Abstract
While the learning benefits of retrieval activities have been clearly demonstrated in laboratory settings, evidence on their usefulness in naturalistic school settings is still scant. The goal of the present studies was to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of retrieval-based learning in children (fourth and sixth grades) when school teachers themselves design and implement retrieval activities relating to genuine curriculum contents. Three studies were conducted in a public elementary school with fourth and sixth graders and their teachers. Two of the studies involved mathematics and one dealt with social sciences. Teachers used learning activities that required students to recall part of previously taught concepts, while different concepts in the same unit were worked through with those learning activities that were normally used by each teacher. Two out of three studies revealed that, relative to business-as-usual learning activities, performing retrieval activities during classes led to better performance in the assessments at the end of the lessons. Overall, our finding provides preliminary evidence that retrieval activities can enhance learning in elementary school children when they are devised by teachers in the exercise of their professional duties. These results have important practical implications and suggest that, if teachers are aware of the value of retrieval activities in fostering meaningful learning, these activities could be successfully embedded in their daily duties even when considering the constraints imposed by school reality.
Highlights
At the current time, we are witnessing a renewed enthusiasm for integrating Cognitive Science and Education, with an emphasis on evidence-based practices (Cook et al, 2012)
In essence, retrievalbased learning requires students to actively engage in activities that rely on recalling previously studied information, with this practice usually leading to enhanced performance on subsequent learning tests by comparison with other traditional learning activities such as rereading or concept mapping (i.e., Karpicke & Blunt, 2011; Lechuga et al, 2015; OrtegaTudela et al, 2019)
Most research on retrieval-based learning has derived from laboratory settings, with few efforts made as yet to examine whether the benefits of retrieval practice are observable when students deal with their own course materials in real classroom environments (Fazio & Marsh, 2019)
Summary
We are witnessing a renewed enthusiasm for integrating Cognitive Science and Education, with an emphasis on evidence-based practices (Cook et al, 2012). As Roediger (2013) has recently emphasized, translational educational science should be adopted by schools and educators, to improve education, on the basis of the latest cognitive and educational research findings. In this context, one cutting-edge topic bridging cognitive science and educational practice is that of retrieval-based learning (Nunes & Karpicke, 2015).
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