‘6-steps’ summarise the evidence
It’s not
just PAR: ‘Present>Apply>Review’, it’s OPPARR
Orient>Prior knowledge>Present>
Apply>Review>Repeat
You can find
the comparison Hattie,
Marzano and EEF on the website
and we are working on including a range of contributions from cognitive
science.
Learning
involves making new links between neurons in the brain. If the brain hasn’t changed, learning hasn’t
happened.
Do you use steps similar to these
six?
Step 0: Setting the scene – ready to make links
Students who have a Growth
Mindset achieve, on average, one grade higher than those with a Fixed
Mindset. How does your school/college promote this? Are you good at 'Not
labelling students' ?
Since new learning
and memories are built on what is already known, do you assess the
prior knowledge of your students before the start of a new unit? What
methods do you use to do this?
1.2
Filling gaps in prior knowledge
Can you
assess students before the start of the course to give time to fill in the
gaps? What do you do when a gap is
identified?
Effective
ways to deal with missing prior knowledge include: early intervention,
phonics, small group, one-to-one or peer tuition.
There are
several interventions designed to help slow readers catch up: reciprocal
teaching, repeated reading, vocabulary and phonics all
apply here. The meanings of words need to be secure in long-term
memory.
Do you use Similes and analogies to create links between the new material and what
the student already knows?
2.2: Not
just words
Students can receive their first
contact with new material either from your teaching, or by reading a book,
watching a video or demonstration etc. Of the four, reading
(visual words) is the most problematic for some students. Do you use Graphical or Tactile
Methods?
Do you give
students both levels? Do you use Advance organisers give
the big-picture at the start of a topic or Summarising
to pull a big-picture from the detailed learning they have done.
Do you
present new material in short chunks so working memory is not overloaded? Do you keep instructions short for less able
students?
If the task
is too easy, it will simply exercise prior knowledge. If it is too hard,
the student will fail. In both cases, no learning can take place. Do
you set a challenging task: which the student
can achieve with a bit of struggle and feedback.
Do you think
your tasks are hard enough?
3.2 Worked examples and modelling
Do you give
your students model answers or worked
examples so they know what a good answer looks like?
3.3 Goals
Are Goals and learning
objectives clear so that students can focus on what
matters?
While a few students can 'think
things through' for themselves, most need help or training. Do you give
students more complex tasks which link the material such as Hypothesis
testing, problem solving, note-making or summarising
or do you focus on simple factual recall)?
Do you use collaborative or cooperative methods
so students have to articulate their thoughts and decide whether
another opinion is better than their own?
Feedback is essential to check that the
learning is not mistaken (that the brain is making the right links).
It needs to happen during the process, not after it. It occurs near
the top of all three lists and should be considered essential. Sometimes
the term 'Assessment for learning' is used.
What kinds
of feedback do you give? Verbal or written? By the teacher, by peers or the
student themselves using assessment criteria or mark-schemes. Does it
include what is correct (the medal) and what needs improving (the mission)?
4.2
Making an improvement
If the
student does not act on the feedback, little new learning takes place. Do
you require students to act on the feedback?
Mastery
learning, repetition and homework (not
at primary level) all give opportunities for repetition.
Once new
knowledge is understood, do you require sufficient practice to secure long term
memories?
Back to Step 1
Because
long-term memories form over several weeks, learning needs to be in the form of
overlapping cycles where the practice with recent material overlaps with new
learning.
Mastery learning: a
technique where students keep repeating a piece of vital learning until they
achieve 80% in an assessment. This is repetition combined with a
recognition of the need for secure prior knowledge..
At last! A model that embraces much of theories of learning! I like it!
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