Retrieval Practice: Research & Resources for every classroom: Resources and research for every classroom

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This concept can be applied to the classroom with a twist, focusing on daily review of five a day to promote healthy retrieval. So, while quizzing may not be the flashiest or most fashionable classroom activity, there is an abundance of science outlining the learning rewards. As teachers across the UK become more and more evidence-informed, we’re learning to ditch revision games, posters, highlighting, re-reading and mnemonics. Retrieval Grids include spacing: Students are challenged to retrieve the concept or answer to a question.

Over the course of the six weeks, continue to cover the same five to eight concepts, theories or terms in your questions, but pose the questions in different ways. First, always begin a lesson with retrieval practice – a short quiz, including five, multiple-choice questions of previously learnt material. Simply put, Kate Jones has provided the ultimate guide for teachers on how to use retrieval practice in the classroom. This week, check out Retrieval Grids, a flexible tool for low-stakes retrieval, spacing, interleaving, and feedback.In the example about Roman Britain above, we would include the correct answer (Romulus), but then also add in plausible distractors. In her talk, Kate presents the most prominent arguments of why teachers are hesitant in implementing retrieval practice in their teaching practice to then debunk these misconceptions by offering quick ways to integrate small teaching tweaks that can change retention of knowledge in students for the better. This TILE talk was dedicated to retrieval practice and how to implement that strategy in classroom teaching.

Other information – perhaps the name of a child in your class back at primary school – could have a high storage strength (they are connected to tonnes of other memories) but a low retrieval strength (what was their name again? The problem with adding in these silly options is that they distract children from what you actually want them to remember (that “there were no more worlds to conquer”). Let's take it to the next level with templatesyou can download, adapt, and create for your own classroom!Try throwing in some questions where the answer is already correct (ie where something is the same in both dimensions) and see if they notice!

It is for this reason that, as part of our curriculum design at Reach Academy Feltham, we have embedded regular multiple-choice tests and quizzes into our curriculum design to help us reap the benefits of retrieval practice. If you can build a culture that looks beyond that short term pain and understands that it’s worth it in the long-term, your students will truly fly. In this episode of The Cult of Pedagogy podcast, Jennifer Gonzalez speaks to Pooja Agarwal about what retrieval practice is and how you can start incorporating it into your classroom right away. In recent years retrieval practice has continued to grow in prominence and interest – an evidence-informed effective teaching and learning strategy that supports all learners. In the first lesson of our unit on Roman Britain, the class learn about how Romulus killed his brother to found the city.This means that, in addition to everything you can learn from the book itself, you know exactly where to look for further reading. It may seem counterintuitive, but that effortful struggle is exactly what produces the strengthened retrieval in future.