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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Since the publication of this paper I've been developing my thinking about retrieval practice in the classroom. If accepted, I'll be sharing these at the ResearchED national conference in September. Hope to be able to share my ideas with everyone #UKEd

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Nelson Cowan identies 9 models of WM. What's the problem? If we talk about things in general terms, then we have to expect different interpretation and understanding. We should be very clear when using technical language and position it in the specific model we are using and the limitations.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

In my #CogSciSci keynote I explained how memory is problematic in generating general principles. Something I didn't have time for was to discuss how explanations of phenomenon emerge from the specific experiments carried out. A good example of this is the concept of working memory 1/2

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

I'm my recent #CogSciSci talk, I went a step further and suggested that you start with recognition tasks and gradually change to questions with less cues.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

This is a good question. You are essentially referring to something called transfer appropriate processing. So evidence from retrieval practice would suggest that task matching increases performance. However, we cannot predict exam questions so I would favour mixing formats.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Oooo, I like that. Spot on in some cases. It's a good question to ask yourself when planning activities.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Thanks so much. This is an important point - just because you do something and call it retrieval practice doesn't mean you are gaining the benefit. If we overly focus on the activity, then we may lose sight of the purpose.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

At #CogSciSci I said we are becoming overly focused by activities in the classroom. I'm my latest paper I make a call for research into how things like retrieval practice interact with other things we do in the classroom 👇 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Thanks so much. Hope you found it useful.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Indeed, especially when the science isn't that clear cut. I really enjoyed making the Star Wars slide, my best work I feel 🤣

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

A great day at #CogSciSci. Thanks to all the feedback from both my talks and glad it sparked discussion and questions.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

🔥 Many study protocols used in retrieval practice experiments are inappropriate for primary aged children and very few studies have been done in authentic primary classroom. So how do primary schools use this in the classroom? My new paper explores this. #UKEd www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

‘What’s in a name?’ Retrieval practice in the primary classroom: a case study

Retrieval practice has become a well-established teaching strategy in English schools due to the influence of recent government policy changes. This case study used teacher questionnaires, lesson o...

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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 13/05/2025

What's actually happening with retrieval practice in primary schools in the UK? Some research ↓ #UKEd #EduSky

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Is revision learning? If you use learning strategies for revision it may not help attainment 🤔 #UKEd

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

So where does this leave us? Well, correlation isn't causation but it does demonstrate that just doing strategies is not enough. Doing them well and having positive attitudes and beliefs about revision is arguably more important.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Interestingly, where students had been taught about effective revision strategies, they were more likely to use things like distributed practice. However, their average grades were lower.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

This is important as we want students to perform well on exams. However, much of the revision advice is based on strategies that support long term learning, such as distributed practice and practice testing. A question though is are these even effective for performance?

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Soderstrom and Bjork make a clear distinction between learning and performance, where they demonstrate that increases in performance doesn't necessarily lead to learning and lasting learning doesn't necessarily lead to immediate performance.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

🔥🔥 Hot take: are we wrong about revision? This time of year we see the focus shift for Y11 towards revision and there is lots out there talking about effective strategies based on cognitive psychology. However, things may not be as they seem..... 🧵 #UKEd

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

If you are talking about the testing effect and spacing effect, then yes, this is the boundaries of the research.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

I never said it wasn't but if we are using these terms then they need to be accurate. I'm just explaining the evidence base.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

You are thinking about what is know as the gap or lag, which is the time between initial learning and first retrieval. Spacing then comes with the second and then subsequent exposures.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

OK, so this is a misunderstanding about the spacing effect. The spacing effect exists due to rexposure or the same test item. The testing effect can be leveraged with a single exposure so won't include spacing. Also, this is on already learnt material, so already encoded.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

This is exactly the aim of the retrieval for learning framework.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

I said spacing is a different effect, which is entirely accurate. You can measure a spacing effect experimentally. You can 100% can do RP separately to spacing, lots of experiments do this.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

This is entirely correct. However, my idea of "retrieval for learning" does make some generalised guiding principles but these are based on my research. Hopefully, I'll be announcing more in the near future.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

In terms of the relevance of forgetting, depends what theoretical perspective being used. However, spacing is a different effect, which can be combined with retrieval practice. Again, I make this point in the podcast and say you don't need to overly worry about the different theories as a teacher.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

This is the exact point I make in the podcast. Need to step back for sure.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Ah ok, so we are probably interested in the same things then. I am just trying to do it from the position of bridging the theory and practice.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

I agree this is all important but this is not what the retrieval practice research discusses.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

How are you defining RP? I'm not doing the reducing, this is what the literature base does. I agree with your point too about insight not instruction but the issue is that RP has been operationalised to the point it is going beyond the testing effect. We don't know if this is effective

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Retrieval practice is of course a powerful strategy to support learning and we should be using it, however, we need to understand when it can/should be used to be effective and also efficient.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

As with any experiment, if you variables, you get a change. On the testing effect, if you change the comparison control condition you change the effect size 👇 to the point where it becomes non significant compared to other elaborative strategies.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

I define retrieval practice (RP) in the podcast but it is important that when planning for RP that you are thinking about leveraging the testing effect for it to be effective. Therefore, it's not just the case of doing RP but using it instead of something less effective.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

I really enjoyed doing this podcast talking about my research on retrieval practice in schools. I outline some top tips but also my concerns. When it comes to retrieval practice, we need to remember it is ultimately an outcome of a highly controlled experiment, which has implications 🧵 #UKEd

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scottinghatt.bsky.social @scottinghatt.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

If you're interested in *retrieval* and *retrieval practice*, this podcast with the brilliant Gareth Bates by the @edupulseco.bsky.social crew is a must listen. Gareth studies and researches this stuff and has practical guidance too. creators.spotify.com/pod/show/edu...

creators.spotify.com

S2: E5 - The Reality of Retrieval Practice: In Conversation with Gareth Bates by EduPulse

Welcome back to the EduPulse podcast and our second season.In this episode we are joined by Dr Gareth Bates an experienced lecturer and teacher who worked in several secondary schools before moving in...

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Helen Harden @helenharden.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

I was really excited when @drgarethbates.bsky.social proposed this as an article for @associationscied.bsky.social 11-19 SciEd journal SSR. Well worth a read!

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Thanks for the brilliant discuss and I hope I will be invited back.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Looking forward to it. Hopefully, it will provoke some good discussions.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Thanks so much for coming. Hoping you found it useful.

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Lisa C @fidgetslisa.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Revising revision with @drgarethbates.bsky.social and Sibel Kaya #ASEConf2025

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Mad isn't it! I've had a number of schools do this then be students when my students then dont apply for a role there 🤔.

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Let go back to the good old, if you don't cry at least once a week as a trainee then you're not working hard enough!

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Dr Gareth Bates @drgarethbates.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

I think the experiment itself is interesting and it is surprisingly robust, which is of important in experimental psychology. However, making claims that it is relevant to teaching and learning is just nonsense. Definitions of memory and forgetting have moved on!

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