Download these 5 free resources to unleash learning
/ Pooja K. AgarwalBy Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D.
The world has changed and teaching has changed. But here’s one thing hasn't changed: The importance of learning and the frustration of forgetting. Here are 5 new resources and downloads, all free, all by cognitive scientists, all to empower you to unleash the science of learning.
Recommended resources to unleash learning
Photo credit: Gratisography
We've been working hard behind the scenes to bring you 5 new resources:
Powerful Teaching updates, including a Parent's Guide, a Spanish translation, free templates, and a Facebook group with 2,000 members
Practice guides by cognitive scientists, including our new guide on effect sizes (ever wondered what John Hattie's effect sizes really are?)
Free slides for your professional development (yes, please use them!)
A downloadable database of retrieval practice research in authentic classrooms, with a recently published literature review
A new FAQ as a quick reference for all things retrieval practice
Use a structured “ask me anything” (AMA) activity to encourage retrieval practice and community building. Here's how to do it in your classes, for any grade level or class size, including no-tech and ed tech options.
Welcome back to school! The whirlwind of lesson prep, meetings, professional development—and of course, teaching—is here. Here are my favorite back-to-school activities to engage students with retrieval practice during the first week of class.
White boards for retrieval practice are engaging and effective for learning, providing flexibility for question prompts and student responses. Read tips by cognitive scientist Dr. Janell Blunt and make this a no-prep strategy for your classroom.
What do we do when we’re behind on prep and burned out? We revisit a past lesson or play a movie (sad, but true). If you need a lesson fast, use a brain dump. It takes little to no prep, it can be stretched into a 30-minute activity, and students actually learn — no filler movie needed.
I want to share two of my favorite back-to-school activities, which are a huge hit in my classroom: using a trivia fact and using word pair mnemonics. Whether you have new students in your classes or returning students from the fall, K–12 students or graduate students, try these activities to build community and engage students in retrieval practice.
It’s easy to reflect on what went well and what didn’t go well in a course you taught recently. Engage in deeper reflection about how to re-design your course to transform it into a rewarding learning experience for you and your students.
Retrieval practice doesn’t require more class prep for us or ChatGPT for our students. Here are 8 no-prep prompts for retrieval practice I’ve developed over my 10+ years of teaching. I’ve also included a variety of new resources I highly recommend.
Here is a Google Form template you can use to request mid-semester feedback from students. By using the “start, stop, keep” approach as a reflection tool, combined with some simple retrieval practice, you can shift the vibe away from complaints and dislikes, and instead, toward celebrating students’ learning and accomplishments.
Do your students’ minds go blank during an in-class retrieval practice activity? You’ve probably had at least one student who was frustrated and said, “But I can’t retrieve anything!” Here are 4 steps you can take to help your students retrieve something.
With these 4 steps to create mnemonics, 7 classroom activities to get students involved, and frequent retrieval practice, your classroom can be a community where everybody knows your name.
How can you get students and teachers on board with retrieval practice? Start and end your class or professional development with a trivia question. It’s a quick, fun, and memorable.
GenAI tools in education have been gaining momentum for years, but I’ve written about AI only once so far. Why? Because frankly, I’m tired of thinking about it. Here’s my current approach to genAI in my classroom, and my two recommendations for what to do if you’re tired, too.