Rehearsal and Practice

As we are nearing the end of the semester and final exams are in sight, provide opportunities for guided practice and rehearsal to your students to reinforce learning and increase retention. Two major factors affect the quality of the rehearsal: the amount of time and the type of rehearsal activity.

1. Rote rehearsal is for remembering and storing information in the same form that it entered working memory. This method is used for memorizing lists, facts, definitions. Strategies to teach students:
   1. mnemonic devices
   2. number memory techniques
2. Elaborative rehearsal helps students process the information so that it’s more meaningful. It takes more time but it results in deep learning. Elaboration strategies include:
   1. forming associations
   2. organizing information into categories
   3. outlining
   4. clustering concepts into taxonomic categories with shared characteristics
   5. paraphrasing
   6. summarizing
   7. creating analogies
   8. self-quizzing

Barkley, E. (2010). Student Engagement Techniques. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.