After the lesson, half the school rooms practiced by reciting equations displayed on a whiteboard: “One times three is three, two times three is six…” via to 10. The opposite half practiced with flash playing cards. College students had their very own private units with solutions on the reverse facet. Each teams spent 5 minutes training thrice throughout the week for a complete of quarter-hour. (Extra particulars on the experiment’s design right here.)
When the lecturers moved on to multiplication by fours, the teams switched. The chanters quizzed themselves with flash playing cards, and the flash card youngsters began chanting. All the scholars practiced memorizing each methods.
The outcomes added as much as a transparent winner.
On a pre-test earlier than the lesson, the second graders received a median of three math info proper. Afterwards, the chanters tended to double their accuracy, answering six info accurately. However the flash card customers averaged eight appropriate. College students had been examined once more a full week later with none further observe classes, and the sturdy benefit for flash card customers didn’t fade. It was an indication that flash card observe not solely produces higher short-term recollections, but in addition higher long-term ones – the final word aim.
![Grayscale bar chart showing pre-test, post-test short term and post-test long term results. The gap between student scores for pre-test is small and widens on the bars for post-test. The post-test bars for the retrieval practices group are higher than the restudy group, indicating better student test scores.](https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/image2.png)
The examine, “The effect of retrieval practice on fluently retrieving multiplication facts in an authentic elementary school setting,” was revealed on-line in October 2023 within the journal Utilized Cognitive Psychology. Although a small examine of 48 college students, this classroom experiment is an efficient instance of the ability of what cognitive scientists name “spaced retrieval practice,” during which the act of remembering consolidates data and helps the mind kind long-term recollections.
Retrieval observe can appear counterintuitive. One would possibly assume that college students ought to examine earlier than being assessed or quizzing themselves. However there’s a rising physique of proof that making an attempt to recall one thing is itself a strong software for studying, significantly if you end up given the right reply instantly after making a stab at it after which get an opportunity to attempt once more. Testing your reminiscence – even if you draw a clean – is a approach to construct new recollections.
Many experiments have proven that retrieval observe produces higher long-term recollections than learning. Flash playing cards are one approach to attempt retrieval observe. Quizzes are an alternative choice as a result of in addition they require college students to retrieve new data from reminiscence. Certainly, many lecturers go for velocity drills, asking college students to race via a web page of multiplication issues in a minute.
Flash playing cards might be much less nervousness frightening, present college students fast suggestions with solutions on the reverse facet and permit college students to repeat the retrieval observe instantly, working via the deck greater than as soon as. Nonetheless, youngsters are youngsters and so they simply drift off activity throughout unbiased observe time. With a timed quiz, the trainer might be extra assured that everybody has benefited from a spherical of retrieval observe. I’d be curious to see flash playing cards and quizzes pitted in opposition to one another in a future classroom experiment.
As charming as multiplication songs are – I’ve a gentle spot for College Home Rock and my editor fondly recollects her Billy Leach multiplication information – they’re unlikely to be as efficient as flash playing cards as a result of they don’t contain retrieval observe, based on Gino Camp, a professor of studying sciences at Open College within the Netherlands and one of many researchers on the examine.
That doesn’t imply we should always jettison the songs or all the opposite memorization strategies simply because some aren’t as efficient as others. Researchers might ultimately discover {that a} mixture of strategies is much more highly effective. Nonetheless, there are restricted minutes within the faculty day, and figuring out which studying strategies are the simplest will help everybody – lecturers, mother and father and college students – use their time properly.
This story about multiplication flash playing cards was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, unbiased information group centered on inequality and innovation in training. Join the Hechinger e-newsletter.