Encourage Metacognitive Skills with Retrieval Practice

Asking students to recall prior learning from memory has been shown to be an effective learning strategy across age groups and educational levels, from elementary school through college students (Ariel & Karpicke, 2018). In recalling prior learning, students “more deeply encode the prompt with the correct answer” and establish a richer memory pathway that enables easier access to information in the future (Stanton et al., 2021). With this immediate feedback, students can also assess the correctness of their recall, which provides immediate feedback on what content to study further.

In a classroom context, retrieval practice can be a regular part of class sessions. For example, instead of the instructor reviewing prior content at the start of class, the instructor can ask students to contribute this information. Students could write on their own and discuss with a partner, or respond to a survey or poll. Pooja Agarwal, a psychology professor at Berklee College of Music, begins course sessions with an activity that asks students to write down everything they remember about a concept, and then pass their papers around the class to build on others’ ideas (Agarwal, 2023). An important element of retrieval practice that helps students accurately gauge their own understanding is that they recall information independently before consulting other resources. Retrieval practice is also often a component of assessments inside or outside of class, including summative assessments, knowledge check quizzes, flashcards, or homework problem sets.

How students time their study activities is also important. Distributing shorter study sessions across a longer period of time results in improved test scores longer-term, and is effective across ages, subject content, and differing time ranges (Dunlosky et al., 2013). However, distributed practice can be an obstacle for learners to implement on their own. In studies where students know this is a best practice, they still are unlikely to use it when studying on their own (Ebersbach & Nazari, 2020). Therefore, including distributed practice within the design of course components is an essential way for students to experience this strategy.

In a classroom setting, distributing retrieval practice over time could include regularly beginning or concluding a class session with a retrieval practice or implementing regular low-stakes quizzing. Studies show that a variety of intervals can be effective relative to the total intended recall duration. For example, in a 15-week semester, an instructor may implement weekly quizzes or in-class retrieval activities, but would want to conduct these activities more frequently in an 8-week semester.

When interleaving is applied to retrieval practice, two or more related concepts are mixed together, asking learners to recall information in different sequences and combinations, rather than practicing them in a specific order. This is particularly important for category learning, where learners need to assign an object to a group, such as determining what mathematical operation a word problem requires or what concept an example demonstrates (Firth et al., 2021). Once learners have reached a basic level of familiarity with concepts, interleaving improves knowledge retention over time.

In a classroom setting, it is easiest to envision interleaving in the context of a practice quiz or homework problem set. An instructor may include questions that target related yet distinct concepts, mixed in order throughout the quiz. During a class session, interleaving may include prompting students to retrieve information on separate but related topics during the same activity. For example, students could match examples to a variety of related concepts.

To encourage students to use these learning strategies on their own, instructors must make students aware of these strategies, how these strategies are purposefully integrated within a course, and why. This is an essential step toward encouraging metacognitive skills (Biwer et al., 2020).

Instructors can accomplish this in a variety of ways throughout the semester. For example, you may include information in your syllabus about how and why your practice quizzes work, speak with students on the first day of class, and include reminders within each practice quiz description.