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“Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning”

By Pooja K. Agarwal and Patrice M. Bain

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Chenango Valley Takeaways

Table of Contents

This presentation will describe four “power tools” or strategies to improve instruction across disciplines and grade levels which are outlined in “Powerful Teaching”.

• “Power tools” - slide 3
• Powertool Number One: Retrieval- slides 4-8
• Powertool Number Two: Spacing- slides 9-11
• Powertool Number Three: Interleaving- slides 12- 15
• Powertool Number Four: Feedback-driven Metacognition- slides 15-18

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4 Power Tools to Improve Instruction

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“[W]e typically focus on getting information into students’ heads. On the contrary, one of the most robust findings from cognitive science research is the importance of getting information out of students’ heads. Based on a century of research, in order to transform learning, we must focus on getting information out” (Agarwal, Bain pg. 28).

• Retrieval
• Spacing

• Interleaving
• Feedback Driven Metacognition

Powertool 1: Retrieval

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In retrieval practice, teachers push students to recall information from previous lessons to help them to better retain content.

Retrieval practice should be a no-stakes or low-stakes learning opportunity that increases student performance, beyond formative and summative assessments.

Retrieval Research: Self-Quizzing vs. No Quizzing

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Procedure:

• Sixth grade students in a social studies class were asked to use a website to quiz themselves before taking a test. This prompted them to retrieve previously learned information.
• Student performance was compared between material that was self-quizzed and material that was not

Results:

• Student performance on the test improved by nearly a letter grade (90% vs. 82%)
• Student performance improved by the end of the semester as well ( 74% vs. 65%)

Retrieval Strategies: Brain Dump

Students write down everything they know about a topic in a given time without looking at notes.

• Engagement and participation often increases after students retrieve their own information.
• Partners can be added by switching papers with a classmate. Partners then write down something that they saw on a partners’ paper that they did not have on their own.
• Teachers can choose to allow students to use their own brain dump notes on an assessment.

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Retrieval Strategies: Two Things

Stop at any time during a lesson to have students retrieve and then write two things about a specific topic. This can be during the lesson, at the end, or even the next day.

Examples:

• What are two takeaways from today's class?
• Write down two things you learned yesterday.

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Retrieval Strategies: Mini-Quizzes

Repeated quiz questions help students practice retrieving information.

• Topics discussed during the week are turned into questions and put into a bucket. At the end of the week or day, random questions are pulled and the students complete them.
• After the quiz, the questions pulled go back into the bucket. Questions are added as the as the year goes on.

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Powertool 2: Spacing

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Spaced practice boosts learning by spreading lessons and retrieval opportunities out over time so learning is not crammed all at once.

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Spacing Research

Procedure:

• College students read chapters of a biology textbook and completed quiz questions within the chapter and after the chapter, spacing out the times during which they needed to recall the information.
• Both compared to students who simply re-read the chapter

Results:

After two days, those students who engaged in spaced retrieval had greater test performance in comparison to those who re-read the chapter (62% vs. 45%)

Spacing Strategy: BBQ (Big Basket Quiz)

Similar to the mini-quiz using repeated quiz questions, except now questions from previous units are included.

• Questions are in a “Big Basket,” because they now include questions that will require that students retrieve previously learned material.
• Random questions are pulled and the students complete them. These can even be different for different sections of the class.
• Questions are added as the as the year goes on.

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Powertool 3: Interleaving

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Boosts learning by mixing up closely related topics, changing the order in which they are practiced.

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“Years of cognitive science research have established that interleaving--simply rearranging the order of retrieval opportunities without changing the content to be learned--can increase (and even double) student learning.” (Agarwal, Bain pg. 93).

Interleaving Research

Procedure:

• Seventh- grade students completed math problems that were interleaved

Results:

After one day, exam performance improved by more than a letter grade (80% vs. 64%)

After one month, performance improved by nearly double (74% vs. 42%)

Interleaving Strategies: The Dice Game

• Students pair up or join small groups with a list of similar math problems or vocabulary lists.
• One student rolls a die. The student who rolls retrieves the answer that matches the question for the corresponding number that was rolled. Other students provide feedback.

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Interleaving Strategies: The Fishbowl

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• Write past and current topics on slips of paper and put them in a fish bowl or hat.
• A student draws a slip of paper and all students think-pair- share the answer.

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Interleaving Strategies: Lightening Round

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• Students create a list of questions. One student calls out questions at random.
• All students retrieve and write down their answers.
• Give students feedback at the end and keep it fast-paced.

Feedback-Driven Metacognition

Teachers who use this strategy help students to reflect on what they know and do not know about class content.

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“When students are aware of what they know and don’t know, learning is more successful in the classroom and studying is more successful outside the classroom” (Agarwal, Bain pg. 125).

Metacognition Research

Procedure:

• College students were split into two groups:
• One group listened to lectures
• The other group listened to lectures and completed metacognition sheets that required them to rate their understanding, record difficult concepts, and reflect on how they could improve their understanding

Results:

Across four exams, the students in the metacognition group consistently performed significantly higher than the other group (85% vs. 78%)

Feedback- Driven Metacognition Strategy: Retrieval Cards

• A sheet of paper is divided into boxes. Each box has a definition and a blank for students to write a key term .
• Students put a star next to the ones they know and answer them. They put a question mark next to the ones they don’t know and go look them up.

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Feedback- Driven Metacognition Strategy: Line Up

• Students form a line and the teacher calls out a vocabulary word.
• Students retrieve the word and then move to a side of the room based on their understanding. Example: Yes I know it (all the way to the right) or no I don't ( all the way to the left) .
• They then match up with the person closest to them and discuss what they know/ don’t know.

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