On episode 348 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dr. Michelle D. Miller and host Bonni Stachowiak talked about memory and memorizing in higher education. I enjoyed the discussion about explaining to students that even though we can use Google, there are some things we should learn and be able to retrieve from memory. Miller discussed retrieval practice and clarified what interleaved practice is. Mixing categories during studying and practice are powerful. Retrieval practice is not limited to flash cards. Spacing or distributed practice was described by Miller as the anti-cramming practice: studying in chunks and getting more out of the time. Cal Newport’s concept of “deep work” was mentioned. The connection between memory and learning was described and how there may be a false dichotomy between the need/emphasis on lower and higher level Bloom’s levels. Miller mentioned they often complement each other and described research about retrieval practice and drawing inferences. What do we want to focus on in our courses? Miller mentioned the importance of linking facts to our own lives. The podcast ended with valuable lessons learned from teaching online during a pandemic.
I also listened to episode 71 of the Lecture Breakers podcast this morning with Dr. Barbi Honeycutt and guest Caleb Curfman, a history instructor, describing how they moved to creative assessments and use of free resources to avoid high book costs for students. Curfman has implemented creative assessments to replace traditional exams. What I really liked and took away from the discussion was how Curfman asks students to set their goals for an assignment and then uses that as the guideline for feedback and grading. Curfman is intentional in mentioning this to students and providing guidelines so that students have choice and creativity, while also maintaining equivalence between the different submissions by students. I found this to be a critical point to keep in mind… and one I haven’t focused on! The assignments Curfman has in courses require application and creation… and not just memorization and recall. Yesterday during a virtual happy hour and webinar, Dr. Mays Imad, spoke about a new project to develop resources for promoting and evaluating critical thinking and equity. The webinar and these two podcast episodes, with hosts and speakers I admire, made me reflect on how I have transitioned to more creative capstone assignments that provide choice and allow students to pursue their own interests. These discussions also highlight the need to discuss the expectations and rationale with students, as well as explain what facts are important to commit to memory in order to fully exploit critical and creative thinking for creation of new resources.
