Every minute spent studying should strengthen a student’s grasp of the material, yet many common review techniques leave learners with a false sense of mastery while doing little to cement long-term understanding. In this post, we’ll explore how retrieval practice—a research-backed learning strategy that asks students to actively recall information—boosts retention, and we’ll share practical ways to weave this powerful tool into your daily classroom routines, drawing from both cognitive science and veteran teacher experience.
As explained by Dr. Pooja K. Agarwal and her colleagues in the practice guide “How To Use Retrieval Practice To Improve Learning” (Washington University in St. Louis, 2020), “Retrieval practice is a strategy in which bringing information to mind enhances and boosts learning. Deliberately recalling information forces us to pull our knowledge ‘out’ and examine what we know.” Retrieval practice leads students to actively engage with what they know so they can focus on what they don’t yet know or aren’t yet able to remember more effectively. This strategy contrasts with other passive approaches of reviewing material that involves repeatedly pushing knowledge “in” through methods such as rereading material, highlighting notes, or participating in a traditional review day lesson where the teacher summarizes everything covered before a unit test.
Why Does Retrieval Practice Work?
Retrieval practice emerged from years of research in cognitive science that shows that intentionally recalling information from memory minimizes forgetting and leads to long-term learning. Retrieval practice activates a learner’s long-term memory search to find needed information. “This article from Scientific American Mind explains that this mental search may develop multiple memory pathways as related information is activated, which ultimately allows for easier access in the future.”
Deliberate recall also initiates metacognition by increasing awareness of what the learner remembers versus what hasn’t yet stuck. John Hattie determined that metacognitive strategies have an effect size of 0.60, higher than the 0.40 “hinge point” indicating a positive effect in his Visible Learning study, a meta-analysis of influences related to student achievement. By revealing gaps in understanding while the learning is still in progress, retrieval practice gives students real-time feedback about what they know and what needs more attention. This awareness is particularly significant because it crosses what researchers call the ‘hinge point’—that crucial threshold where an educational strategy proves it can make a meaningful difference in student achievement. More than just another teaching tool, retrieval practice serves as a powerful catalyst that helps students take ownership of their learning journey.
How Can You Easily Implement Retrieval Practice?
Teachers can incorporate retrieval practice into the beginning, middle, or end of a lesson; ideally, it’s a strategy students engage in repeatedly over spaced periods. It works with any subject area and age level for a variety of content, including vocabulary, facts, and processes. Below are some easy ways to implement different types of retrieval practice:
- Brain Dump – Start a lesson or pause during a lesson and have students write down anything they remember about a topic for a brief period. Consider using a collaborate board in Nearpod (reviewed here) or a shared Google Slides presentation where each student types on a unique slide to provide an opportunity for them to see what others remember. They can even comment or provide feedback to correct potential mistakes/misconceptions.
Tip: Ask students to brain dump about a prerequisite topic before starting a new unit. This prompt can be the instructional hook that primes students for the new learning.
- Quizzing – Create short quizzes that ask students to recall information from previously covered topics. Consider a gamified format using tools such as Quizizz (reviewed here), Kahoot! (reviewed here), Quizalize (reviewed here), or Blooket (reviewed here)—or level up learning by having students create the quiz. Ask them to write questions without using classroom materials first so they can use their resources to check their understanding and confirm the correct answer for each question.
Tip: It’s crucial to use retrieval practice as a learning opportunity rather than a testing opportunity. Retrieval practice is designed to be a no-stakes or low-stakes way for students to improve their memory and reduce forgetting. While it can be thought of as a way for students to “self-test,” it should not be designed to measure or grade them. The value is in the feedback students receive about their level of understanding and the data teachers gather about where students are in the learning process.
- Flashcards – You can create digital flashcard practice sets for students with Pear Deck Flashcard Factory (reviewed here) or Flippity (reviewed here). Students can build their own flashcard sets with a free account on Quizlet (reviewed here) or Cram (reviewed here).
Tip: This episode of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast using flashcards effectively requires teaching students how best to use them. Encourage students to pause before flipping a card and ensure they are practicing retrieval rather than recognition when using flashcards. Have students use flashcards to test themselves in both directions to further reinforce the difference between memory and recognition.
- Entrance and Exit Tickets – Provide students with a simple open prompt such as:
- Two Things: What are two things you remember learning about in our last class? What are two things you learned about our topic today?
- Stop and Jot: What do I know now? What do I have questions about? What do I remember that I can draw? How can I summarize?
- Alphablocks: Think of a word, sentence, or idea related to our topic for each letter (or set of letters) of the alphabet.
Consider building templates in FigJam (reviewed here) to give students access to drawing tools for Two Things or Stop and Jot. You can also use Padlet (reviewed here) to create a “board game” by building response columns for Alphablocks.
Tip: Entrance and exit tickets are unique progress monitoring tools for tiered instruction. They provide evidence of students’ mastery in their own words, and students’ responses are valuable data points that can help you make instructional decisions for future lessons.
Where Does Retrieval Practice Fit Into Learning?
Retrieval practice can be an effective teaching strategy in both in-person and online instruction and can even be a learning tool that students use to study on their own. Retrieval practice prompts take little time to design and can be done in short instructional bursts during a lesson. Repeated use can become part of students’ instructional routines, increasing active engagement and decreasing performance anxiety. The time spent on retrieval practice provides in-the-moment re-learning opportunities and builds students’ ability to reflect on their own learning.
What are your thoughts on incorporating retrieval practice into your instruction? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments so we can learn and grow together!