This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to episode 79 of the Cult of Pedagogy Podcast.

In this episode we're going to talk about retrieval practice, the most powerful learning strategy

you're not using.

We've talked about retrieval practice two other times on this podcast.

First in episode 21 when I interviewed Peter Brown, one of the authors of the book Make It Stick.

We talked about what cognitive psychology says we should be doing to help our students

store the things they learn more permanently into long-term memory.

One of those techniques was called retrieval practice.

The second time was when I interviewed cognitive psychologist Megan Smith and Yanna Weinstein

for episode 58, six powerful learning strategies you must share with students.

The retrieval practice was one of those six strategies.

In both cases I noticed that although we were discussing collections of techniques, retrieval

practice was at the core of both groups.

Because it's such a powerful practice, I would think that by now it would have really

taken off, that I'd hear teachers talking about it and see the term crop up in lots of

education spaces, but I don't see that happening.

So I wanted to give it one more push by carving out a designated spot for it in my podcast

archives and on my website.

My goal is to help retrieval practice become a regular part of classroom practice and

our common vocabulary as teachers.

If this is the first time you're hearing the phrase retrieval practice, I'll give you

a simple definition.

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