepts to others. Tom Sherrington writes well in his blog article about these latter two techniques.
2: Entrance Passes / Recap. My school will never, ever, prioritise plenaries which ask pupils to retrieve information at the end of a lesson, for the reasons outlined above. I believe they are a potential waste of time when we could, quite simply, be forging on with explicit instruction. However, we store great importance on recap at the start of the next lesson - at that time when they may be starting to forget knowledge learned in the previous lesson. These short recap sessions, lasting 5-10 minutes, are low-stakes, frequent and challenging. They are challenging partly because they are starting to forget or have forgotten the material, and secondly because we 'space' the retrieval so that they are also being asked to retrieve knowledge from a few weeks, months and even years ago. This is very difficult for them, but utterly essential if it is to embed in long-term memory. My own strategy is through a short quiz sheet on which they translate words into English, then into French. Sometimes they are asked to conjugate verbs, or to explain a grammatical rule. I try to write the retrieval practice quiz so that it is challenging but will also allow most of them to experience some success. If pupils are getting 70/75%, that is a good rule of thumb for me. Success which is borne from challenge most likely enhances motivation. Tellingly, however, only once in 8 weeks has a pupil got full marks. They find it tough - but hopefully rewarding. Whilst my recap has been quite consistent as regards format, I think that some variety in format may help to maintain the challenge, and this is something I need to explore further. Mark Enser has some good ideas here.
3: Quizzing Technology. My school believes that much use of ICT which is purported as good practice is, in fact, damaging and deflects from real learning. For novices in our classroom, real learning is best expedited through strong explicit instruction - the teacher at the front of the room imparting their knowledge and expertise to a well-behaved, well-disciplined class. However there is no doubt that technology has its place, particularly for practices very much backed up by cognitive science such as ‘self-quizzing’ and the use of visual graphics for the purposes of dual coding. In Markethill High we expect pupils to make use of such self-quizzing websites at home, and even before and after school and at lunch times, in order to assist the process of embedding knowledge in long-term memory. Such sites include IXL, Quizlet, MyMaths and others. This year we have introduced Hegarty Maths, which will not only allow for retrieval, but will afford pupils the opportunity to explore worked examples through the excellent video sets. Well-designed and structured self-quizzing activities on such sites, with in-built principles of spacing and interleaving, serve to facilitate real learning through a change in the mental map in long-term memory. This year I have started to use Quizlet with my Year 7,8 and 9 classes. Having taught for 20 years, I am persuaded that my pupils this year are probably demonstrating more knowledge in long-term memory than any class I have taught in previous years. The self-quizzing technology has its place, alongside Knowledge Organisers and lesson-based recap / retrieval, and is here to stay as far as home usage for my pupils.
So, my takeaways in relation to retrieval based on initial experiences are as follows:
* Keep it frequent
* Space it out
* Keep it relevant
* Keep it challenging
* Aim for student success
* Vary it on occasions in the classroom
* Have a multi-layered approach
* Tap into self-quizzing technology wisely
And finally, read Peps McCrea's book on Memorable Teaching - it is a game changer.
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