The What-and-Why method for retrieval practice

By Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. (@RetrieveLearn)

It’s one thing to ask students what they remember about a course topic or unit. It’s another thing to ask students why they remember it.

Keep reading to learn about my What-and-Why method and all the benefits it offers beyond retrieval practice.

I also wanted to send a friendly reminder to register for my free fall webinar series. My next webinar is on Tuesday, November 17 at 12:00pm ET. Join me and connect with hundreds of educators around the world. The webinars are recorded, but you must register in advance to receive the recording.

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You’re asking what. Now, ask why.

Photo credit: Gratisography via Unsplash

Each week throughout the semester, my students complete low-stakes retrieval practice questions as part of their homework. I ask them to retrieve what they remember about recent topics, and also to retrieve what they remember from class last week for spaced practice.

But here’s my all-time favorite question to ask students: Why is that concept memorable for you? I call this my What-and-Why method.

Think about it this way: You already ask students what they remember. Next time, try this: Ask them why they remember it.

There are many reasons why I love the What-and-Why method:

• Students engage in metacognition and reflect on their learning

• Students think more deeply about how learning works

• You can use students’ responses to guide future instruction

Do you struggle to narrow down your course content? If you notice a pattern in what students are remembering and why it’s memorable for them, leverage their responses to guide your instruction. This is a perfect opportunity to switch from focusing on what you want students to remember to what your students want to remember—and why. Even though they don’t realize it, your students are providing you with constructive feedback that’s refreshingly helpful.

For example, when I ask my students which videos they remember from our unit on neuroscience (we watch 8 short clips), the majority of my students remember a video about fMRI research on dogs. Their responses were so helpful for me! Over the course of a few semesters using my favorite post-retrieval question, my students’ responses helped me narrow down a 3-hour unit on neuroscience into a 45-minute mini-lecture.

Here are more reasons why I love What-and-Why: 

• It’s flexible. You can ask students why a topic is memorable following a brain dump, as part of think-pair-share, as formative or summative assessment, and/or on a homework assignment. 

• It’s relevant across a wide variety of content areas and grade levels. 

• The “why” question is tough for AI to answer authentically.

• It’s quick. I’m always a fan of retrieval practice that takes one minute or less, without additional prep or grading. 

Try out my What-and-Why method with your students and email me (ask@retrievalpractice.org) to let me know how it goes!

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Ask students to Flash Forward

Photo credit: Princess Olanrewaju via Unsplash

Related to asking students why a topic is memorable for them, ask them to tell you about a topic they want to remember for a really (really) long time.

Retrieval practice is an opportunity to “flash back,” to mentally time travel to the past and recall information learned. I like to flip this mental time travel into the future, in an activity I call Flash Forward. Ask students: What do you want to remember from this class 10 years from now? Why?

It can be helpful to have your students to imagine how old they’ll be 10 years from now (but be prepared for this to make you feel old). My students love Flash Forward as a unique opportunity to time travel into the future and choose a topic they want to remember for the long-term.

For more about Flash Forward:

• Click here to watch a video of my students reflecting on their Flash Forward 

• Click here for Flash Forward tips from my colleague Dr. Janell Blunt

• Learn even more about Flash Forward in my book Powerful Teaching

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Have you registered for my webinars yet?

Join me for my FREE webinar series on Zoom this fall. More than 1,000 people have registered! If you’d like to receive the recordings, make sure you register in advance. The Zooms are also live streamed on YouTube, so make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel @RetrieveLearn.

Tuesday, November 17 at 12:00pm ET: Why forgetting is normal, why it’s good for learning, and how to normalize it in your classroom

Thursday, December 10 at 10:00am ET: How the brain actually works, why we fall for neuromyths, and how to be an informed consumer of neuroscience research

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