Powerful Learning- Retrieval, Interleaving, Spacing, Dual Coding

Power Tools

Desirable difficulty

Interleaving

Spacing

Discrimination

Mixing in old topics with new ones during review

The amount of time between learning and retrieval.

How much time

Similarity

Retrieval Practice

Dual Coding

Representations

What is it?

Creating multiple mental pathways to learning information

Pulling information out of a student's head instead of putting it in their head

Retrieval Cards

Strategies

Representation

Which of the sentences are you more likely to remember? Why?

Read these two sentences:

1. Lar gibbons have white fur around the perimeter of their faces.
2. Mandrills have blue, red, and yellow coloring on their faces.

Since as early as the 1990s, dual coding was a scientifically supported strategy to improve students' memory.

The combination of written word and visuals provides two ways in which anyone can access and recall the information.

Examples: Frayer model, scientific models, storyboards, graphic organizers

Similarity

With interleaving, we mix the order and concepts of similar topics so students have to descern the differences. Interleaving requires spacing, but spacing is not necessarily interleaving. With interleaving, students have to pause and think about how to solve a problem or answer a question rather than mindlessly follow a pattern.

Examples

• Compare and contrast
• What's the best way to solve these systems of equations?

Retrieval Cards

Retrieval cards are flash cards or notecards. But here's the trick: we can't allow ourselves or students to find an easy way out by turning over the card before we/they have given a full answer or written one down. That "cheating" eliminates the opportunity to retrieve information. To dual-code with retrieval cards, draw a picture on one side and put notes on the other. Do this first without notes and then use notes or resources to add to the card. "Test" memory on both sides of the card.

Discrimination of closely related topics

The reason why interleaving works (in addition to its connection with spacing and retrieval practices) is that it requires students to discern or discriminate between similar ideas, concepts, or processes.

Strategies

• Brain Dump: Close the resources and have students answer a question or set of questions referring to the last lesson taught in class
• Retrieve-taking: Have students listen and watch and then take notes after lecturing is complete.
• Think-pair-share-(add): Could be combined with either strategy above, but now include sharing information with a partner. Have the partner add one additional fact to the notes that wasn't there already.
• Two-things: What are two things you remember about....
• Big Bucket Quiz: Cut questions from past assignments into strips and pull them out at random for students to answer. Read the question twice and move on to the next question. At the end, read all questions one more time. Provide immediate feedback and feedback the day afterward.

How much time and how frequently?

The amount of time depends on the length of the unit and how long you want them to retain the inforamtion. One recommendation is to space retrieval by 1:10 of the total time of the unit. Delay a no- or low-stakes quiz on a topic by a few days after learning so studewnts have a chance to forget some information and quiz after the unit to promote retention.

Strategies

Blast from the past: "Remember when we...", or give HW from a previous lesson on a new lesson Delay Summaries: Summarize notes the day AFTER taking the notes without looking at the notes. Or, have students write "Two Things" they remember from Friday's lesson on a Monday. Big Basket Quiz: Cut up questions from past lessons and put them in a basket. Randomly pull questions for a quiz. Return the questions to the basket so that they may show up on a future quiz.

Retrieval Practice

• No- or low-stakes opportunities to pull information out of students heads instead of putting information into their heads.
• Requires students to write down (or verbalize) what they have learned
• Re-reading, re-lecturing, simply highlighting a reading are NOT retrieval
• Has been shown to improve higher-order thinking AND transfer of information to related scenarios

Desirable difficulty

Too challenging. Few students will benefit

Too easy. Few students will benefit

Spacing allows time for students to forget information so that they have to retrieve it from the depths of their mind. This creates a desirable difficulty; it makes the retrieval not too challenging and not too easy. In other words, it creates appropriately rigorous work.

Appropriately challenging. Many students will benefit.