Dylan Wiliam on Building Student Knowledge | Literacy and the Science of Learning

Jul 1, 2025

Zach Groshell, a dedicated teacher from Tacoma and author of "Just Tell Them," teams up with Patrice Bain, a seasoned Illinois educator and author of "Powerful Teaching." They dive into cognitive science principles transforming student learning. They discuss retrieval practice, using tools like flashcards for memory retention. Bain highlights 'power tools' for enhancing understanding, while Groshell emphasizes the importance of mixing current and past content in assessments. Together, they illuminate strategies that truly engage students in their learning journey.

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INSIGHT

Memory Is Retrieval, Not Loss

Memories often persist but retrieval difficulty causes the illusion they've faded.
Storage strength reflects how well something's learned; retrieval strength shows ease of recall.

ANECDOTE

Lasting Memory Recall Story

Patrice Bain recounted a student recalling detailed class information 22 years later without prep.
This shows that well-encoded memories can be instantly retrieved decades after learning.

ADVICE

Four Power Tools for Learning

Use retrieval, spacing, metacognition, and interleaving as key strategies to strengthen student memory.
These "power tools" help students learn deeply and recall information long term.

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Our memories grow stronger when we work to retrieve them. That’s why flash cards and pop quizzes are effective: they prompt students to recall and access information from their memory bank. What other instructional tools and techniques help students remember what they’ve learned, and how can teachers put these to use?

Host Dylan Wiliam takes a deep dive into four vitally important principles that are rooted in cognitive science and receive far less attention than they deserve: retrieval, spacing or distributed practice, metacognition, and interleaving. These concepts are brought to life by guests Patrice Bain and Zach Groshell, educators who have used them in the classroom and written books on the topic.

Bain offers a strong overview of memory-building instructional moves, which she calls “power tools.” They include asking students to think about what they’re learning while jotting notes (metacognition), guiding class discussions that focus on material learned a week and more ago (spacing), and teaching varied aspects of related content in a single study session and requiring students to “switch gears” (interleaving).

“Too often as teachers we concentrate on putting information into our heads. What if instead we concentrated on pulling information out?”

Groshell identifies some common teaching practices where these principles most readily apply: turn-and-talks, exit tickets, and Do Nows, which he recommends include a mix of current, recent, and past content. He also discusses common study techniques that are less effective, like re-reading notes or highlighting a text, because they draw on a student recognizing something familiar, not accessing knowledge from their memory stores.

“Recognition and familiarity are really bad cues compared to: if I can retrieve it, if I can have someone test me on it and I can verbalize it or I can write it down. These are much better signs that I'm learning the material.”

This podcast is produced by the Knowledge Matters Campaign and StandardsWork. Follow the Knowledge Matters Campaign on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Search #knowledgematters to join the conversation.

Production by Tressa Versteeg. Original music and sound engineering by Aidan Shea.