Rehearsal Strategy: Repeating

This posting will focus on Steps One and Two of a Rehearsal Strategy when the Rehearsal Task in Step One uses Repeating. Repeating is effective when target information consists of discrete items, such as a list of spelling words or the names and locations of the countries in Europe. Examples of the use of the strategy are described in the next posting.

STEP ONE: ENCODE TARGET INFORMATION
The purpose of instruction is for students to initially encode the target information in their long-term memories.

REHEARSAL TASKS (Repeating)
Rehearsal tasks for repeating are intended as explicit manifestations of students' implicit process of initially encoding discrete items of target information in their long-term memories. Having students repeat again and again the target information they just heard, read or saw is an effective method for helping them encode that information [1]. Remembering target information by repeating it over and over again is a learning method that most people use to some degree without being told how to by about 9 or 10 years of age [2]. When performing a rehearsal task that utilizes repeating, students see, hear or read the target information they are to learn, and then they reproduce, say or write it a number of times. Extensive research shows the effectiveness of repeating target information over and over [3]. Not surprisingly, students who are called on by their teacher to answer questions during a lesson get higher scores on a test for the lesson objectives than those who are not asked [4]. Frequency in asking questions is essential so that as many students as possible actively perform instructional tasks in a given period of time. For example, a study of the teaching behaviors that are correlated with middle-school students' achievement in mathematics found that students with the highest achievement scores had teachers who asked an average of 24 questions during a 50-minute period while teachers of the lowest achieving students asked an average of only 8 questions during a 50-minute period [5].

REHEARSAL GUIDANCE
The teacher uses rehearsal guidance to help as many students as possible perform a rehearsal task correctly and actively. As students perform a rehearsal task the teacher provides rehearsal guidance (a) by focusing their attention on the target information they are being helped to encode, (b) by providing confirming and corrective feedback about their performance of the rehearsal task, and (c) by keeping each of them actively engaged in performing the task.

STEP TWO: PRACTICE RETRIEVING TARGET INFORMATION
The purpose of instruction in Step Two is for students to practice retrieving the target information from their long-term memories. Instruction for a Recall-Knowledge objective is most effective when the teacher has students perform recall-practice tasks (where the purpose is retrieval of target information from long-term memory) only after having them perform rehearsal tasks (where the purpose is initially encoding the target information) [6].

RECALL-PRACTICE TASKS
Recall-practice tasks are intended as explicit manifestations of students' implicit process of retrieving target information encoded in their long-term memories. Recall-practice tasks for a Recall Knowledge objective should look like the assessment task for that objective because both are designed to cue students' retrieval of the target information for the objective from their long-term memories [7]. Recall-practice tasks are effective in helping students retrieve target information only to the degree that each student performs the tasks in an active and observable way. And, in general, the more times each student performs a recall-practice task, the more quickly he or she encodes the target information, and the longer he or she remembers it [8]. Students' active performance of recall-practice tasks is critical at all levels, from first grade [9], through college [10].

RECALL-PRACTICE GUIDANCE
As students perform recall-practice tasks, the teacher keeps everyone actively engaged in performing those tasks, focuses their attention on the target information, and confirms correct performance and corrects inadequate performances. Teachers' provision of recall-practice guidance is an interactive process of matching the specificity of their guidance with students' progressively developing ability in adequately performing recall-practice tasks. The less-adequate students' performance of the tasks, the more specific the guidance teachers provide, and the more adequate the performance, the less specific the guidance.
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1 (For example) Mayer, R.E., & Cook, L.K. (1980). Effects of shadowing on prose comprehension and problem solving. Memory & Cognition, 8, 101-109.

2. Kail, R., & Hagen;, J.W. (1982) Memory in childhood. In B.B. Wolman (Ed.), Handbook of developmental psychology. (pp. 350-366). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

3. (For example) Gates, A. (1931). An experimental comparison in the test-study methods in spelling. Journal of Educational Psychology, 22, 1-9.

Murphy, J. F., Hern, C.L., Williams, R.L., & McLaughlin, T.F. (1990). The effects of copy, cover, compare approach in increasing spelling accuracy with learning disabled students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 15, 378-386

4. Travers, R.M.W., Van Wagenen;, R.K., Haygood, D.H., & McCormick, M. (1964). Learning as a consequence of the learner’s task involvement under different conditions of feedback. Journal of Educational Psychology, 55, 167-173.

5. Evertson, C., Anderson, C., Anderson, L., & Brophy, J. (1980). Relationship between classroom behavior and student outcomes in junior high math and English classes. American Educational Research Journal, 17, 43-60.

6. (For example). Anderson, L.M., Evertson, C.M., & Brophy, J.E. (1979). An experimental study of effective teaching in first-grade reading groups. The Elementary School Journal, 79, 193-222.

7. (For example). Berliner, D., & Rosenshine, B. (1976). The acquisition of knowledge in the classroom(Tech. Report IV-1, Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study. Prepared for the California Commission for Teacher Preparation and Licensing). San Francisco, CA: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development.

8. (For example). Good, T.L., & Grouws, D. (1979). The Missouri mathematics effectiveness project. Journal of Educational Psychology, 17, 355-362.

9. Beck, I.L. (1978). Instructional ingredients for the development of beginning reading competence. Pittsburgh, PA:

Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh.

10. Kulik, J.A., & Kulik, C. C. (1979). College teaching. In P.L. Peterson, & Walberg (Eds.), Research on Teaching: Concepts, findings, and implications. Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.