#75: Student Well-Being: Power Up Your Teaching

This is PART 7 in a series on student well-being. Throughout this series, I will explore what recent research has revealed about ways to create an environment in which all students can thrive.

In my last post, I outlined some of what we know about how people learn. In this post, I will identify concrete ways students and teachers can leverage what we know about how we learn to make learning more effective and efficient. In the book Powerful Teaching, cognitive psychologist Pooja Agarwal and classroom teacher Patrice Bain team up to translate learning theory into classroom practice. They distill the educational research into four evidence-based recommendations that will increase student learning: (1) retrieval practice, (2) spaced practice, (3) interleaving, and (4) feedback-driven metacognition.

1. Retrieval Practice: This strategy focuses on pulling information OUT of students' heads rather than focusing on putting information INTO their heads. I teach AP Psychology and when I first learned about this strategy I was a little skeptical. I mean, I already didn't have enough time to teach all of the content on the exam. How was I going to squeeze something else in? It's true, retrieval practice does take time. I probably teach slightly less content BUT my students retain more. Once I began using retrieval practice, my students were less stressed when it was time for our summative assessments and performed significantly better on the AP exam. This strategy is a game-changer.

I incorporate retrieval strategies into my teaching in a number of ways. One of my favorite no-prep strategies is called the Brain Dump. In a Brain Dump, students are given a set period of time to write down everything they know about a topic. You can stop here, or you can take it a step further by asking the students to identify gaps in their learning. I am a HUGE fan of the Brain, Buddy, Book strategy developed by the Effortful Educator which requires students to share what they remembered with a partner and then work together to identify any gaps in their collective knowledge.

2. Spaced Practice: In this strategy, material is studied multiple times over a period of time. Forgetting is a normal part of the learning process. Take a peek at the "Forgetting Curve" image below. Everyone forgets! I share this graph with my students during the first week of class and we normalize forgetting and talk about research-based strategies to improve our memories.

Personally, I like to start everyday with some type of retrieval practice. To be honest, many times the students don't remember much of what we learned the day before. That is okay! According to the forgetting curve, I am lucky if they remember 1/2-1/3 of the information covered from the day before. This can be really discouraging to students. However, (and this is the part that I LOVE to share with them) if you look at the graph above you will see that every time information is accessed the memory is strengthened and becomes more durable. Teaching students HOW their memory works empowers them to take control of their own learning.

3. Interleaving: This strategy focuses on rearranging the order of the learned content. I like to use it to help my students discriminate between easily confused concepts. It is used in conjunction with spaced practice. I like to think of it this way... Spacing is how the content is spread out. Interleaving is what happens in between the spacing.

So, how do I use this in my own classroom? This is an activity that I adapted from the Effortful Educator. I ask my students to complete a brain dump covering three theorists at the same time. I assign this activity on the last day of the unit. It takes anywhere from 20-45 minutes to complete. You can see a copy of the assignment below.

I have found that my students remember the main ideas of each theory when they are initially presented using blocked practice. However, when it comes to the unit assessment they really struggle with differentiating between the theories. They get all jumbled up! This activity requires them to retrieve what they know AND discriminate between concepts that are very similar. It is a simple yet effective strategy because it leverages the power of retrieval practice, spaced practice, and interleaving.

4. Feedback-Driven Metacognition: At its most basic level, metacognition is an awareness and understanding of one's own thought process. We are notoriously bad judges of our own learning. We think we know more than we actually know. Metacognition is beneficial because it helps us identify what we actually know and what we don't know. At its heart, it is a reflection on the process of learning.

In my classroom, I ask the students to predict how well they do on an assessment before turning it in. I later ask them to compare their prediction and their actual score to see if they were overconfident. In addition, after each assessment I ask them to answer the following questions:
1. How did you study?
2. Why did you study this way?
3. Did it work? How do you know?

There are a number of other ways to embed metacognition into the classroom. If you are looking for additional ideas, I encourage you to read the Metacognition Guide developed by Dr. Agarwal.

A Few Takeaways

• Do incorporate retrieval practice into your classes daily.
• Do keep it simple. These strategies should not require a ton of preparation.
• Don't rely solely on blocked practice. Mix it up!
• Don't sacrifice depth for the sake of breadth. Focus on what they NEED to know and use your Power Tools to make sure they know it.

Learning does not start or stop at the schoolhouse doors. Learning is a life-long process by which we acquire knowledge and skills through our experiences. If we truly want to prepare our students for the real world, we need to teach them how they learn. I challenge you to reflect on your current practices.

• Which of these strategies do you currently use?
• What are you already doing well? Can you do it more effectively or more frequently?
• How can you incorporate this research into your classroom?
• What can you do to make sure that the HOW of learning doesn't get lost in the WHAT of learning?

Are you looking for some professional development this summer? Check out the following resources for more information about the science of learning and practical ways to translate the research into your classroom.

I hope you have a wonderful summer! I will be back with the conclusion of this series in August.

Be Well,
Cori

If you received this in your inbox, I have a new website! Check out https://ablendedlearningjourney.com/ for additional resources! Plus, you can now find me on TikTok. Follow me @corischwarzrock for psych-related content posted daily! 

Other Posts in this Series:

#69: Student Well-Being: Leveraging Mastery Experiences to Build Student Self-Efficacy
#70: Student Well-Being: Youth Mental Health First Aid
#71: Student Well-Being: Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning
#72: Student Well-Being: Culturally Proficient SEL
#73: Student Well-Being: Praise and Performance
#74: Student Well-Being: The Science of Learning
#75: Student Well-Being: Power Up Your Teaching
#78: Student Well-Being: Universal Design in Learning

Books

Powerful Teaching (affiliate link)

Make It Stick (affiliate link)

Why Don't Students Like School (affiliate link)

Blogs

https://www.learningscientists.org/blog

https://theeffortfuleducator.com/

Websites

https://www.retrievalpractice.org/

https://www.learningscientists.org/

Podcasts

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/retrieval-practice/

https://courseofmind.org/

Downloads

https://www.powerfulteaching.org/resources

https://theeffortfuleducator.com/downloadables/

https://www.retrievalpractice.org/library

Resources:

Agarwal, P. (n.d.). Unleash the science of Learning – Retrieval Practice. Unleash Learning. Retrieved May 26, 2022, from https://www.retrievalpractice.org/

Agarwal, P. K., & Bain, P. M. (2019). Powerful teaching: Unleash the science of learning. Jossey-Bass.

BROWN, P. E. T. E. R. C. (2018). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. BELKNAP HARVARD.

Flannery, M. E. (n.d.). The Science of Learning. NEA. Retrieved May 26, 2022, from https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/science-learning

Harvard, B. (2022, May 2). The effortful educator. The Effortful Educator. Retrieved June 1, 2022, from https://theeffortfuleducator.com/ 

Powerful teaching: Unleash the science of learning. Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved May 26, 2022, from https://www.powerfulteaching.org/

The Science of Learning. Derek Bok Center, Harvard University. (n.d.). Retrieved May 26, 2022, from https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/science-learning

Weinstein, Y., Madan, C. R., & Sumeracki, M. A. (2018). Teaching the science of learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0087-y