(I’m republishing my best posts from the first half of the year. You can see the entire list of them here)
I’m a big fan of students teaching their classmates (see The Best Posts On Helping Students Teach Their Classmates — Help Me Find More) – and use this instructional strategy constantly in my classes.
I’m also a big fan of Retrieval Practice (see The Best Resources For Learning About Retrieval Practice), which I use regularly in my ELL Newcomer classes, though less so in my IB Theory of Knowledge course.
A new study, shared by Alfie Kohn on Twitter, highlights why I probably use retrieval practice more in my Newcomers class than in my TOK class:
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Standard studying methods like retrieval practice may help with rote recall, but a new pair of studies finds that, for more ambitious learning goals (like being able to create new questions), it’s more effective for students to teach someone else: https://t.co/2OhgjzuepR
— Alfie Kohn (@alfiekohn) March 25, 2024
As Kohn says, the study finds that retrieval practice is more effective in promoting memorization, but that teaching others is better for developing thinking skills.
It’s just another example of why we teachers need to have a huge “toolbox” available of instructional strategies, and be able to discern when and where to use which ones.
(I’m republishing my best posts from the first half of the year. You can see the entire list of them here) I’m a big fan of students teaching their classmates (see The Best Posts On Helping Students Teach Their Classmates — Help Me Find More) – and use this instructional strategy constantly in a look back Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
