Following up on our recent Lethal Retrieval Practice Mutations – the excellent Scientists in the Making (Ms.Sam) has offered up some practical considerations from a teacher’s perspective that we thought were worth sharing.
There’s an interesting insight on ‘Diminishing Cues’ Retrieval Practice (DCRP) – a sort of scaffolded retrieval technique that is worth looking at when you are concerned about overloading working memory capacity. Which, let’s face it, is all too easily done when we ask students to retrieve just that bit too much.
DCRP is a useful tool for inclusion/differentiation allowing SEND students to participate in the same retrieval as their peers, just at a different “stage” of the cue diminishment.
With DCRP students are first given strong cues that make retrieval possible and, over time, those cues are reduced so students rely more on their own memory. There’s a nicely worked example in the blog, so we won’t repeat it here. However, we wanted to add something about the timing of the diminishing cues.
Should you diminish the cues in steps within one lesson or over a longer period?
In conversation with Ms Sam – she relayed that when she first introduces new content she diminishes cues (i.e. Attempt 1, then 2, then 3) within the same lesson but will make modifications based on student performance. If most students struggle on the first attempt, she’ll reteach and have them repeat Attempt #1 before gradually removing cues.
The research literature would suggest that whilst DCRP can be used within a “massed”, single, intra-lesson session to build initial fluency and bridge the gap from “I just heard this” to “I can recall this.”, its true power is unlocked when diminishment is spaced over time.This approach allows for “productive forgetting.” Diminishing the cue on say Day 3 and then again on Day 7 forces the brain to “reconstruct” the memory more deeply
FAQs:
Can you provide a primary aged example of DCRP?
In Year 5, a common challenge is the mastery of scientific vocabulary (e.g. the lifecycle of a plant). Instead of moving from “reading the definition” straight to “writing the definition from scratch,” DCRP fades the support.
The Topic: Germination
- Stage 1 (High Support): The student sees the word: GERMINATION.
- Stage 2 (Faded Support): In the next retrieval attempt, they see: G _ _ M _ _ A _ I _ N.
- Stage 3 (Minimal Support): Later, they see: G _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ N.
- Stage 4 (Full Retrieval): Finally, they are asked: “What is the process where a seed begins to grow?”
What’s the difference between DCRP and a Faded Example (or just giving ‘hints’)?
DCRP and Faded Examples look similar but target different parts of the learning process:
- Faded Examples (The “Working Out” Scaffolding): These are used during the Encoding/Acquisition phase. You fade steps in a long-division problem to help a student learn the procedure. The goal is to reduce cognitive load while they are first learning.
- DCRP (The “Memory” Scaffolding): This is used during the Retrieval phase. It is specifically designed to prevent the “Failure to Retrieve” during a quiz. DCRP doesn’t help you learn a new process; it helps you strengthen a weak memory trace that already exists but is currently inaccessible.