Katie Hunter and Gareth Sleightholme - Making Learning Stick

Making Learning Stick

Federation Training: October 2016.

‘Memory is the residue of thought.’

‘Teachers must plan lessons and assessments that make students

think and pay attention.’

How do we really make them think about material?

Learning to Remember• 3 Phases – Encoding/Storage/Retrieval• Working Memory – short term/small capacity• Permanent Memory – long term• Iconic Memories - Visual (0.3secs)• Echoic Memories - Auditory (4-5secs)• Students learn quicker when they can visualise the concept and

develop mental pictures.• List A / List B

The Power of Emotions• Stronger the emotions – stronger the

memory• Co-operative Learning – Powerful learning

experiences become more memorable when social-emotional memories are part of learning• Memory is fluid – The brain revisits,

reorganises and revises based on new inputs. Less reliable over time.• Memory storage needs regular attention• New information is stored in neural circuits

throughout the celebral cortex – stronger the network – the more resistant to forgetting.

• Robert Winston clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4np5wLAhWw

Strategy 1: Interleaving

• Stop and Go Traffic • Breaking in a Path

‘Interleaving benefits students’ ability to make important discriminations between concepts that are easily confused…by allowing students to notice differences between two similar concepts.’

(Rohrer 2012)

Students using interleaved practice performed worse than their counterparts using block practice during the practice session but performed better when tested at a later date.

Dunlosky et al (2013)

Interleaving

• Read through the different strategies in the envelopes.

• Discuss how you could use and adapt these to support your students memory and retention.

Strategy 2: Spaced retrieval practice

•The reviews force retrieval.

•Retrieval creates learning and embeds in the long term memory.

•It also enables students to practice pulling information into their working memory.

Roediger (2005)

Leaving time between the sessions (extending the spacing) also improves long term retention.

Dunlosky et al (2013)

Not only does testing in this way improve progress…

‘ People tend to think their learning is more complete than it is.’

‘ Testing and exams are seen as a necessary evil and a chore.’

(Willingham 2008)

PLUS: The power of testing increases…

-With the number of tests taken-When there’s feedback and discussion after the test-When the test is more abstract than obvious-With longer spacing gaps between initially learning the material and being tested on it, these are better for long term retention. 30 day delays are found to improve performance. - The spacing should be 10-20% of the retention time needed. E.g. if you want them to remember for five years, the testing should be 6-12 months spaced.

Spaced Retrieval



Strategy 3: Embedding Learning

‘The most effective teacher is the teacher who focuses on embedding knowledge – the teacher who knows when and how to move students from surface learning, to deep learning.’

Andy Tharby (2015)

The bigger picture• “Framing the Learning.” (Rutherford 2005)

In simplest terms, framing the learning means that the teacher provides a framework or context for the future learning that will take place by letting students know what they will learn, how they will go about learning it, and how they and their teacher will know that they have successfully mastered what they were supposed to learn.

• Research shows that content is learned and remembered better if students understand the point of what they are learning. Make it clear to them how each topic fits in to the bigger picture.• Making as many links as possible between your

different topics will enable students to fit the learning into the bigger picture, and this aids memory.

• ‘Learning requires repetition.’ (Carpenter 2014)• ‘Students need to encounter on at least three

occasions, the complete set of the information.’ ‘If the information was incomplete or not experienced on three occasions, the students didn’t fully learn the concept.’ (Nuthall, The Hidden lives of Learners.) In 85% of students tested as part of the research, this was the case.• ‘To avoid forgetting, we need to overlearn.’

(Willingham 2008)• Caveat: Misconceptions and wrong answers are

remembered if they are made 3 times.

The Power of Three

Embedding learning



Strategy 4: SCREAMS

SCREAMS• John Dewey: “We don’t learn from experiences, we learn by

reflecting on them.”• Reading, itself, does not necessarily lead to learning – Doing,

engaging in two way discourse and thinking will aid learning and memory. Students are doing, playing with objects, exploring, experimenting, talking, drawing, writing, listening, reading, speaking, applying and reflecting on all of these.• Top Tips

SCREAMS• S – Saying/pronouncing key words• C – Concept mapping/Word Webs• R – Reading words in context• E – Extracting personal links• A – Active learning experiences• M – Memory formation (sense making)• S – Self monitoring for new opportunities to use the new memory

SCREAMS

• Read through the different strategies on the sheet.


Challenges…

•RESOURCES FOR PRINTING

TWILIGHT CPD: 18TH October 2016

MAKING LEARNING STICK

• S – Saying/pronouncing key words• C – Concept mapping/Word Webs• R – Reading words in context• E – Extracting personal links• A – Active learning experiences• M – Memory formation (sense making)• S – Self monitoring for new opportunities to use the new memory

INTERLEAVING: Idea 1

Interleave different topics/ novels/ periods/ exam papers throughout your schemes of learning.

E.g. rather than studying the entirety of a book/ novel, study one chapter/ part of this. Then study part of a different book/novel. The study of these novels is then interleaved.


Interleave within a lesson/ session.Teach a particular skill/topic/area, break and cover something else.

Then come back to the topic that you covered at the start of the lesson.


Interleave by mixing old topics with new.

For example, tell students that they must use knowledge of their current topic and ALSO topic X in their responses/ answers during the lesson.

Encourage this through your questioning of students.

An example of this ideaseen in an English lesson:Students have to interleaveTheir knowledge of A Christmas Carol with AnInspector Calls.


Interleave through feedback.

Students to look back at the feedback they received on a previous piece of work and apply the advice and what they learned from that feedback to their current work.

Would work effectively if from a different topic. The challenge of having to recall and apply the feedback creates the desirable difficulty.

SPACED RETRIEVAL: Idea 1

Pre-test:Give students a test before they have even started learning the topic/ unit.This isn’t for you to test what they already know, but is to help frame the learning. If our students brains have something on which to hand the knowledge before they begin learning, it enables them to learn better.

You can give the students the same tests during and after the topic to embed and consolidate the learning.


Start your lesson by testing material from the previous lesson or the previous topic, or even a topic from last year.

These are low-stakes tests and can be in the form of true/ false, pub quiz, multiple choice, mind-mapping, fill in the gaps, exam questions, definitions. Basically anything that requires retrieval from memory rather than using resources.

An example of a lesson starter testseen in an English lesson:


As a homework, ask students to complete mind-maps on previous topics, without using their books.

They are forced to retrieve what they know and identify gaps in their knowledge for themselves.

This conscious awareness of what they know and what they don’t know will help learning stick.


Ask students to write/ produce their own test (with answers) for a previous topic, without using any books or resources. Actually constructing the test is another way of testing them!

They can then use books to check their questions and answers for accuracy once they have finished.

These tests can then be given to other students to test them.


Drop in tests without revision and preparation time. This could be on a topic that was studied months ago.

The need to retrieve the information from long term memory and move into working memory creates a desirable difficulty and helps learning stick.


Cumulative exams and quizzes. Produce tests and quizzes that cumulate a range of knowledge and skills from across a wide range of topics. Mix the topics and questions up as much as possible.

This combines spacing and interleaving and encourages hard thinking. Hard thinking supports retention and memory.


Think about how you introduce tests; research shows that if the testee understands the benefit of testing, they will benefit more from it.

Talk through the science behind testing and the evidence with students. Encourage that this is an effective means of learning, and is not a chore! This will ensure that your testing has maximum impact.


The Cornell System. During tasks and note taking in lessons, students draw a column at one side of their page; in this column they enter key terms or facts that they think will be important to remember in future.

At a later date, they can use these lists as a test. For example, the challenge could be to define the terms.

EMBEDDING LEARNING: Idea 1

Introduce key words/ concepts at the start of the topic/ unit.

This could involved giving students a glossary of the topic/ subject.

This gives the students the first exposure to the concept/ vocab/ key term. They will revisit the concepts/vocab/terms as they learn the topic and again when they are assessed and tested. This enforces the Power of 3 approach.


Use WAGOLLS and model/exemplar answers frequently.

Not only does this help teach skills and application, it exposes the students to the material an additional time as they read through the model answers.


Plan three different tasks in a lesson to ensure that students are not only exposed three times to the material but have to think about it in three different ways. It is the three different ways that is crucial.

E.g. teacher explanation, questioning, source analysis, reading, exam question, mind-map, paired discussion, written work.

Ensure that they have understood correctly each of the three times.


Ask students to summarise their own piece of work in a different way, this could be a good feedback task or extension task.

E.g. Say it differently. Present it differently. This makes them revisit and consolidate and think hard / differently about the topic.


When questioning a group, ask the same question in a range of different ways, a number of different times.

Press students to link to other facts/ parts of the topic so that there is exposure to those topics also.

Repetition of the subject content will reinforce memory.


Use sets of hexagons (http://pamhook.com/solo-apps/hexagon-generator/) with key facts and vocab from the whole course. Students have to tessellate like a honeycomb.

They are forced to find and make linksacross the topics and explain them.This hard thinking will help embed thelearning. Evidence says that the morecomplex links, the better the understanding.


Tell students that they typically need to study for 20% longer again once they think they have learned something to truly remember it.

When revising, they should also test themselves until they NEVER get it wrong or miss things rather than stopping once they get it correct. Repetition is key to check and ensure it is embedded.


Think carefully about the tasks set. What are you actually trying to get them to learn? How have you asked them to approach it? Could the task distract from the learning?

For example, if you ask students to learn about X but through the medium of Y such as: learn about oxbow lakes by writing a newspaper article. Much of what they will be thinking about is the article rather than the lakes. This means that some of the learning or thinking will be lost.

http://pamhook.com/solo-apps/hexagon-generator/

Glossary of terms• Decay Theory – Specific memories and details fade with time.

• Motivated Forgetting – (Repression) Deliberate loss of painful memories.

• Primacy Effect – Remembering information that appeared at the beginning.

• Proactive Interference – Old information interferes with recall of new.

• Recency Effect – Remembering information that appeared at the end.

• Relearning – Learning a second time typically takes less time and effort.

• Retrieval Cues – A clue or prompt that activates the retrieval. Recognition – cue matches information already in permanent memory. Recall – Active process of searching memory in order to reproduce information.

• Retrieval Failures – Information known to be stored in long term memory cannot be brought to consciousness.

• Retroactive Interference – When new information interferes with the retrieval of stored memory.

• Tip of the Tongue – A person cannot recall the exact memory item but shows a degree of recall for one or more charactersistics (I think the name begins with the letter…)

Education

Katie Hunter and Gareth Sleightholme - Making Learning Stick