Being new to the L&T role I thought it was the right thing to do when accepting a place on the LCC course focusing on ‘building good practice’. What harm could it do? When I was told the specific focus was on effective retention and recall I was pretty confident I could not only contribute on the course but also learn a lot too. And learn I did…..
Throughout my 16 years of teaching I have attended some seriously dull, uneventful and uninspiring courses – quite often having travelled the length of the country – but this one was different. LCC done good 😊 A huge thanks must be paid to the course leader, Andy Pearson, a Science and Learning and Teaching Consultant; having had a lengthy career as a Head of Science and later as an Assistant Head.
Before attending the course, I was very clear in what I wanted to get from the day…what can I take from the course and give back to staff at CRGS. I was determined to see or hear of at least one idea that we could potentially implement.
(Forgive the obvious, but just in case you need a reminder).
I took plenty from the course but I wanted to share what I believe were the most thought provoking features from the 97 slides. Here goes…
The first slide read:
What the course leader was trying to say was that the day was going to be interactive. Luckily it wasn’t in a cheesy way; instead it was to make the very clear point that if learning is to be effective and students are to retain and recall more and for longer then learning must be interactive!
Well we all know that, but can we honestly say that we practice this idea as often as we could or should?
We discussed the brain for longer than I care to remember in all honesty. However, by slide 39 the facts were glaringly obvious. The more students repeat the same learning i.e. topics, key terms, key processes, exam questions, the higher the likelihood of students being able to retrieve it sooner and with greater accuracy. But there was an add-on to the theory – the greater the variety of methods by which we retrieve, the higher the success rate. The suggestion here is that this variety enhances motivation which is key to information being stored in the long-term memory. Moreover, being able to deliver learning in a way that appeals to a student will most certainly store it in the long-term memory for way longer.
Encoding
Encoding was a relatively new term for me on the course. Four types were discussed; acoustic, visual, tactile and semantic. We discussed the benefits of different types of delivery and how they are all stored in the long-term memory. It is believed that, in general, encoding for short-term memory storage in the brain relies primarily on acoustic encoding, while encoding for long-term storage is more reliant (although not exclusively) on semantic encoding.
We have all seen the diagram below before thanks to the CPD we already have access to during twilight sessions. However, the course leader mentioned the need for students to see it. Making students aware of the process offers ownership and understanding of the learning process.
At the start of a GCSE course, or at the start of a new academic year / new topic, is it useful to remind the students of where they perhaps are i.e. unconscious incompetence, and where they could be with a little effort, independent study, engagement in lessons and so on?
Unconscious competence then became the focus for the remainder of the course and a number of useful strategies that support the journey to unconscious competence were discussed:
1. ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY TEXT
This was linked to a recent EEF report it is suggested that teachers should add a reading task each half term or each topic.
Give students prompts before a reading task:
…Think of questions for yourself before, during, and after the reading session.
…Ask yourself what is happening next, why it's happening, and what would happen if one event or fact was different.
…Note what interests you. Take a moment to make a mental comment out loud.
…Train yourself to summarize, a section at a time. What are the main points in the text you just read? What are the logical conclusions?
Here is a link to the full report if you would like to find out more:
***RECOMMENDED READ***
Alex Quigley’s book, Close the Reading Gap, also provides a good insight into this.
2. EMOTIONAL CONTENT
Tell stories to capture the imagination, to provoke thought, which will ultimately last longer in the memory.
3. CHORAL READING
Choral reading is reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students. Choral reading helps build students' fluency, self-confidence, and motivation. Because students are reading aloud together, students who may ordinarily feel self-conscious or nervous about reading aloud have built-in support. Study’s claim that 50% of learning and revision should be choral reading. The retention of information is far greater when we read aloud.
4. DUAL CODING
Limit the number of images used, especially for ASD students – the general rule is 1 image for 1 piece of information.
5. PQRST method (preview, question, read, state, test)
A google search will give you more information on this.
6. FRAMING
Framing full lessons as a starter/plenary OR framing parts of lessons offer structure and context that will give any student direction, purpose and reason for completing tasks. Framing offers ‘worth’ and can influence the level of engagement. Frame or reframe more regularly depending on the difficulty or the ability level.
7. FIRST LETTER CUING
This is something I am sure we have all done at some point, studying one topic or another. The use of the first letter of a word as a cue to remembering the word itself can be helpful in remembering material. This cueing usually employs acronyms -- making a word out of the first letters of the words to be remembered.
For example, it's possible to remember the Great Lakes using the acronym HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior).
8. STRUCTURE AND ORGANISE
Researchers have found that information is organized in memory in related clusters. You can take advantage of this by structuring and organizing the materials you're studying. Try grouping similar concepts and terms together, or make an outline of your notes and textbook readings to help group related concepts.
9. INTERLEAVING and DISTRIBUTED PRACTICE
Research says that distributed practice is far more than effective than massed practice. Tailoring curriculum plans to suit this, although a long and difficult task, can have massive results. It becomes even more effective if it involves different types of practice.
Practice in as many unfamiliar contexts as possible to encourage the application of skills and knowledge deepens learning and enhances long term memory. Initial performance may be less good – warning around resilience issues (!) – however the long term benefits are promising.
Here is an example of planning for retrieval:
So what might a curriculum plan look like if we apply the idea of interleaving and distributed practice:
At first glance this might look like it does the trick, but I suspect it is by no means the perfect model.
So…
The course was a success, the leader was interesting and kept all delegates entertained, and the buffet was pretty great too. Did I come with anything useful? YES! Will I be using some of the content? YES! Are there bits and pieces we could all take from the course and this blog? I hope so.
We even got given this handy retrieval practice checklist, that I have stuck in my planner.
If you found the blog useful and would like access to the full slideshow from the course then do just ADH/MNQ know.
A useful follow up to this blog might be to follow @LancsLandT on twitter and if you haven’t already follow your own CRGS L&T feed @CRGSTLtools
Written by Adam Hutchinson, PE
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