Daniel Willingham’s simple model of memory has been powerful in helping us develop our understanding of how we learn. Images similar to the one below have been seen in many CPD sessions, blogs, articles and books. It is, rightly, popular. It shows us the different aspects we need to consider when we teach in order to help our students take in and retain knowledge.
Recently, a lot of attention has been placed on attention (#sorrynotsorry).
There are many different distractions and entities competing for our students’ attentions. But we want them to attend to that one thing you are explaining or asking them to do. I have previously written about some of the things I do to help my students focus on the right things in my classroom.
Let’s imagine you have a class at the start of the day. They come in, a bit sleepy because it is too early for them, but they listen and do as you ask and write stuff down. Not sure much active thinking is taking place though.
Now, let’s imagine you have that class at the end of the day (or worse, just after lunch). They are noisy, difficult to settle, but eventually, they listen and write stuff down. This is particularly difficult for them as they have had to attend to a lot of important information during the day. Despite the breaks they have had, this is a big ask.
There a number of strategies we can employ to help students focus depending on the situation and time of day.
But, this post is not about attention. It’s about what comes next.
I have observed quite a few lessons where a new piece of knowledge is introduced and then students are quizzed on it immediately after. In some cases, this may be fine because the knowledge is not entirely new, it is well linked to something else that our students have mastered, or it may be a relatively small bit of knowledge.
Often, however, the concept may be complex and feel new to our students. They have just attended to it (sometimes with difficulty) and are now being quizzed on it straightaway. It is no wonder that many get their answers either completely wrong or not quite right. Or they struggle to use the right language when trying to explain their responses (‘I don’t know how to explain it!’).
Part of this may very well be because there is simply an illusion of attention. They look like they are focused but they are thinking about football or what they will have for lunch (as I often do). We can mitigate this by using checks for listening (Pritesh Raichura’s excellent strategy).
I can think about several instances in my life when I have been focused and am genuinely trying to think about what is being said. I can answer simple questions if people ask me what I have been listening to. But ask me to explain it back and I struggle.
I think this is due to not having time to process and mentally manipulate what I have been attending to. One small change I have made to my own teaching is to give my students time to think about what they have just heard. Sometimes, this involves explicit guidance and other times, it is simply time to process. Let me illustrate this with an example:
I have just explained how nerve impulses cross a synapse. I built up a diagram from scratch, explained each step and posed lots of questions to check recall and attention. I am using a booklet with simple processing questions already included. So I direct students to the right page, read a scientific description of what happens at a synapse, annotate the text, check their understanding on mini-whiteboards and then direct students to answer the processing questions in their booklets. A few days later, I ask a student how a synapse works and they can only give me part of the answer. Two others say they don’t remember. Finally I reach a student who does remember all the steps but a quick check on mini-whiteboards tells me that students don’t quite grasp it.
Now, let us look at this scenario with the change:
I have just explained how nerve impulses cross a synapse. I built up a diagram from scratch, explained each step and posed lots of questions to check recall and attention. Then I ask students to spend a minute or two studying my diagram and thinking of each step. I encourage them to jot down ideas on their whiteboards (sometimes, I get students to immediately rehearse with their partner, other times, I ask one of the students to explain it out loud, and sometimes, I skip this step to the next one- it depends on the concept, how complex it is and how my students seem to be coping).
I explain the diagram one more time with a few checks for listening. Once students have had the chance to think and write about a concept, a second explanation helps them identify gaps in their knowledge. They listen out for the parts that can help them fill those knowledge gaps.
Next, I get students to think about the steps again, make changes to their notes if needed and then I get them to rehearse their explanations to each other.
I direct students to the right page in their booklets, read a scientific description of what happens at a synapse, annotate the text, and check their understanding on mini-whiteboards with questions such as What would happen if there were no neurotransmitters? What would happen if the synapse was larger?
Only once I have done all this, do I direct students to answer the questions in their booklets. A few days later, I pose questions on the synapse and more students can confidently tell me what happens.
There are two reasons this technique helps students:
- they get a chance to properly think about the concept and not just dive into answering questions
- they feel more confident in their recall and understanding of the concept
Of course, this does take time and we all know that we need to cover lots of content. However, when it comes to key concepts that several other content is built upon, using this technique means students have a stronger foundation than if we just rush through teaching it all.
Dr C's Science Classroom 