Make It Stick is the best education book I have ever read. The reason I love this book so much is because it so intimately connects to skills-based health education and has changed my teaching strategies forever. Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel explain complex neuroscience in a digestible and novel way and I hope to explain how it can be used in the health classroom. There are many other important points in the book but I will focus on my top three:

1. Retrieval
   • Retrieval is the practice of recalling information from your memory after learning it. An effective method of this is the age-old practice of studying using flashcards. In health class, we talk about how quizzes are not just an assessment but rather a tool to further learning. Our health class has many “mini quizzes” to help students retain skill information and content over time. For example, when students learn the skill of accessing valid and reliable information (NHES 3), we have 5 mini quizzes on the different steps of the CRAAP test after learning them. These quizzes are intentionally designed to increase retention of the information and are typically not stress-inducing.

CRAAP Test Mini Quiz on “Authority” step – 4 questions

2. Spaced Repetition
   • Spaced repetition involves spacing out learning over time so that students are forced to retrieve and sometimes re-learn information. It is important that this process is effortful and not “easy”. This spacing should be long enough that students have started forgetting some of the information but not so long that they cannot remember it. We do this constantly in health class. For the CRAAP test mini quizzes listed above, it is important to have spacing between learning the CRAAP test skill cue and giving the mini quiz. For goal setting (NHES 6), we do a monthly goal that connects to whatever we are learning at the time. This makes it so students are reintroduced to WOOP goals and SMART goals multiple times throughout the semester. After learning how to analyze influences (NHES 2), every week or two students have a warm up or exit ticket that requires them to analyze the influences of a situation related to what we are learning at that time. This spaced repetition will help students take ownership of their health skills.

Goal Setting Tracker Example: Goal Setting Tracker 1

3. Interleaving
   • Interleaving involves using multiple topics or problems for students to practice using the skills on. This should be the core of every health education class. Skills should never be taught in a vacuum (one unit) but rather thread throughout a curriculum. In our class, we thread skills throughout every unit – sometimes randomly. During our interpersonal communication unit, students are asked to analyze the influences of a scenario (NHES 2), then explain the context of the situation (NHES 4), and finally write out a refusal skill response that takes both influences and context into account. Later into the semester, students are asked to find a valid and reliable website on sleep (NHES 3), demonstrate an analysis of things influencing their sleep (NHES 2), and set a goal to improve it (NHES 6). This interleaving is a core component of my curriculum and I cannot recommend it enough!

Teaching skills-based health education has given me renewed purpose in my career. This book has made it even better. I hope you will consider reading so it can have the same positive impact on your teaching as it did mine.

This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Kevin Mason, the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com

Pair this post with the following:

‘Sticky Learning’ Strategies by Dr. Kim Morton

Ignite Deep Learning in Skills-Based Health Education by Maria Schneider

Intentional Intentions by Dr. Kristi Mally

Have you read the latest Book of the Month recommendation?