Retrieval‐based learning in special education

Abstract

Retrieval-based learning has been investigated in various populations. The present study examined retrieval-based learning in a sample of students at a special-needs school with educational tracks for learning and mental development. In addition, a comparison group of students at a regular school was examined. Learning conditions were manipulated within participants. In a first session, participants either received restudy cycles only, or they received alternating test and restudy cycles. A second session then comprised the opposite form of practice. In both sessions, a final test assessed memory after a short distractor phase. This procedure was the same in two experiments but with different kinds of item material. For both kinds (images and image-word pairs), a testing effect occurred, that is higher recall of tested items. These results show that lower cognitive ability or lack of experience with regularly being tested in school do not prevent students from benefiting from retrieval-based learning. K E Y W O R D S intellectual disability, learning disability, retrieval practice, testing effect Key Points• Two experiments examined retrieval-based learning in a sample of students at a special-needs school with educational tracks for learning and mental development.• The study material consisted either of a series of images (Experiment 1) or image-word pairs (Experiment 2). • Two learning conditions were compared: Alternating study and retrieval practice was compared with study only. • In both experiments, a significant benefit of alternating study and retrieval practice occurred.

Free-recall retrieval practice tasks for students with ADHD: whole-text versus section recall

“…Recently, Knouse et al (2020) and Minear et al (2023) found that students with ADHD and TD students benefitted similarly from retrieval practice relative to repeated study when learning key term definitions and Swahili-English word pairs, respectively. These findings are consistent with recent evidence that the size of the benefit of retrieval practice over restudying is unrelated to cognitive ability ( Jonsson et al, 2021 ) and that special education students benefit from retrieval practice ( Tempel and Sollich, 2023 ).…”