CREDIT

• This sequence of three lessons is designed to be used over a number of weeks with students in Key Stages 4 & 5

• It is based on the work done by Brown et. al. in Make it stick and all credit goes to them

• This also ties well with the Sutton Trust’s 2014 report: ‘What makes great teaching?’

• I do not own copyrights on the images.

• All feedback welcome

SESSION 1: YOU AND

YOUR BRAIN

YOUR BRAIN

• Two types of memory:

• Short term (limited)

• Long term (virtually unlimited)

• We can move things from short -> long term memory by various means

• Long term memory is DURABLE because the connections are physical. Every time you learn your brain changes

• Need to adopt a GROWTH mindset

GROWTH MINDSET

What achievement are you most proud of?

HOW LEARNING WORKS

• Encoding – sensory data turned into sketchy memories like brief notes – quickly forgotten. If you are not focussed this can’t happen.

• Consolidation – memory traces are processed and made stable – needs brain action

• Memory becomes stronger the more it is retrieved from LT memory, re-processed and re-written.

• Testing is a great way to achieve this

Sensory Memory

Short Term Memory

Long Term Memory

Forgetting

Forgetting

Forgetting

Consolidation

Encoding

Retr

ieval

EFFORT & LEARNING

Vs

Short term memory

Long term memory

Memory = Materials, Skills help you build

Your brain remembers more,

the more effort goes in. It forces it

to re-process things!

DON’T DELUDE YOURSELF

• Humans are bad judges of learning

• If you don’t test yourself you tend to OVERESTIMATE how well you are doing

• You don’t know what you don’t know!

• All the time the forgetting curve continues

• If you don’t repeat the testing the links are not strengthened

REVIEW 1Write down 8 key things you have learnt about

the brain today

LEARNING TAKEAWAY

• Your LT memory is almost unlimited and can be grown through practice & retrieval

• Learning is more effective when it takes effort – easy learning is like writing in the sand

• We are bad judges of when we are learning well

• Re-reading things is not a good way to learn – it is far better to test and quiz yourself.

• We learn best when we try to apply learned knowledge to a new issue or problem

CHALLENGE – GROW YOUR BRAIN

Learning a new way to do something needs practice –

this creates cues – you remember bits of a

sequence – see tie video

Grow your brain by next session – learn how to tie a

CAPE KNOT without referring to the video.

Prizes for those that can manage it!

SESSION 2: TOP

LEARNING TIPS

TESTING YOUR KNOWLEDGE1. What 3 main types of memory are there?

2. What is a growth mindset?

3. What happens in the process of Consolidation?

4. How can we strengthen long term memories?

5. Why is testing so important to learning?

6. What metaphor was used for easy learning?

7. Name one ineffective strategy for learning

8. Tie your tie in a CAPE KNOTYou have 6 minutes

RECAP

Sensory Memory

Short Term Memory

Long Term Memory

Forgetting

Forgetting

Forgetting

Consolidation

Encoding

Retr

ieval

SOME THINGS TO REMIND YOURSELF OF• The most successful students

follow a simple but disciplined strategy – You can do this and might surprise yourself with the results

• Significant learning will feel effortful. You will experience setbacks but these are signs of effort not failure

• You have a great deal of control over your intellectual abilities

Think back to a major achievement in your life. It could be the same as last time or a different one.

Which of these words best describe how you achieved your goal?

DETERMINATION; APATHY; TENACITY; GAVE-UP; BRAVERY; FEAR; INDIFFERENCE; BLIND LUCK; STUCK-AT-IT; GRIT; FOCUS;

DEDICATION; INDIFFERENCE; RESOLUTION; PURE NATURAL TALENT; INDECISION; WEAKNESS; DISCIPLINE; EFFORT; EASE

WHAT DOESN’T WORK?

“One cannot apply what one knows in a practical or higher order manner if one does not know anything to apply.” ~Robert

Stenberg

TIP 1 – PRACTICE RETRIEVAL• Keep asking yourself questions

when you read, hear or watch something

• Keep testing yourself on the material - it interrupts forgetting

• Flashcards are a great way of doing this – much better than re-reading/highlighting

• Don’t check answers until the end – makes the learning more secure – forces retrieval

• Better to get it wrong and check

TIP 2 – MIX UP YOUR TESTING

If a goalkeeper keeps practising the same save over and over they will improve, but only in the short term. It would be better to practise different saves – but this feels less effective.

THE LEITNER BOX

• A tool for helping you learn

• Split your revision cards

• Those you get wrong a lot (practise frequently)

• Those you get wrong sometimes (practise half as often)

• Those you general get right (practise half as often again)

Card

s yo

u ge

t wro

ng

TIP 3 – MAKE IT HARDER & LEARN MORE• Adding difficulty helps your brain

to learn eg. Spacing out retrieval

• Also try:

• Defining key terms/events/people

• Writing out notes in YOUR OWN WORDS

• Creating analogies or metaphors

• Writing short essays or summaries

• Creating mind maps

• Reading around

• Writing exam answers

TIP 4 – DON’T DELUDE YOURSELF• We tend to trust ourselves

over the research evidence

• If we know someone old who smokes – we are more likely to think smoking is OK even though evidence says it will shorten life

• You need to know the limits of your knowledge & trust the data. If you are testing yourself and scoring badly you need to change something in how you are learning

REVIEW 2Write down 8 further things you have picked up

from this session

LEARNING TAKEAWAY

• You need to have grit and determination to keep trying in learning

• Learning new things can feel hard but it will physically grow your brain

• Cramming and massed practice don’t work

• Test yourself – space out and interleave your testing

• Add difficulty by getting yourself to manipulate ideas

CHALLENGE – BEGIN RETRIEVAL PRACTICE• Create yourself at least 20

flash cards

• 10 on one topic, 10 on another

• Begin testing yourself on these topics

• Bring them in next time

SESSION 3: MAKING

YOURSELF THINK

QUICK REVIEW

• What cards did you make last week?

• Get someone else to test you on them

RECAP

C

E

R

TIP 5: SETTING MEMORY CUES• Getting CUES sorted is key

• Most of our LT memory is only accessible through cues

• When riding a bike you learn the cues that you are falling left or right and what to do

• You also learn cues for stopping (an approaching crowd) and react

Things go wrong if the cues get the wrong information. Eg. If your bike had a pedal brake

not a hand brake

CHALLENGE – REMEMBER THESE 8 ITEMS

42

dawdlingFrederick

How did you do?

Can you remember all 8? Tell someone else

TIP 5: SETTING MEMORY CUES• Setting cues for history means

thinking about the key information you need to know

• If you see the year 1933 on a Germany exam for example, you should automatically be thinking about Hitler coming to power and what was happening around this period.

• On a medicine exam, Galen should bring up Hippocrates, the 4 humours, opposites etc. etc.

• Get your key cues from the specification

A crocodile swimming in the Nile reminds me of Egyptian medicine:

• Channels theory based on water and farming – natural theory

• But still believed in animal gods who caused and cured diseases

• Crocodiles have scary eyes – reminds me of Ir en Akhty – eye doctor – a specialist doctor – another Egyptian development

• River washes things – reminds me Egyptians liked to keep clean but it also washes things away – Egypt used hieroglyphs – not easy to pass knowledge on outside of Ehypt.

TIP 6: MNEMONICS

• Mnemonics can help retrieval eg.

• Prehistoric Eggs Go Rotten

• BLAME

• Do you know any others?

• What mnemonics could you create? eg. What Hippocrates did or the main threats to Weimar

• Poems can also work

• The peg method?

LOOK FOR PATTERNS: TRY TO REMEMBER THIS SEQUENCE

=1=2

=3

=4

=5=6

=7=8=9

Now write the number

96557317

LOOK FOR PATTERNS

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

• Once you find a pattern remembering things becomes easier

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

LOOK FOR PATTERNS

• In history it is a bit harder but they are there eg.

• 4 big events in rise of Hitler

• 4 Steps INTO hyperinflation same as 4 steps OUT

• Best place you can look is at the stories – this means reading around the subject not just remembering isolated facts

• Explore how people react to different things eg. How do people tend to behave in times of economic difficulty?

• How did the past influence German people in the 1920s?

• How did religion affect the way people thought in the Middle Ages?

4 KEY EVENTS IN GERMAN HISTORY

1923:Hyperinflation

1929:Wall St Crash

1923:Munich Putsch

1933:Hitler

becomes Chancellor

FOUR STEPS TO HYPERINFLATION

Stop paying reparations

French invadePrint more money

Stop production

TIP 7: MEMORY PALACES

TIP8: PRACTICE LIKE YOU PLAY• Add desirable difficulty to

your learning - the harder you have to work to make sense of things the better

• Turning knowledge to new uses is a great way of adding effort – using the materials to build the house

• Important to also pick up the skills of building the house – exams are not just about recall

NYPD trained officers to disarm criminals by striking the wrist

and seizing the gun. They would then hand the gun back and practice again and again.

They changed training procedures after one officer

disarmed a criminal then handed the gun back to him as a reflex action. PRACTICE LIKE YOU

PLAY – DO EXAM QUESTIONS!

CHALLENGE – REMEMBER THESE 8 ITEMS

42

dawdlingFrederick

Can you remember the 8 items?

REVIEW 3Create your own “Learning takeaway” summary for today’s

session. What would you want someone else to know?

CHALLENGE – PRACTICE LIKE YOU PLAY• Create another 20 revision

cards using really good cues

• Try to come up with 3 mnemonics to help you remember sequences or key dates

• Then pick two exam questions (these are available online) and test yourself.