This course is set up into a number of topics, the teacher will find that, any learning they do in advance of the course, will reduce the duration of the training course.
This teacher training course is made of 5 topics, this topic: arguing for change, is made of 6 layers and is suitable for both teachers and managers within a school
The teacher may read about each layer here and if desired or required can use the timely practice app to embed the course into their long-term memory.
(1) teach a small bite on firm foundations - embed that learning - then repeat
We call this smaller working memory friendly teaching
Summary
Teaching a small bite on firm learning foundations means learners are more likely to retain the learning of the lesson until the next lesson.
Using increasing interval retrieval practice can extend the durability of the recall-ability of the small bite from the next lesson to many months at which point …
… the small bite is very likely to be firm foundations for future learning, so we can now repeat the process on another, small bite of learning.
More detail
The steps in the summary guide us to the most efficient process:
Teach an appropriate grain size - for low attaining learners this is a small bite - but which bite? The timely practice app can help the teacher identify suitable next bites to teach and provide suitable teaching and learning resources and teacher training to give a very high chance of success.
Embed the learning using increasing interval retrieval practice and respond to the need for feedback. The timely practice app schedules the retrieval practice, the teacher provides the feedback within a time in the lesson allocated for this, whilst all the other learners in the class are productively engaged in embedding learning.
Spiral through the curriculum as quickly as possible, while ensuring steps 1. and 2. are applied.
(2) retrieval practice trumps overlearning
After the teacher teaches and the learner practises a new skill learned in a lesson, and the learner appears to have “got it” then if we schedule extra practice
within the same lesson - this is called overlearning,
on a subsequent day - this is called retrieval practice.
A little overlearning is good - we need to make sure the learner hasn’t just had a lucky guess or question - but after that if we schedule extra practice which is
overlearning - the learner may well become more fluent, but won’t be prompted to embed the learning more deeply,
well timed retrieval practice - the learner will embed the learning more deeply, but for the next few practices will, almost certainly, appear less fluent.
Quick summary
A little overlearning is useful, but don’t waste lesson time with more, instead use the “saved” lesson time to embed the learning of previous lessons or teach more.
Research feel free to read about Rohrer and Taylor's experiments which were designed to find the relative efficacy of overlearning and retrieval practice when teaching a new maths skill.
(3) utility of embedding learning methods
Here is a summary of their findings
High utility
Distributed Practice: practice questions on a topic in several sessions over time rather than all at one time
Practice Testing: self testing or past exam questions done in a low stakes manner
Medium utility
Interleaved Practice: a schedule of practice that mixes a few different kinds of problems during a single study period
Elaborative interrogation: thinking about “why”
Self-explanation: linking new information to known information
Low utility
Highlighting: highlighting or underlining whilst reading
Imagery: formal mental images while reading
Keyword mnemonic: use of acronyms to assist learning
Summarisation: Writing summaries
Rereading: Rereading text, which has already been read
(4) why most learners don’t need the proposed interventions
why minimal assessment for learning works with most learners
Doing some assessment for learning, prior to planning teaching, is far more effective than doing none, however it can be complex to do, record and use.
More highly attaining learners can often manage to learn and fill in, or steer around, learning gaps as they learn new skills. So teachers of more highly attaining learners can often fill learning gaps they discover, as and when they discover them.
… but this doesn’t work for low attaining learners
Lessons can fail to be effective because of unexpected gaps in learning and we know that good assessment for learning can improve learning outcomes, so for low attaining learners - who, by definition, need more help to learn - assessment for learning is far more likely be worth a bit more effort.
why teaching large bites per topic per spiral works with most learners
Once the teacher has spent time re-establishing pre-requisites skills, in order to teach something harder, both the department and the teacher want to "get on and make the most of it". Part of why schools use a teach-each-topic-once-a-year SOL is that it avoids “wasting teaching time revising” and means the teacher needs to do less differentiation and they can teach from a common beginning point.
but isn’t this another way of saying that teachers are encouraged by the SOL to teach in a way that avoids noticing forgetting?
Teaching a "large bite or several small bites” rather than a "small bite" will be a more efficient use of time providing most of the learners retain most of the new learning. Sweller’s research says that teaching better becomes learning if the teacher teaches the correct grain size.
… but doesn’t work for low attaining learners
The more a learner knows and the larger their working memory capacity is, the more new learning they are likely to be able to learn from a topic at a time.
The less a learner knows and the smaller their working memory capacity is the smaller the amount of new learning the learner is likely to be able to learn from each topic at a time.
By learn we mean: learn within the lesson and retain after the lesson.
An annual scheme of learning makes learning harder for low attaining learners, as they often have "nearly but not quite remembered the pre requisites" before they are asked to use those pre requisites, not just for the next step of learning, but also for one or two steps after that. With a teach-each-topic-once-a-year scheme of learning we are asking the lowest attaining learners to follow the learning style which works for the highest attaining learners. Thinking of sport, it is like asking a swimmer with arm bands to follow the training regimen of member of the swimming team.
why homework and testing embeds learning well enough for many learners
High attaining learners can usually easily remember the learning of the lesson for 2 to 5 weeks - so homework and end of unit tests, work well as unacknowledged retrieval practice.
Learners at the median can usually remember the learning of lessons for 1 to 2 weeks - so homework and end of unit tests, works reasonably well as retrieval practice - although most of these learners will need to do some out of class revision to “do as well as they can”. Weekly quizzes followed by perhaps fortnightly tests - which include increasing interval retrieval practice on prior learning - are likely to work even better.
… but doesn’t work for low attaining learners
Learners at or below the lower quartile can usually remember the learning of the lesson for 1 to 4 days, - so homework and testing are far less likely to make well timed retrieval practice.
(5) motivation is an outcome of success
Culturally - especially with the rise of neoliberalism - many people believe that increasing motivation gives rise to greater success.
timely practice was written to
Reduce the need for testing, we make assessment for learning low stakes and we reduce the need for future pre assess by tracking how new learning is embedding, that is we do assessment of learning, that is assessment of retrieval practice. During the pre assess process we encourage the teacher to explain to the learner its purpose is to find out what the learner knows and what the teacher should teach next, not to judge the learner.
We want learners to get over 80% of their timely practice retrieval practice questions correct - so feedback is more likely to be successful - sometimes we need to reduce the number of layers which are regularly requiring feedback.
However we encourage teachers to discourage learners from giving themselves a score on their retrieval practice assignments.
(6) teaching strategies which give greatest benefit to the hardest to teach learners
Learners with ALN and SEN and learners living with poverty and trauma, usually find learning harder than peers. These learners benefit most from teaching strategies
which reduce the working memory load of the lesson,
which teach on firm learning foundations,
help the learner to embed the learning of the lesson into long term memory.
Here is a link to some research on this, which the reader may refer to if they are interested.