Anyway, on my return I starting looking at my recently purchased copy of The Science of Learning: 77 Studies that Every Teacher Needs to Know (2019) by Bradley Busch and Edward Watson, published by Routledge. The writers work for InnerDrive, a company which on its website states is "a mindset coaching company working in education, business and sport. We specialise in realising the potential behind Growth Mindset, Metacognition and stress management strategies and as a result improve motivation, learning, confidence and performance in our clients."
Whilst I can't vouch for the academic credentials of the writers, they have produced an attractive, easy to digest volume which consists of brief summaries of 77 key research studies from psychology, followed by advice for teachers and students based on the findings. A testimonial by Dylan Wiliam reads:
"This is the book I have been waiting for. Whether you are just beginning as a teacher, or a seasoned veteran, there will be something here that will be directly relevant to your practice, and, perhaps more importantly, will make you think."
I think he's right.
I'm going to share one research study practice, one about retrieval practice and stress. It's number 76 of the 77.
It's based on a study by Smith et al (2016) in Science, 354 (6315), 1046-1048. The article was called Retrieval practice protects memory against acute stress.
The question is this: are students who revise using retrieval practice (aka the testing effect) better able to recall information when they are stressed, for example during high stakes exams? The researchers had half their sample of students revise by doing lots of tests and quizzes (retrieval practice) and the other half by doing re-reading of key passages of text. They then placed half of each group in either stressful or non-stressful environments and recorded how much they could remember.
This is what they found.
1. The learners using retrieval practice outperformed the other group by 17-26%.
2. Increased stress made those who studied by re-reading perform 32% worse.
3. Increased stress did not adversely affect the memory of the retrieval practice group.
4. Retrieval practice was so effective in inhibiting the effects of stress on memory, that this group even outperformed the group who learned by re-reading and who were tested in the non-stressful way.
The authors go on to explain why stress inhibits learning and memory. In stressful situations, the brain releases cortisol which blocks the pathways to the hippocampus, the part of the brain largely responsible for memory. Retrieval practice can circumvents this, as the act of having to generate an answer creates numerous and clear routes to accessing the information.
The authors conclude that it's wise to teach students about the value of retrieval, be it multi-choice quizzes, self-tests, writing essays or verbally answering questions. They rather neatly sum this up by advising teachers to tell students: "Don't study in order to do well at the test; do lots of tests to study well."
Now, as language teachers often know well, acquiring a language is not the same as recalling factual information for tests, although it has elements in common. The research reminds me of the idea of "deep processing" when acquiring vocabulary - learn it in various ways (by listening, in chunks, from whole texts, with pictures, etc) and you are more likely to be able to recall it quickly in a stressful or non-stressful situation. In other words, that knowledge will be more secure and easily recalled than when you just learn words from a list or an app.
In any case, it's clear from the research that regular testing is a good thing.
I highly recommend the book to you. It's £14.77 on Amazon at the moment and would be a good investment for a school or department.
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