Learning Supercharged: Leverage High Impact Retrieval Practices with Digital Learning Tools

Caroline Habig, the presenter, works in a K-12 school district in Wisconsin.
She is the author of the book Learning Supercharged, published by ISTE in March of the current year.
The session focuses on concrete learning strategies tied to Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to maximize effectiveness while avoiding common pedagogical pitfalls in Project-Based Learning (PBL), Game-Based Learning, and Experiential Learning.
The core philosophy of the session is: "Think big, start small, and be consistent."

There is a significant gap between cognitive science research and classroom practice.
Reasons for this gap include:
- High-impact strategies may seem too difficult to implement.
- Research can feel too theoretical or irrelevant.
- Strategies may seem inaccessible to typical classroom structures.
- Time constraints often prevent educators from moving beyond traditional methods.
Common, but often ineffective, student study habits include:
- Cramming (popularized and often glorified in higher education).
- Rereading slides or notes.
- Highlighting text without active engagement.

Retrieval Practice:
- Focuses on getting information out of the brain rather than pushing it in.
- Recalling information strengthens memory and long-term retention.
- Prediction is a powerful retrieval tool: asking learners to predict outcomes or what they will learn before a topic is introduced, then checking those predictions later.
Distributed Practice (Spacing):
- Spreading study sessions out over time rather than cramming.
- Example: In an Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology course covering $18$ chapters, old assessment questions were added to every new chapter assessment to force students to revisit previous material throughout the year.
Interleaving (Discrimination):
- Helping learners discriminate between topics by looking at what is alike and what is different.
- Categorizing information in active and engaging ways helps build a more robust mental schema.

Simple Implementation Ideas:
- Asking students to enter the room and recall the last lesson without looking at their notes.
- Using "Wow" facts or "impactful" facts to make retrieval more personal and interesting.
- Requiring students to explain why they think a specific answer is correct to foster metacognition.
Sequence and Process:
- For subjects involving timelines or sequences, asking students to recall events or steps in order is highly effective.
- This works even for very young learners (e.g., $4$ -year-olds) learning daily routines.
Concept Cards vs. Flashcards:
- Traditional flashcards are often used passively.
- Effective use requires the "read, jot, check" method: look at a term, define it in your own words, provide an example, and then check against the correct answer to identify knowledge gaps.
Concept Mapping:
- Use blank graphic organizers or maps and have students fill in everything they know before checking with peers or the teacher.

The Foundational Knowledge Problem:
- A major pitfall of PBL is when students lack the foundational knowledge required to research or build effectively.
- Independent research may not be sufficient if the student hasn't built an adequate schema first.
Strategies for Improvement:
- Sample Quizzes and Distractor Rationales: Creating quizzes with distractors (wrong answers) and teaching students the rationale for why those answers are incorrect. This improves assessment literacy.
- Knowledge Building: Identifying gaps in knowledge explicitly throughout the project.
- Spacing in PBL: Returning to foundational pieces of information while students are in the middle of creation (e.g., while they are editing a video or writing a report).

Common Challenges:
- Students may lack the prerequisite knowledge to participate meaningfully.
- Overly complex game mechanics can distract from the actual learning goals.
- Competitive elements can sometimes be intimidating or discouraging for certain students.
Optimization Strategies:
- Feedback Mechanisms: Maximizing the feedback the game provides so students don't just see a "wrong" answer but understand the misconception.
- Game Mechanics Research: Mention of Victoria Mendelli and Joe Biz, professors who study game mechanics through the lens of retrieval practice.
- Scaffolding: Providing opportunities for students to choose their difficulty level, ask for clues, or engage in follow-up questions.
- Physical Manipulatives: Using physical cards or items to sort details and supporting claims (e.g., a $7$ th-grade social studies class sorting evidence for specific claims).

Metacognition and Self-Regulation:
- Experiential learning requires students to monitor their own progress and reflect on the experience.
- Scaffolding can be provided through sentence stems printed on small cards and placed on student desks to guide dialogue.
Augmented Reality (AR):
- Example: Students of an educator named Cindy designed a "hot coffee bracelet" designed to alert a teacher when coffee is too hot to prevent burns. They used AR to take pictures of their designs and test them in different simulated environments.
Evaluating VR Tools:
- There is a specific academic rubric available for ranking the effectiveness of EduVR (Educational Virtual Reality) experiences based on pedagogical value.

AI should be used to expedite the creation of high-quality resources, but the teacher must take charge of the implementation strategy.
Discovery Education Tools:
- Includes AI teacher tools for assessment building.
- Can automatically generate rationales for distractors in multiple-choice questions.
NotebookLM:
- Can be used to take existing materials (like an old PowerPoint) and generate flashcards or study guides.
Prompt Engineering Strategy:
- Identify a specific effective strategy first (e.g., Quick Writes).
- Create a prompt to develop the implementation material.
- Revise the output based on "What do we notice? What do we wonder?"
Gemini Example:
- Habig demonstrated that even a "crummy" prompt regarding Quick Writes can provide useful starting points for different ways to implement a strategy.

Make retrieval frequent and low-stakes.
Provide a diversity of practices (interleaving/spacing).
Teach students the art of self-quizzing rather than passive rereading.
Start with small chunks of information before moving to more complex integrations.

Question: How should students study?
Audience Response: Cramming, rereading slides, highlighting.
Speaker Clarification: These are standard but ineffective. The goal is active learning.
Interactive Activity: The speaker gave the audience $90\,\text{seconds}$ to study facts about learning, then moved the content and gave a group $30\,\text{seconds}$ to either reread or write down everything they remembered. This modeled the effectiveness of retrieval practice vs. rereading.