Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

by Peter C. Brown

One,

Two,

The students averaged A- on the material that was quizzed and C+ on the material that was not quizzed but reviewed.

As Matt points out, you hardly ever have an emergency, so if you don’t practice what to do, there’s no way to keep it fresh.

One of the best habits a learner can instill in herself is regular self-quizzing to recalibrate her understanding of what she does and does

not know.

in so doing I’ve not only revisited things that I learned from lectures or from watching others performing surgery but also I’ve complemented that by adding something of my own to it that I missed during the teaching process.

Reflection can involve several cognitive activities that lead to stronger learning: retrieving knowledge and earlier training from memory, connecting these to new experiences, and visualizing and mentally rehearsing what you might do differently next time.

To make sure the new learning is available when it’s needed, Ebersold points out, “you memorize the list of things that you need to worry about in a given situation: steps A, B, C, and D,” and you drill on them.

Retrieval ties the knot for memory. Repeated retrieval snugs it up and adds a loop to make it fast.

a central challenge to improving the way we learn is finding a way to interrupt the process of forgetting.2

testing effect.

Today, we know from empirical research that practicing retrieval makes learning stick far better than reexposure to the original material does. This is the testing effect, also known as the retrieval-practice effect.

To be most effective, retrieval must be repeated again and again, in spaced out sessions so that the recall, rather than becoming a mindless recitation, requires some cognitive effort.

Repeated recall appears to help memory consolidate into a cohesive representation in the brain and to strengthen and multiply the neural routes by which the knowledge can later be retrieved.

that repeated retrieval can so embed knowledge and skills that they become reflexive: the brain acts before the mind has time to think.

but it steers us away from appreciating one of the most potent

learning tools available to us. Pitting

the learning of basic knowledge against the development of creative think...

The stronger one’s knowledge about the subject at hand, the more nuanced one’s creativity can be ...

creativity absent a sturdy foundation of knowledge bui...

All the groups who had engaged in the recitation showed better retention than those who had not done so but had merely continued to review the material.

the longer the first test was delayed, the greater the forgetting, and second, once a student had taken a test, the forgetting

nearly stopped, and the student’s score on subsequent tests dropped very little.

In 1978, researchers found that massed studying (cramming) leads to higher scores on an immediate test but results in faster forgetting compared to practicing retrieval.

test two days after an initial test, the crammers had forgotten 50 percent of what they had been able to recall on the initial test, while those who had spent the same period practicing retrieval instead of studying had forgotten only 13 percent of the information recalled initially. A subsequent

In another study, researchers showed that simply asking a subject to fill in a word’s missing letters resulted in better memory of the word.

The modest effort required to generate the cued answer while studying the pairs strengthened memory of the target word tested later (shoe).

One argument suggested that the greater effort required by the delayed recall solidified the memory better.

When retrieval practice is spaced, allowing some forgetting to occur between tests, it leads to stronger long-term retention than when it is massed.

Retrieval and elaboration; again, no technology required.

Sixty-four percent said the quizzing reduced their anxiety over unit exams, and 89 percent felt it increased learning.

semester he has them writing paragraphs on the concepts covered in class, sometimes a full-page essay, and the quality is comparable to what he’s seeing in his upper division classes.

Tests that require the learner to supply the answer, like an essay or short-answer test, or simply practice with flashcards, appear to be more effective than simple recognition tests like multiple choice or true/false tests.

While any kind of retrieval practice generally benefits learning, the implication seems to be that where more cognitive effort is required for retrieval, greater retention results.

that the act of retrieving a memory changes the memory, making it easier to retrieve again later.

After a test, students spend more time restudying the material they missed, and they learn more from it than do their peers who restudy the material without having been tested.

Students whose study strategies emphasize rereading but not self-testing show overconfidence in their mastery. Students who have been quizzed have a double advantage over those who have not: a more accurate sense of what they know and don’t know, and the strengthening of learning that accrues from retrieval practice.

Frequent low-stakes testing helps dial down test anxiety among students by diversifying the consequences

over a much larger sample: no single test is a make-or-break event.

These benefits of low-stakes testing accrue whether instruction is delivered online or in the classroom.

We’re easily seduced into believing that learning is better when it’s easier, but the research shows the opposite: when the mind has to work, learning sticks better. The greater the effort to retrieve learning, provided that you succeed, the more that learning is strengthened by retrieval.

After an initial test, delaying subsequent retrieval practice is more potent for reinforcing retention than immediate practice, because delayed retrieval requires more effort.

Repeated retrieval not only makes memories more durable but produces knowledge that can be retrieved more readily, in more varied settings, and...

Giving students corrective feedback after tests keeps them from incorrectly retaining material they have misunderstood and produces better learning of the correct answers.

Practice that’s spaced out, interleaved with other learning, and varied produces better mastery, longer retention, and more versatility.

You feel the increased effort, but not the benefits the effort produces. Learning feels slower from this kind of practice, and you don’t get the rapid improvements and

affirmations you’re accustomed to seeing from massed practice.

Cramming for exams is a form of massed practice.

Spacing out your practice feels less productive for the very reason that some forgetting has set in and you’ve got to work harder to recall the concepts. It doesn’t feel like you’re on top of it. What you don’t sense in the moment is that this added effort is making the learning stronger.2