An interesting study into how retrieval practice can be used to bolster performance at tasks requiring higher-order thinking. The conclusions went against the usual premise that lower-order thinking is required before attempting higher-order material.
"One criticism that we have received is that retrieval practice is primarily good for fact learning, but not for higher-order learning. In other words, retrieval practice might serve rote memorization but not the ability to critically think about material or apply it. We addressed this question here and explained that facts must be sufficiently encoded in order to use those facts in a new situation. Because retrieval supports knowledge acquisition, retrieval practice of facts should therefore support application.
However, a recently published study (1) by one of our colleagues, Dr. Pooja Agarwal, examined whether retrieval practice could do more than just support the acquisition of factual information. The study was based on a common prescription for using Bloom’s taxonomy (2): students should first focus on the lower levels of the taxonomy before higher-order thinking can be accomplished. Dr. Agarwal directly compared retrieval practice with the use of lower vs. higher-order thinking to determine if the lower levels of Bloom’s taxonomy were indeed necessary before moving to more complex thinking. "
Full blog post here:https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2019/6/27-1
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