Here are the four most powerful tools for long-term learning
/ Pooja K. AgarwalThis week, we feature a roundup of the four most powerful tools to boost students' long-term learning, backed by cognitive science research: retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and feedback-driven metacognition.
How do you use these four strategies? Share with us on Twitter and Facebook!
Four Power Tools for Powerful Learning
In Powerful Teaching, we highlight four Power Tools that make a big impact on students' long-term learning, even raising grades from a C to an A. Here are the four Power Tools, with our four favorite teaching strategies for each:
Retrieval Practice: Get information out of students' heads, not in
Download our Retrieval Practice Guide
Spacing: Spacing learning over time; don't cram it all at once
Download our Spacing Guide
Interleaving: Mix up related information to foster discrimination
Download our Interleaving Guide
Feedback & Metacognition: Help students reflect on what they know and what they don't know
Download our Transfer Guide (Metacognition Guide coming soon!)
Supported by a wealth of research and featured in the book Make it Stick, these strategies don't require more prep or grading (because no one wants more of that, right?). We write about each of these strategies every week, but we thought it's long overdue to summarize all four Power Tools in one update.
Want even more about the four Power Tools? Check out these summaries from Cult of Pedagogy and Edutopia.
In case you missed it, download our free professional development slides and click here for more free resources from Powerful Teaching. Have you found Powerful Teaching helpful in your classroom? Help us share the science of learning with a quick review on Amazon. We really appreciate your support.
Want to access info about each Power Tool quickly? We have direct links:
Download Our Free Guides!
We have FREE practice guides for download. All written by cognitive scientists, 10 pages or less, including practical teaching strategies and links to research. All Creative Commons access, too. Share them, please!
Our 5 guides: Retrieval Practice, Spacing, Interleaving, Transfer of Knowledge, and Early Childhood Education. We have a guide on feedback/metacognition on the way and even more in the works. Is there a guide you'd like to see by leading cognitive scientists? Reply and let us know.
Help us reach educators around the world and share our Retrieval Practice guide translations in Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin (more on the way, too!).
