First published Feb. 22 2016 for ETEC565:

This case study is an example of rote memorization being an unfortunate must – a piece of the foundational construct of knowledge that is necessary for higher-order learning.  Just as we try to ensure that students have the basics of writing under their belts, so they have more mental capacity freed up for tougher concepts, it sounds like knowing the periodic table needs to be down pat.

In my experiences the times when this kind of retention is needed have been relatively few and far between, with skills being the emphasis rather than content.  When it’s come up, however, I’ve found that providing students with a combination of options tends to work well, although it’s important not to overwhelm them with choice.

Using platforms that make studying into a game might be a great way to engage Boris’s students, and can be done either at the start of class (if he can spare 10 minutes, it’ll likely set a fun tone to the rest of their time together) or on student’s own time.  Kahoot! is an awesome quiz game platform that students can play from any kind of device – and Boris wouldn’t even need to make the game to host, as a quick search of Public (user-shared) Kahoots just showed me a bunch related to the periodic table.  Boris could download the class results after the game, and keep them as a measurement of progress – even sharing them (with pseudonyms) if students want to watch their own progress.

A site like Quizlet offers not only a simple game or two for students to test their knowledge, but a flash-card and quiz option, to take it a little more ‘seriously’.  Boris could also ask the students to complete a brief quiz on the table throughout a week (or more) as part of their daily tasks, through either a quiz or even survey-making platform.  He would be sent the students’ results to help with his own tracking, and it would tell the students their gaps in knowledge with immediacy.  If the quizzes are brief enough they will hopefully not feel overly burdened, but if they are frequent enough results should make themselves known before too long.

I’ve used all of these tools in the past with success, but haven’t applied them consistently over the long-term.  If I was in Boris’ shoes and felt that certain content-specific knowledge was needed for bigger-picture success I would try to plan out a program that would get his lagging students to where they need to be, and hope that it wouldn’t take too much extra time out of their busy work-weeks to see improvements!