Designing for verbal-association¶
Kind of goal · facts, vocabulary, paired associates, names · All situations
22 rows from 22 pages say what to change when the brief's kind of goal is verbal-association; 15 of them cite a claim. Pages whose rows cite claims come first. Read the basis before relying on a row: many carry a claim to learners or settings it did not test, and say so.
Cognitive Flexibility¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal verbal-association (facts, terms), or recall-weighted high-stakes assessment |
Do not make criss-crossing the main activity; give facts their own retrieval practice, and use varied cases only for the transfer part of the objective. | Presenting multiple cases from different perspectives supports transfer in ill-structured domains [~M]: the drill group recalled more facts |
Constructive Alignment¶
Pattern
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is facts or recall (verbal-association) and the assessment is recall |
Do not restrict practice to recall: include some questions at a higher level (explain, apply) in class practice. | HOCS clickers [~M] (one nonmajors biology course, controlled-nonrandom) |
Cultural & Life Experiences Connections¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is a procedure or verbal-association assessed on a standard test |
Keep connections to one opening example and a short weekly utility-value reflection; do not cut practice time for them | Learners invest more effort in tasks they perceive as interesting, personally important, or useful to their future goals. [+M] (reviews of utility-value writing; the trade-off with practice is untested) |
Culturally Responsive Classroom Norms¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is recall or fluency (verbal-association, procedure) rather than reasoning |
Choral and quick-fire response are fine for well-practised content; keep long wait time and pair talk for questions that need reasoning | Questioning Strategies Improve Learning [+M] (higher-cognitive questions and wait time; not tested by culture) |
Deliberate Practice¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is recall of facts or vocabulary (verbal-association) |
Use spaced retrieval practice with corrective feedback instead of component drills | Retrieval practice and spaced retrieval improve achievement and retention by medium amounts, while interleaving helps category learning only for some materials and blocking beats it for words [~S] (spaced retrieval beats massed; interleaving helps some materials and not words); see Retrieval Practice |
Digital Learning¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is a procedure or verbal-association with checkable answers |
Put the bulk of practice online with automatic checking; use an intelligent tutor if one exists for the domain | Intelligent tutoring systems improve achievement over non-individualised instruction [+S] (tutoring-system meta-analyses; gains smaller on standardised than on locally developed tests) |
Dual Coding¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is verbal-association (vocabulary, names, facts), including second-language vocabulary |
Pair each new word with a picture and a short text gloss; for students with learning disabilities, teach a keyword-image mnemonic | L2: text-plus-picture glosses [+W] (one study of 90 Iranian EFL learners, immediate recall, reported second-hand). Disabilities: mnemonic instruction [+M] (mnemonics broadly, not only pictorial ones) |
Elaboration Theory¶
Pattern
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
The goal is verbal-association (facts, vocabulary, names) |
Do not build an elaboration sequence; use a plain grouping and retrieval practice instead. | No detected effect on tasks resting on single details [~M] (a non-significant difference, not equivalence) |
Error Analysis¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
goal is verbal-association (facts, vocabulary, terms) |
Skip erroneous-example analysis. Use retrieval attempts followed by the correct answer after every error; always give feedback on multiple-choice items. | corrective feedback after failed retrieval [+M]; multiple-choice feedback [+M] |
Game-based Learning¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
The goal is verbal-association (vocabulary, facts) |
A quiz or practice game is a reasonable vehicle; add glosses or supplementary word material inside it, and test recall a week later, not only at the end of play | Kahoot! and outdoor games with migrant children [+W] (confounded); adventure game with supplementary material [+W] (second-hand); long-term vocabulary retention [+W] (a meta-analysis known only through a later review, no effect size) |
Game-Based Mastery Learning¶
Pattern
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is verbal-association (vocabulary, terms, notation) |
The full loop fits; check recall on new sentences a week after the level, outside the app | Duolingo level analysis [+M] (in-app items, one study); gamified vocabulary, reported in a review [+W] |
Gamification¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is verbal-association (second-language vocabulary, terms) |
A quiz or points layer is a reasonable vehicle; test recall a week after the last session, not only in the app | Mangomon app, 21 Thai undergraduates [+W] (pre-post, no control); Quizizz [+W] and mixed-methods study [+W] (both known only through one review) |
Holistic Learning¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
The goal is verbal-association (facts, names, vocabulary) |
Do not build a whole-first sequence; group the items plainly and use retrieval practice | No effect on local tasks [~M] (non-significant, not equivalence) |
Keep the learner in control of the information flow with on-demand tools and supports¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
The goal is vocabulary (verbal-association) |
Make the glossary the centre of step 2: text and picture for each word, and recycle the looked-up words in the next scene | Earlier meta-analyses, as reported second-hand, find that glosses improve L2 vocabulary learning and that text-and-picture glosses outperform single-mode glosses [+M] (second-hand report of syntheses); Marginal glosses, dictionary use, and repeated occurrence of unknown words each positively affect incidental vocabulary learning [+M] (advanced university learners of French) |
Supporting Students with Intellectual Disabilities¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
The target is facts or vocabulary (verbal-association) |
Add a keyword or acrostic cue the student can decode, practise retrieving through it, and review it at spaced intervals | Mnemonic instruction [+M] (includes mild developmental disabilities; recall outcomes, abstracts) |
Blended Learning¶
Pattern
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
The goal is mostly facts or vocabulary (verbal-association) |
Put spaced, self-checked practice online with immediate answers; keep in-person time for using the material and for checks of what was missed. | untested proposal |
Cognitive Activation¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
The goal is facts or vocabulary (verbal-association) |
Do not build explanation or comparison tasks around isolated facts; use retrieval with feedback, and keep activation for the relations among the facts. | untested proposal |
Journaling¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is verbal-association (vocabulary, facts) |
Shorten the entry to one line ("which items did I miss, and what will I do about them?") and spend the time on retrieval practice with feedback. | untested proposal |
Multiple Methods of Assessment¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
The goal is verbal-association or a procedure |
One well-sampled method (many short items) is usually enough; add a second method only to check that a correct answer is not recognition alone | untested proposal |
Reflection¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is verbal-association (facts, vocabulary) |
Drop or shorten reflection; spend the time on retrieval practice and feedback, with at most a one-line "which items did I miss?" | untested proposal |
Responsive Teaching¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
Goal is fluency or recall (verbal-association, a practised procedure) |
Keep the planned practice sequence; respond to error rate (more items, worked feedback) rather than to individual ideas | untested; from the earlier page |
Validity, Reliability, and Bias in Classroom Assessment¶
Principle
| If the brief says… | Then change… | Basis |
|---|---|---|
The goal is verbal-association or a procedure recalled or carried out quickly |
Use many short selected-response or short-answer items for breadth and reliability; keep the language plain; add a few items that ask for the procedure on a changed case if transfer matters | untested; from the earlier page (item-count arithmetic, selected-response trade-off) |