Testing and spacing: Effective learning strategies for the classroom

Online Learning ¬∑ Testing and spacing: effective learning strategies for the classroom   Educational practices inspired and supported by cognitive science are increasing in popularity. This can be seen in the worldwide increase in both academic (e.g. Roediger and Karpicke, 2018) and practice-oriented publications (e.g. Surma et al., 2019). Apropos these developments, we highlight two robust learning strategies which draw on a rich tradition of research and practical applications, namely retrieval practice and spaced practice. Both promote long term learning across many domains and populations, are relatively easy to use, and can be readily adopted by most teachers without extensive training (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Such learning strategies often fall under the umbrella term desirable difficulties, a term coined by Robert and Elisabeth Bjork. They are desirable because they boost the objective of instruction (i.e., long-term learning, transfer) and are difficult because the