All tagged retrieval practice
Flipped Classrooms: Can We Skip the Lecture?
While we have our own internal and correlational data that allows me to cautiously allow students to skip the lecture, here we have experimental data that actually says skipping the lecture might be better for my students. Spoiler alert: it’s not that simple.
Improving Multiple-Choice Retrieval Practice
Today I review a series of experiments that extends previous research by having students provide justifications for their MC answers. As in other techniques for retrieval, answer justification has the potential to increase understanding and retention through elaborative retrieval…
Retrieval Practice Improves Learning, But Will it Help ALL of My Students? More Experimental Evidence
In the first year that our blog was created—2016—I wrote a piece titled, Retrieval Practice Improves Learning, but Will it Help ALL of my Students? In this piece, I covered an experiment conducted by Pooja Agarwal and colleagues (1) about the benefits …
Notetaking Formats
One of the most common metaphors to describe what the first few years of medical school is like is that it is like drinking water from a fire hose. There is an overwhelming amount of information that students need to learn, and need to learn fast. One of the areas …
GUEST POST: Finals Prep: Effective Studying Methods
Due to procrastination or jam-packed schedules, last minute cramming is a tool that many students utilize when it comes to exams. Although pulling an all-nighter, cramming an entire course’s worth of knowledge with the support of caffeine, may give students gratified results, this method is not ideal for content that will be needed again in the future, nor is it helpful for cognitive performance during the exam.