Creating Head Space: Using Spaced Retrieval Practice to Teach Cranial Nerves to Graduate SLP Students

Old Dominion University ,Rachel K Johnson,Anne Michalek,Corrin Richels

doi:10.30707/tlcsd3.2johnson

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of spaced retrieval practice on graduate speech-language pathology (SLP) student’s long-term retention of cranial nerves. This is a quasi-experimental design study using a repeated measures and between group design where the control group was not randomly assigned. The accuracy and quality of cranial nerve knowledge was measured in graduate SLP students who did not practice spaced retrieval (control), and those who practiced spaced retrieval for three (EG1) or four (EG2) semesters. The quality and accuracy of cranial nerve knowledge improved significantly for both experimental groups compared to the control group. When controlling for accuracy from typical instruction, a significant difference in accurate recall did not occur for either experimental group until the third semester with continued significant improvement for EG2 in the fourth semester. The difference in the quality of recall between the first and last semester was significant for EG2 only. These results confirm that participating in spaced retrieval practice one time is inadequate for long-term retention. The findings reassure SLP educators that infusing spaced retrieval practice into content rich courses will have a positive impact on graduate SLP student’s retention.

Highlights

Cover Page Footnote We would like to extend our appreciation to Melissa Gies for her assistance with this study
The following specific research questions guided our inquiry: 1) Do speech-language pathology (SLP) graduate students who participate in spaced retrieval practice have better retention of cranial nerve knowledge as measured by accuracy and quality of responses than students who did not participate in spaced retrieval practice?
2) Does the accuracy and quality of cranial nerve knowledge recalled depend on the number of semesters the graduate SLP students participated in spaced retrieval practice?

Summary

Introduction

Cover Page Footnote We would like to extend our appreciation to Melissa Gies for her assistance with this study. It is essential to understand the impact that evidence-based instruction methods have on graduate SLP students’ long-term retention of content related material. Professionals relate the limited retention of neuroanatomy to the blocked schedule of instruction and lack of revisiting the material throughout the graduate curriculum (Martin et al, 2014) This highlights the importance for educators to expand reflection of their pedagogy practice to include the evaluation of student learning and long-term retention as described in the scholarship of teaching and learning in SLP (Dalton, Klein, & Botts, 2017). Initial studies have reported positive student outcomes; the downside to these approaches is they can be costly (time and money), can take several years to integrate into the curriculum comprehensively, and can require long-term application before any benefits are seen. Spaced retrieval practice is an evidenced-based rehabilitation technique used by SLPs, it has not been studied as a technique to enhance long-term retention of neuroanatomy in SLP graduate students

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