By Dr. Lauren Bellaera

Dr. Lauren Bellaera is the Director of Research and Impact at The Brilliant Club, a UK-based charity that aims to increase the number of pupils from under-represented backgrounds that progress to highly-selective universities. Lauren is also a part-time Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London. Before joining The Brilliant Club, Lauren held postdoctoral research positions at the University of Warwick and the University of Cambridge, UK. 

Trained as a cognitive psychologist, Lauren’s research seeks to understand the learning strategies that are most effective for improving critical thinking skills in children and adults. Lauren has recently completed a six-month Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell with Dr. Yana Weinstein. As part of this research they examined whether retrieval practice strategies could be used to promote the learning of critical thinking procedures. You can follow Lauren’s research on Twitter @DrLBellaera

“How do I ace an exam?”… “How can I make learning more meaningful for my students?”… “How do I help my child to study?” are just a few of the many questions asked by students, teachers, and parents. And although these questions are articulated in slightly different ways, they ultimately are trying to understand the same underlying mechanism; that is, how do humans learn? 

Fortunately for us, our understanding of learning has advanced significantly because of research in cognitive psychology. In particular, six learning strategies have been identified as particularly effective: Spaced practice, retrieval practice, elaboration, interleaving, concrete examples and dual coding (1, 2). Traditionally, cognitive researchers have explored these learning strategies in the context of knowledge retention – i.e., do these learning strategies improve students’ knowledge of factual information? (3, 4, 5, 6). But now, more and more, researchers are examining whether these learning strategies can also be applied to the learning and teaching of critical thinking (7, 8).

But, firstly, what constitutes critical thinking? What are we hoping these learning strategies will improve? (9) Whilst definitions of critical thinking vary (10), there is consensus when it comes to the key skills that we want learners to develop. These skills include: Being able to apply (applying a concept to a novel context), analyse (separating a concept into its parts), evaluate (making judgments about the value of arguments) and create (creating a new idea or structure) (11). An in-depth discussion about critical thinking skills can be found in my previous Learning Scientists’ blog post.

In the present blog post, I describe what I think are two of the most important learning strategies from cognitive psychology: Spaced learning and retrieval practice. Specifically, I review research that examines the effectiveness of these two learning strategies for promoting critical thinking skills. 

Spaced learning

To begin with, let’s remind ourselves what we mean by the strategy spaced learning. Spaced learning is where, when reviewing previously learned material, you distribute or ‘space’ your studying across multiple sessions. Studies from cognitive psychology show that spaced learning leads to improved long-term retention compared to ‘massed’ learning, where you cram the same amount of study time into one session (12, 13). 

A handful of studies have looked at spaced learning where school or university students have been asked to think critically. The critical thinking materials in these studies focus on the learning of complex concepts or procedures and the extent to which these can be generalised to novel contexts (i.e. apply). One study investigated the role of spaced learning in young children’s generalizations of science concepts. In each of the four 5-minute mini lessons, children were given information about a food chain from a specific habitat (e.g., desert, grasslands, ocean, arctic). The study found that when this information was taught using a spaced schedule (one lesson each day) as opposed to a massed schedule (four lessons in one day), or clumped schedule (two lessons per day), children’s performance on the post-test (a week later) was significantly higher. Importantly, the post-test asked children questions where they had to make simple and complex generalizations to a novel food chain (14). These findings were further supported by a replication study, which again showed the benefits of spaced learning when learning simple and complex generalizations (15). 

We also see benefits for spaced learning for university students. Kapler, Weston and Wiseheart (2015) delivered a simulated lecture to university students covering factual and higher-order thinking material (i.e. apply questions). Participants then reviewed the lecture content using either a massed (one day after the lecture) or spaced schedule (eight days after the lecture). Performance on a test one-month later showed that reviewing the material with more time between the lecture led to better long-term retention for both facts and higher-order thinking questions (16). 

One very recent study by Foot-Seymour, Foot, and Wiseheart (2019) investigated whether the spacing of learning sessions helped students’ long-term retention of critical thinking skills. In this study, 9-12 year old students were taught to evaluate and judge the credibility of websites. The findings showed that spaced learning (one lesson every week for three consecutive weeks) vs. massed learning (three consecutive days) improved performance on an assessment that required students to evaluate novel websites (8). 

Based on the research findings described, the key message for students, teachers, and parents is that spaced learning supports the development of critical thinking skills. Specifically, by spacing out study or teaching practices students are better able to apply concepts and higher-order skills to novel contexts. 

Retrieval practice

Retrieval practice is one of the most robust learning strategies for improving long-term knowledge retention (1, 2). This strategy requires learners to bring previously learned information to mind, and the act of doing this strengthens that memory. A typical retrieval activity includes quizzing students on factual information before asking students to take a final test where they have to retrieve that information again. Similar to spaced learning, the way in which retrieval practice studies have conceptualised critical thinking is in terms of application – i.e., the extent to which retrieved knowledge transfers to novel contexts.

A number of studies with university students have examined whether retrieved knowledge can be applied to novel contexts. Butler (2010) was one of the first studies to explore this. The study showed that testing participants on new knowledge domain questions (wing structure for military aircrafts) after quizzing them on different knowledge domain questions (wing structure of birds) resulted in better performance on the final test compared to the restudy materials group (17).  Another study showed that studying the same apply questions at both the initial quiz and final test improved performance on the final test for these items compared to participants that restudied by highlighting the materials. However, crucially, this finding did not replicate when the apply questions on the final test differed to the initial quiz (18). Therefore, this suggests that the similarity of the retrieved materials is important when considering the effectiveness of retrieval practice. 

This point is further extended by a recent study by Agarwal (2019), who, across three experiments, asked university students and school-aged pupils to retrieve information using fact questions, higher-order questions, and a mix of question types. The results showed whilst higher-order and mixed quizzes improved higher-order test performance (i.e. apply, analyse, evaluate and create questions), fact quizzes only improved factual knowledge questions. This study suggests two key takeaways; first, that retrieval practice performance is based on the similarly of the retrieved information. Second, when studying or teaching you do not need to use factual questions before higher-order questions in order to help build critical thinking skills. Instead, you need to practice retrieval for that specific skill (7). An outline of this study can be found in this recent Learning Scientists’ blog post.

Final comments and a few words of caution

So the evidence so far indicates that spaced learning and retrieval practice are both beneficial for learning critical thinking – hooray! But what do these findings actually mean for learning and teaching practice? 

When considering how to embed spaced learning, it means that when we teach critical thinking (which should be all the time!) we should stagger the review process – keep revisiting the content and build on it across multiple sessions. The same process applies if a student is studying. Likewise, with retrieval practice, quizzing ourselves on higher-order materials is beneficial for the development of critical thinking. So don’t just use quizzes for factual knowledge but also use them for those higher-order skills. Importantly, the fact that we observe positive effects of spaced learning and retrieval practice on critical thinking suggests that these strategies are not just improving the specific factual concepts that have been studied but are having wider effects on how information is learned (19).

The above all sounds very promising, and it is, but a few cautionary notes should be noted when considering the practical applications:

• Firstly, whilst spaced learning is an effective strategy for improving critical thinking, it also depends what content is being taught and reviewed as a part of this strategy. If the pedagogy of the sessions is not designed to promote higher-order thinking then it cannot be expected that spacing this learning will facilitate critical thinking. This is why careful attention needs to be paid to how critical thinking is taught (20, 21). For an excellent discussion on this topic, see Dr. Althea Need Kaminske’s Learning Scientists’ blog post on “Can we teach critical thinking?”.

• Secondly, studies have only looked at certain critical thinking skills (mainly apply), so it is yet to be established whether spaced learning and retrieval practice supports all types of critical thinking skills (i.e., apply, analyse, evaluate and create). 

• Finally, understanding the effects of learning strategies for critical thinking will always be a little ‘hazy’ simply because of the challenges associated with defining and assessing critical thinking, so therefore we should expect that the benefits of any learning strategy may not be as strong for critical thinking compared to factual knowledge (19).

References:

(1) Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14, 4–58. 

(2) Pashler, H., Bain, P. M., Bottge, B. A., Graesser, A., Koedinger, K., McDaniel, M., & Metcalfe, J. (2007). Organizing instruction and study to improve student learning. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Research, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. 

(3) McDaniel, M.A., & Masson, M.E.J. (1985). Altering memory representations through retrieval. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 11, 371–385.

(4) Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L., III. (2007). Repeated retrieval during learning is the key to long-term retention. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 151–162. 

(5) Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006a). The power of testing memory: Basic research and implications for educational practice. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 181–210.

(6) Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006b). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17, 249–255. 

(7) Agarwal, P. K. (2019). Retrieval practice & Bloom’s taxonomy: Do students need fact knowledge before higher order learning? Journal of Educational Psychology, 111, 189-209.

(8) Foot‐Seymour V, Foot J, Wiseheart M. (2019). Judging credibility: Can spaced lessons help students think more critically online? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 1-12.

(9) Bellaera, L., Debney, L., & Baker, S. (2016). An intervention for subject comprehension and critical thinking in mixed academic ability university students.  The Journal of General Education, 65, 264-282.

(10) Griggs, R. A., Jackson, S. L., Marek, P., & Christopher, A. N. (1998). Critical thinking in introductory psychology texts and supplements. Teaching of Psychology, 25, 254 –265

 (11) Bloom, B. S. (Ed.), Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). The taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals (Handbook 1: Cognitive domain). New York, NY: David McKay Company.

 (12) Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 354-380.

(13) Ebbinghaus, H. Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology. Ruger, HA.; Bussenius, CE.; Hilgard, ER., translators. New York: Dover Publications; 1964. (Original work published in 1885).

 (14) Vlach, H. A., & Sandhofer, C. M. (2012). Distributing learning over time: The spacing effect in children’s acquisition and generalization of science concepts. Child Development, 83, 1137-1144. 

(15) Vlach, H. A., & Gluckman, M., Vlach, H., & Sandhofer, C.M. (2014). Spacing simultaneously promotes multiple forms of learning in children’s science curriculum. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28, 266-273

 (16) Kapler, I. V., Weston, T., & Wiseheart, M. (2015). Spacing in a simulated undergraduate classroom: Long-term benefits for factual and higher-level learning. Learning and Instruction, 36, 38-45. 

(17) Butler, A. C. (2010). Repeated testing produces superior transfer of learning relative to repeated studying. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36, 1118–1133. 

(18) Wooldridge, C. L., Bugg, J. M., McDaniel, M. A., & Liu, Y. (2014). The testing effect with authentic educational materials: A cautionary note. Journal of Applied Research in Memory & Cognition, 3, 214–221. 

 (19) Wiseheart, M., Küpper-Tezel, C., Weston, T., Kim, A.S.N., Kapler, I.V., and Foot-Seymour, V. (2019). Enhancing the quality of student learning using distributed practice. In J. Dunlosky & K. Rawson (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of cognition and education (pp. 550-584). New York: Cambridge University Press.

(20) Abrami, P. C., Bernard, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Wade, A., Surkes, M. A., Tamim, R., & Zhang, D. (2008). Instructional interventions affecting critical thinking skills and dispositions: A stage 1 meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 78, 1102-1134

(21) Abrami, P. C., Bernard, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Waddington, D. I., Wade, C. A., & Persson, T. (2015). Learning strategies for teaching students to think critically: a meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 85, 275-314.