Today's podcast is all about one of the most important secrets to learning that is rarely talked about in education. This one learning strategy can single-handedly lead your clients to the transformation your course promises them.

We often think that good teaching is all about how much new knowledge we get participants to take in. But the real trick to learning is getting the content out. Dr. Pooja Agarwal, a cognitive scientist, calls it retrieval practice. And it's all about getting students to recall material or practice what they know. It's not about taking notes or even studying. It's about being forced to remember.

Retrieval practice actually improves your memory as well. It's win-win, right? But it's so much more than that. Retrieval practice improves students' complex thinking skills, and their organization of knowledge. Most importantly, though, retrieval practice improves students' transfer of knowledge to new concepts. That's usually a big failure for most courses. The client finishes the course but doesn't apply it to her life or business. By improving knowledge transfer, we make it much more likely that a client will use it in new situations in his life.

Some important things to remember about retrieval practice

• Use retrieval practice frequently in your courses.
• Give specific action items that require participants to recall material.
• Don't forget to include content presented earlier to help keep it fresh in their memory.
• Let participants know It's OK if they forget. By committing to do the retrieval practice, they'll relearn it.

To learn more listen to the podcast.

Free Download: 7 Ways to Use Retrieval Practice In Your Course

 

Links mentioned

https://quizlet.com/

https://www.polleverywhere.com/

https://debperetz.com/5

Contact: Do you have questions about how to teach for impact? Send them to [email protected]

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This podcast, episode 5, first appeared on debperetz.com