When we think of retrieval practice, our first thought might be a quiz at the start of a lesson to recall previously learnt content.
In this new ‘Voices from the Classroom’ video, Jennie Hartley – Faculty Leader for Humanities at Beckfoot School – explores how they plan opportunities to feedback on retrieval practice in a way that is meaningful but also balances the desire for the retrieval to be low stakes.
Jennie outlines how they utilise talk as a tool to remove barriers for students engaging in retrieval practice as well as providing an opportunity to capture retrieval of complex ideas.
“we have a range of acceptability in our questioning for Humanities and so students can still express their own kind of interpretation of questions whilst allowing this teacher to spot misconceptions and errors”
Jennie also highlights the importance of feedback in retrieval practice to rectify incorrectly recalled content and prevent embedding misconceptions deeper. She explores how you could make corrections and when you may wish to consider reteaching a concept entirely.
We hope this latest video supports colleagues to reflect their practices around retrieval and how you might review your existing strategies and professional development to emphasise the importance of feedback in retrieval practice.
If you want to explore these ideas further, you may want to read:
- EEF blog: Not another quiz! Refining retrieval practice | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)
- The EEF’s Cognitive Science Evidence Review – see pages 21 – 23 for retrieval practice