RETRIEVAL PRACTICE
Practice bringing information to mind without the help of materials.
Many people think of “studying” as simply re-reading notes, textbooks, or other materials. But having
the information right in front of us doesn’t force us to retrieve it from memory; instead, it allows us to
trick ourselves into thinking we know something. Recalling information without supporting materials
helps us learn it much more effectively.
“Put your class materials away, and then write out or maybe sketch or speak everything you know and
try to be as thorough as possible, and then check your materials for accuracy,” Smith advises. “You’re
bringing information to mind almost like you’re testing yourself; though it can be a practice test, it
doesn’t have to be. You can just sort of go through and explain what you know, or teach a friend or a pet
or even an inanimate object everything that you learned in school. By bringing that information to mind,
you’re changing the way that information is stored so that it’s easier for you to get to later on.”
Teach students how to do retrieval practice in class: Have them turn off their devices, put all their notes
and books away, then ask them to write everything they know about a particular term or topic, or share
their thoughts in a think-pair-share. When the practice is done, have students check their understanding
by revisiting their materials and discussing misconceptions as a class. Once they learn how to do this in
school, they can then apply it at home.
3. ELABORATION
Explain and describe ideas with many details.
This method asks students to go beyond simple recall of information and start making connections
within the content. Students should ask themselves open-ended questions about the material, answer in
as much detail as possible, then check the materials to make sure their understanding is correct.
Here’s how Smith and Weinstein explain elaboration:
Teachers can apply this strategy by having brief class discussions where these kinds of questions are
explored and asking students to work elaboration into their own study plans.
4. INTERLEAVING
Switch between ideas while you study.
Common knowledge tells us that to learn a skill, we should practice it over and over again. While
repetition is vital, research says we will actually learn that skill more effectively if we mix our practice of
it with other skills. This is known as interleaving.
“Let’s say you’re doing a bunch of math problems,” Weinstein says. “What’s fairly typical is … five of the
same problem, or 10 of the same problem. Instead of doing that, try different problems in different
orders.” So if students are learning to calculate the area of a triangle, instead of having them do 20
problems with triangles, have them do one of a triangle, then one of a circle, then a triangle, then a
square.
“The thing about that,” Weinstein notes, “is that it’s actually harder. So they’ll be getting more wrong,
they’ll be making more errors, but they’ll also be learning something very important, which is how to
choose a particular strategy for each problem, as opposed to just repeatedly doing the same thing.”
When planning exercises for students, resist the temptation to have them repeat the exact same
process multiple times in a row. Instead, have them do a few of the new process, then weave in other
skills, so that the repetitive behavior is interrupted and students are forced to think more critically.
Explain this strategy to students so they can apply interleaving to their own studying.
5. CONCRETE EXAMPLES
Use specific examples to understand abstract ideas.
Most teachers already use this strategy in their own teaching; it’s a natural part of explaining a new
concept. But what we don’t necessarily do is help students extend their understanding by coming up
with examples of their own. Here’s how Weinstein and Smith explain this broader use of concrete
examples as a study practice:
