Review & recall
A lesson made almost only of questions, sent some time after the main training.
Based on: retrieval practice (the testing effect) and spaced repetition. Recalling something from memory strengthens it far more than reading it again. Recalling it again after a gap — days, then weeks — strengthens it even more. Mixing topics (interleaving) helps people tell them apart.
When to use it
- A few days or weeks after a workshop, a course or a main lesson.
- For knowledge people must keep: rules, procedures, product facts.
Used by: Reinforcement after training.
How the lesson flows
| # | Card | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Card — Let's recall | Which training this follows up on, and why recalling helps. |
| 2–8 | Quiz, Matching, Ordering | Recall questions, topics mixed. Each explanation repeats the key point. |
| — | Quiz with Comment per option | One or two situations where learners apply what they learned. |
| 9 | Form | Where have you used it since? |
| 10 | Checklist | One thing to apply this week. |
Tips
- Keep the content cards to a minimum — the questions are the lesson.
- The explanation after each answer does the teaching. Make it short and clear.
- Time it with a sequence: 2–3 days after the training, then 2–3 weeks later.
Where it comes from
In 1885 the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus published Über das Gedächtnis (On Memory). For years he had memorised lists of nonsense syllables and measured how fast he forgot them. He described the forgetting curve: most new information disappears within the first days. He also found that learning spread out over time lasts much longer than the same amount of learning in one go. This is the spacing effect.
The second discovery is the testing effect. Remembering something strengthens memory more than reading it again. Arthur Gates showed it in schools as early as 1917. Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke at Washington University in St. Louis made it famous again in 2006. Students who practised recalling a text remembered noticeably more a week later than students who only reread it, even though rereading felt more effective to them.
Did you know?
- Learners often prefer rereading and highlighting because they feel familiar with the material. That feeling of fluency is misleading. Recalling is harder, and that's why it works. Researchers call this a desirable difficulty (Robert Bjork).
- In the 1970s the German journalist Sebastian Leitner invented a box of flashcards. Cards you know move to sections you review less often, and cards you get wrong go back to the start. Today's flashcard apps work on the same principle.
- The best gap between reviews depends on how long you want to remember. Research by Cepeda and colleagues (2008) suggests that for a test in several months, the gap can be weeks. That's why it makes sense to send review lessons in a sequence.
- Mixing topics (interleaving) is harder for learners than practising one topic at a time, but it helps them later tell which approach to use when.