Helping Students Remember

We hope you’ll return to classes next week refreshed and energized. After a week away (possibly a week full of experiences more intense than classwork), our students, on the other hand, may have begun to forget what they were learning before they left. It can be difficult for them to regain focus after spring break, but we can help to “interrupt their forgetting” by asking them to think back and reconstruct what they learned in the first months of the semester.

Researchers studying a phenomenon called the testing effect have established that “retrieval practice” improves memory and learning (i.e. Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). Summoning new knowledge from memory strengthens neural connections and enhances long-term retention; it’s far more effective than common study strategies like rereading and reviewing notes. You don’t actually have to give a test in order to harness the testing effect: you just need to prompt students to retrieve—and use–the important concepts they still need to be building. Here are a few suggestions for bolstering students’ memories:

• Give an (ungraded) recall quiz. The first weeks of class probably seem like a long time ago, but it’s important that students think back to what they were studying then, so they see the connections to what they’re studying now. You can also make this a game, like Jeopardy.

• Have students reflect on what they’ve learned so far. You can ask them to identify two or three fundamental concepts they want to use in the future, or think about how they can apply the material in new contexts. This can also prompt them to consider how and why they value what they’ve learned and are learning.

• Have students create a timeline of the course. This is useful not just for prompting students’ memories, but for helping them trace connections amongst concepts and skills. When they have to consider what we did first, and why, they can begin to make meaning of what might be a barrage of new content.

• Have students create their own study guides. Asking students to determine which concepts are most important (and, as always, why) is good practice in self-regulated learning (Nilson, 2013).

There’s one very important proviso. Students will remember what we test, so be sure to test the most important concepts. If we quiz on minutiae, students will remember minutiae, at the expense of the major concepts.