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Teaching practice

Retrieval, spacing and review

How to make learning stick over weeks and terms, not just the lesson. I've gathered classroom videos, podcast episodes and guides on retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving and daily review. Most show how to build them into the first minutes of a lesson.

Practices in this area:Daily reviewRetrieval practiceSpacingInterleavingCumulative review

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Lesson with commentary

Chalk Dust S2 E8: Getting Hands-On (opens in a new tab)

Chalk Dust · Middle years · Australia

STEM educator Amber Haven shares a middle years lesson on neutral buoyancy, showing how retrieval practice, mini whiteboards and clear behaviour routines keep hands-on work focused on thinking.

FreeOpens at youtube.com

Learn 5

Webinar

Explicit Mathematics Teaching: Unlocking the science of mathematics in the primary classroom (opens in a new tab)

Think Forward Educators, with Toni Hatten-Roberts, David Morkunas and Ollie Lovell · 30 to 60 minutes · 2024 · Australia

Toni Hatten-Roberts, David Morkunas and Ollie Lovell cover instructional routines, cognitive load and systematic review in primary maths, with practical strategies teachers can try straight away.

Free account neededOpens at thinkforwardeducators.org

Listen 7

Daily review

093 The First 10 Minutes of a Lesson (opens in a new tab)

Education Research Reading Room · with Adam Boxer

Chemistry teacher Adam Boxer talks through how he runs the opening ten minutes of a lesson, a practical listen for anyone tightening lesson starts and routines.

FreeOpens at ollielovell.com

Retrieval practice

Ep 25 Retrieval practice (opens in a new tab)

Evidence into Action

Alex Quigley, Rachael Cattrall and guests discuss how retrieval practice has evolved and how cognitive science principles are being applied in classrooms.

FreeOpens at evidenceintoaction.podbean.com

Retrieval practice

088 Test-enhanced Learning (opens in a new tab)

Education Research Reading Room · with Kristian Still

Kristian Still discusses his book Test-Enhanced Learning, bringing together retrieval, spaced practice, interleaving and successive relearning into routines schools can use.

FreeOpens at ollielovell.com

Spacing and desirable difficulties

Ep 66 Desirable difficulties for learning (opens in a new tab)

Chalk & Talk · with Elizabeth Bjork and Robert Bjork

Elizabeth and Robert Bjork explain what makes a difficulty desirable, and why strategies that feel effortful often produce stronger, longer-lasting learning than those that feel easy.

FreeOpens at chalkandtalkpodcast.podbean.com

Read 18

How to Make Social Studies "Magical" (opens in a new tab)

Natalie Wexler (Minding the Gap) · Substack · 2026 · USA

Wexler visits a New York sixth-grade civics class where rapid, game-like recall of history facts gives students the knowledge to analyse ideas, showing memorisation and engagement can go together.

FreeOpens at nataliewexler.substack.com

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Don't Forget to Elaborate (opens in a new tab)

Natalie Wexler (Minding the Gap) · Substack · 2026 · USA

Wexler argues that explicit instruction and retrieval practice are not enough on their own, and that students also need to elaborate on new knowledge, with writing as a practical way to do it.

FreeOpens at nataliewexler.substack.com

Are we living in a stupidogenic society? (opens in a new tab)

Daisy Christodoulou (No More Marking) · Substack · 2025 · UK

Starting with her grandmother's mental arithmetic, Christodoulou asks whether technology lets us skip the practice that builds knowledge and skill, and why schools need to keep those cognitive muscles working.

FreeOpens at substack.nomoremarking.com

Strat Chat - Interleaving (opens in a new tab)

Shaun Brien · Substack · 2026 · Australia

Explains how interleaving mixed practice fights forgetting, and how one teacher fits interleaved revision lessons into a busy senior timetable.

FreeOpens at mutallyassuredinstruction.substack.com

What 10 minutes a week can do (opens in a new tab)

Paul Kirschner · Substack · 2025 · International

Kirschner summarises a study in which short weekly quizzes, especially interleaved ones, markedly improved students' long-term understanding even though students found them harder at the time.

FreeOpens at paulkirschner173727.substack.com

The Writing Effect (opens in a new tab)

Natalie Wexler (Minding the Gap) · Substack · 2024 · USA

Wexler reviews write-to-learn research, linking writing to retrieval and elaboration, and argues that writing would boost learning more reliably if teachers made it manageable through explicit sentence-level instruction.

FreeOpens at nataliewexler.substack.com

Research 5

Voices 3