TLC #010: The Science Of Learning - How To Never Forget What You Learnt
In this edition of the Learning Chronicle newsletter, we explore the concept of Retrieval Practice: what it is, why it's so powerful, and how to use it and apply it to improve learning.
Hi,
Here is your weekly dose of the “The Learning Chronicle Newsletter” weekly curated content on how learning happens that helps you drive the achievement of personal, business, and organizational learning goals.
Welcome to all new subscribers. I am Omotayo Olorunfemi; a learning and development specialist. Check out the archive for previous editions using the first link above. Welcome!!! Once again.
Learning Quote
“There is a place, right on the edge of your ability, where you learn best and fastest. It’s called the sweet spot. The underlying pattern is the same: seek out ways to stretch yourself. Play on the edges of your competence. As Albert Einstein said, “One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts.”
The key word is ‘barely.’”
— Daniel Coyle in ‘ The Little Book of Talent’
Two Curated Articles
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you are trying to remember a piece of information or a concept or something you learnt some time ago and you couldn’t remember it and you find yourself “scratching your head” in the bid to recall the information?
Do you know what was responsible for this learning gap?
How do we make learning stick?
Introducing...
Retrieval Practice or “The Testing Effect”
The technique of bringing information to mind for improving and increasing the learning process is known as Retrieval Practice. Consciously recalling knowledge helps learners with long-term retention of knowledge and with pulling their knowledge “out” and analysing their initial learning.
Retrieval practice is a useful revision and effective learning technique that helps with memory retention because it involves the recollection of prior knowledge, which improves the chances of knowledge shifting to long-term memory.
This detailed article below by Structural Learning explores the concept of retrieval practice; what it is, getting it right, and its challenges and benefits.
Retrieval Practice: A Teacher's Guide
The first stages of learning a new concept involve creating a set of connections that allow us to make meaning from the elements that make up the concept, linking them together and binding them to the knowledge we already have. Forming these connections requires some short-term rehearsal, establishing a unit of knowledge that is stable and coherent enough that we can later retrieve it.
Then, later, you can engage students in retrieval practice where they try to retrieve the knowledge element in response to a stimulus of some kind. This might be 20 minutes later or 20 days later. Doing this strengthens the knowledge itself and the pathways that allow it to be retrieved, building up to fluent recall with practice.
This in-depth article below from Teacherhead explores research-based techniques for retrieval practice
10 Techniques for Retrieval Practice
One Video
This three-minute-plus video by Retrieval Practice on YouTube aptly summarises the concept of how to make learning stick.
One Learning Question
How can you prioritize deliberate learning in all you do today?
What We Are Reading
Education Corner on What is Retrieval Practice and Why is it so Powerful?
Impact on Just because they’re engaged, it doesn’t mean they’re learning
Teacherhead on Rehearsal first; retrieval practice later – an important distinction
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