Retrieval practice, the next educational fad?

Having spent 5 years teaching internationally, predominantly the English exam board courses, what shows that the student has learned is based primarily on his or her success in the end-of-year external examinations. The focus is on getting information into students’ heads (and then have them recall it during the exam). Now having also seen how students often revise, there is a prevalence of re-reading their notes, getting the highlighter out, and feverishly highlighting passages. These are all designed in some way to get the information to stick. 

Now as I keep telling the students, these techniques, generally do not work. In fact, the opposite is true: when information comes to mind easily when reading a textbook and feels like yeah I am learning something, that information is easy to forget. All too often my students revise topics they already know well! In other words, just because a student is learning something quickly and easily does not guarantee they’ll remember it. In fact, in my experience, it is very much the opposite! Hence, I enjoyed reading and applying the techniques embedded in Kate Jone's book Retrieval Practise.

Retrieval practice is the latest trend in the educational realm especially in schools where the external examination is the key indicator of educational success. In this approach, a range of techniques is used to bring information to mind and therefore enhance and boost learning. Well, a type of learning at least.

So why the type of learning caveat? More of that to come. In being a science teacher, recalling an answer to a science question improves learning of lower-order cognitive tasks like being able to identify and name or describe and list to a greater extent than looking up the answer in a textbook. So having to actually recall and write down an answer improves these types of learning tasks more than thinking that you know the answer and answering prematurely. So far so good. 

This retrieval practice is known as the "testing effect." Prior research shows that tests (or short quizzes) dramatically improve the learning of basic facts. The same can apply to flashcards and practice problems etc. Hence, I use online quizzes regularly in lessons.

Quizzing, flashcards, and mnemonics all improve long-term retention. However, what about the effects of retrieval on answering questions regarding more complex concepts and principles, the types of problems our learners will experience outside the classroom? This where my caveat comes in.

Going back to research, when the effect of retrieval practice on problem-solving is investigated, various (somewhat contradictory!) conclusions can be drawn.

When given a novel problem to solve with differing features, students who used retrieval practice techniques did similarly to those who had not. Then again, of those students who did well on the initial retrieval task, those who retrieved rather than reread the initial problem were more successful in the second novel task. However, another research paper by Hosetter et al (2019) found that retrieval of a problem did not enhance later ability to apply the same solution to a new problem.

So the link with effective problem solving and high order learning tasks and retrieval practice is not clear cut. Overall it appears that although retrieval practice may benefit overall memory for any original problem scenario, it may not enhance memory for the specific details common to an original and new problem and allow the solving of novel problems involving the same concept.

Recent research suggests that retrieval may enhance performance on complex tasks so that performance depends, at least in part, on the memory of previously acquired information. However, the learning of concepts and principles needs to involve students building their knowledge through identifying common properties and extracting commonalities across multiple instances, rather than memorizing and recalling specific pieces of information.

This offers support for a curriculum that is well designed and not just knowledge-rich but also carefully sequenced to reinforce the trends and increasing complexity in subjects. Retrieval practice may benefit memory retention, but alone may not be the best way to support the processing required for the learning of complex concepts. 

So finally, I went back to my students who are presently revising for their end-of-year examinations and examined the techniques they were using to revise. In general, they were avoiding using retrieval practice techniques we were using in class in cases when it is most effective (recalling basic facts like anhydrous copper sulfate is the chemical test for water) and they were using it more in concepts where it would be better to start with extended study rather than retrieval (e.g. theorizing and justifying ideas or concepts). My students were using retrieval practice as a means of checking how effectively they have learned from class. A majority thought that if the retrieval was difficult then the lessons involving the topic being retrieved were ineffective in terms of teaching that topic. For a significant minority (more the high achievers), the effort involved in retrieval was seen as a sign that the retrieval task was ineffective as a learning opportunity, and this led them to further study instead of further retrieval practice as the latter was seen as ineffective. 

So in conclusion, retrieval practice has its place in the classroom, but there appear to be limitations in the development of more high-order thinking skills involving applying knowledge in new contexts. Furthermore, having implemented retrieval practice in my own classroom, it is clear that it is difficult for any teacher to know the decisions students make outside the classroom which leads to learning outcomes. This is further reinforced by the research that suggests that students overestimate their own future test performance to a greater degree after worked examples compared to problem-solving and this influences the approaches they use to revise.