My ‘itch’ is quite a simple one.
Like many teachers in may subjects most of what I teach is split into topics (or units). Some of this is due to it being convenient for planning and assessment purposes, but it is also (historically) a necessity in SQA courses. One thing I have always found an issue though is that once a unit is completed pupils often forget large chunks of it as it is ‘done’. This is particularly bad for me at National 5 where we still do two year courses. I would like to improve the ability of pupils to retain the information they learn early on in the course and I have a few thoughts on how that might be done.
One option would be to use a mastery learning model where pupils learn all the ‘topics’ at the same time, progressing a bit in each rather than completing one and then moving on. Whilst this approach has some promise it also involves a prohibitive amount of development work.
Another is to use spaced practice where pupils continue to work on all types of problems as they progress through the course. Again whilst this is promising it is something that I would have to create from scratch.
Lastly is an option that (to me) holds some promise – using the review of previous learning I start nearly every lesson with to ask questions about previous topics as well as previous lessons. This will hopefully improve pupils recall of previous material and is sort of the direction that I am thinking about heading in…
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the links to the mastery model & spaced practice; both interesting reads and gave me food for thought. I agree that the structure of the NQ’s means that pupils retain only “chunks” of information at a time, related to the specific unit they’re working on. Unfortunately I’m seeing it occur in the BGE phase as well – for example, an S1 Maths class I’m helping support are currently on “Algebra Month” (as set by the Maths faculty itself)
I think all your “itches” have a great deal of merit; however, my tuppenceworth would be keep it manageable and don’t go reinventing the wheel.
Looking forward to hearing more about it!
Gill
Don’t worry no wheel re-inventions! I’m thinking of making a slight adjustment to how I start a lesson. Rather than just asking questions about last lesson I throw in a whole class ‘challenge’ about something from a previous topic. I think as well I will try changing how I do revision lessons which when I direct them tend to be ‘right, today we are going over X’ to more of a mixture.
Sounds great! Slight adjustments are the way forwards.
One of the co-facilitators at the Supporting Teacher Leadership residential said they actually changed the vocabulary from ‘practitioner enquiry’ to ‘a small test of change’ – I like it! 🙂
Yes, Chris, seems absolutely sensible to focus on making changes to your reviews of previous learning and so keep it manageable. Is this almost like Spaced Practice Lite, where you are adapting one part of your lessons? And do you know what class/group you would like to try this with?
Yeah that’s very much what I’m thinking of! Ideally the beginning of a lesson. I may also try changing ‘revision’ lessons as well, but may not include that to keep the focus quite tight. As for classes this seems ideal for those who are in the second year of a two year course, so in my case S2 and S4. I think that might be a good place to start.
Lots of great itches here Chris, many of which we have in common! I’m interested in seeing what you choose but also happy to work together on some of these over the next years.
Absolutely!
Have you seen the retrieval practice grids that are doing the rounds on Twitter? That might help with bringing in ideas from older lessons.
I have not! I will go have a look – thank you!