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At BSAK, Teaching for Learning is central to what we do. In order to continuously improve our teaching methods to ensure that we are maximising student learning, it is important to continue to learn about the most up to date thoughts on how students learn, and how we can bring this research into our classrooms.

The following sections group together some of the current, and best, thinking about learning on the web. Please contact ndavis@britishschool.sch.ae if you find new pieces to include, or if links do not work.

To aid your searching, the following categories have been used:

Teaching for Learning
Memory and Learning
Curriculum Design
Questioning
Metacognition
Cognitive Load Theory
Retrieval Practice and Interleaving
Feedback and modelling
Studying techniques
Other random posts

Teaching for Learning

https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Rosenshine.pdf - Rosenshine's paper is widely regarded as the most important piece of research into best practice - what really works to help students learn.

https://heathfieldteachshare.wordpress.com/2018/04/23/putting-theory-into-practice/amp/?__twitter_impression=true - This is Mark Ensor's take on how to apply Rosenshine's principles to your classroom.

https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/What-makes-great-teaching-FINAL-4.11.14.pdf Professor Robert Coe's work from the Sutton Trust on what makes great teaching.

https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2015/12/14/back2back/ - great little technique that engages all students into thinking, and talking about their learning.

https://chronotopeblog.com/2015/03/22/engagement-just-because-theyre-busy-doesnt-mean-theyre-learning-anything/?wref=tp - simple 'engagement' is not enough, and is a poor proxy for learning... so how do you ensure students are learning?

https://impact.chartered.college/article/allison-evidence-students-become-effective-learners/ - this is Shaun Allison, from Durrington High School's take on how we ensure that our practice creates effective learners.

https://teacherhead.com/2014/10/24/10-silver-arrows-ideas-to-penetrate-the-armour-of-ingrained-practice/ - Tom Sherrington's excellent list of 'to do's' when it comes to great teaching.

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/stick/ - the science of 'making it stick' in the classroom - some great ideas here.

https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/1 - this is the American version of the EEF, the 'What Works Clearinghouse' - this is set out in an easy to use way.

https://3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com/2015/07/14/learning-the-smart-way-2/ - this is interesting because not only does it provide a list of what works... it also provides us with a list of these 'don't work'.

https://learningspy.co.uk/learning/outstanding-teaching-learning-missed-opportunities-and-marginal-gains-2/ - Marginal gains to improve your practice from David Didau.

Memory and Learning

Cognitive Science has produced many excellent papers recently, with huge implications about how we teach (to ensure that students learn). A knowledge about memory is vital to become an outstanding teacher.

https://primarytimery.com/2017/09/16/memory-not-memories-teaching-for-long-term-learning/amp/ - this is rather long, but is a simply brilliant piece about memory.

https://missregardless.wordpress.com/2018/01/17/what-i-wish-id-known-about-memory-twenty-years-ago/ - a lovely opener for all teachers - very easy to understand.

https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/WILLINGHAM%282%29.pdf - this is fairly long, but is an excellent synopsis of Willingham's seminal book on memory and learning - 'Why Don't Students Like School'.

https://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/winter-2002/ask-cognitive-scientist -this is Daniel Willingham again - this is important because it explains that what we often call 'rote' learning is something quite different, and essential, for students to have better long term intelligence.

https://sites.google.com/view/efratfurst/understanding-understanding - how to 'understand understanding', and therefore the need to chunk information in a clear and progressive way.

http://www.deansforimpact.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/The_Science_of_Learning.pdf - this is excellent as it provides the cognitive science followed by practical examples of how to apply it to the classroom.

https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/subject-pedagogy-development-session-3-remembering-and-revising/ - good piece on memory, including the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, and why retrieval practice is so crucial.

http://www.learningspy.co.uk/reading/reading-aloud-might-boost-students-memories/ - David Didau's take on how reading aloud can actually boost memory.

https://ift.education/why-forget/ - Nick Rose reminds us about forgetting - how it is natural, and an important part of learning.

Curriculum Design

When considering teaching and learning, the curriculum design is often the over-looked skill. These pages provide ideas for best practice:

https://fullonlearning.com/2012/10/01/constructing-learning-so-that-it-is-meaningful-and-purposeful/ - marginal gains including "So that..." to help fit our Learning Objectives into learners' minds.

http://esheninger.blogspot.com/2018/04/relevance-is-fuel-of-learning.html - interesting piece, summed up by: if a lesson or project is relevant students will be able to tell you: 1. What they learned; 2. Why they learned it; and 3. How they will use it!

https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2018/06/19/curriculum-teaching-and-assessment/ - the Durrington school model of how the curriculum fits in with assessment and teaching to make up the full circle of learning.

https://durrington.researchschool.org.uk/2018/08/28/subject-planning-development-sessions/ - how Durrington school facilitates their curriculum developments.

https://primarytimery.com/2018/09/09/whats-all-the-fuss-about-a-knowledge-rich-curriculum-part-one/ - why the curriculum must be built on knowledge, or we run the risk of no actual learning taking place.

https://primarytimery.com/2018/08/06/in-praise-of-a-prosaic-curriculum/ - another great piece linking the curriculum to memory, and how there is a huge need to excavate the erroneous to ensure that the semantic memory is being filled.

Questioning

There are a number of reasons why effective questioning is the tool for ensuring great learning. It ensures the attention of the students if they know there is a chance of being asked a question at any stage; it is the most important formative assessment that a teacher can use, as it is immediate and in the moment; questioning can be used to model great answers so the feed-forward into writing rewards students with better answers.

This is a brilliant YouTube clip of Dylan Wiliam discussing a technique - 'pose, pause, pounce, bounce'

https://marginallearninggains.com/2012/11/01/questioning/ - the types of questions posed and when to use them.

https://teacherhead.com/2018/08/24/great-teaching-the-power-of-questioning/ - Tom Sherrington's excellent piece on questioning.

https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2017/01/19/the-importance-of-questioning/ - the importance of questions and how to use them.

https://www.theconfidentteacher.com/2014/04/conducting-classroom-talk/ - Alex Quigley gives outstanding advice using exemplar of how to question for effective learning.

Metacognition

If we can develop the students' ability to really think about their own thinking, then they become better learners - learners who know what they are doing and why they are doing it; learners who know how they learn best; students who are self evaluative and make adjustments if things are not working.

http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/news/how-to-unlock-the-learning-potential-of-metacognition/ - a good starting point for what Metacognition is and how it can impact schools and students.

https://hbr.org/2018/05/learning-is-a-learned-behavior-heres-how-to-get-better-at-it?sf89477607=1 - another good introductory piece.

https://missdcoxblog.wordpress.com/2018/06/03/5-simple-ways-to-encourage-meta-cognition/ - some great thoughts of how to embed metacognitive techniques in your classroom.

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/meta-cognition-and-self-regulation/ - the EEF metacognition toolkit.

Cognitive Load Theory

We know from our knowledge of our memory, that short term memory (working memory) is finite, and pretty small. It is, therefore, easily overloaded - and if we want to help retention and therefore transfer into long term memory, we must try to reduce the stress on our short term memory as much as possible.

http://theconversation.com/why-students-make-silly-mistakes-in-class-and-what-can-be-done-48826 - a very nice introduction to the subject of CLT.

https://impact.chartered.college/article/shibli-cognitive-load-theory-classroom/ - the Chartered College of Teaching has an excellent piece on this.

https://noeasyanswerseducation.wordpress.com/2018/06/22/dual-coding-working-memory/ - this piece is about duel-coding, but explains very well how this aspect really hinders the working memory, and therefore leads to cognitive over-load unless you think hard about how you present information.

https://primarytimery.com/2018/06/10/cognitive-load-a-case-study/ - very thorough piece using a Fibonacci clock to demonstrate new learning.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-010-9133-8 - this is the research piece by Sweller et al that introduces CLT.

https://www.teachthought.com/learning/cognitive-load-theory-definition-teachers/ Sweller's findings in an abridged format by Terry Heik.

Retrieval Practice and Interleaving

Our knowledge of the brain tells us that unless we systematically plan for students to retrieve the knowledge they have learnt, it will vanish from long term memory. Studies have shown that interleaving this retrieval produces excellent results.

http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/4/1-1 - a great concept map for showing the importance of retrieval practice.

https://achemicalorthodoxy.wordpress.com/2018/08/18/retrieval-roulettes/ - some great ideas on here - mostly for the sciences, but also for English and History.

https://www.retrievalpractice.org/ - site full of ideas.

https://bennewmark.wordpress.com/2018/08/01/nothing-new-just-a-review-part-2-from-good-to-great-how-to-improve-retrieval-practice/amp/?__twitter_impression=true - not only ideas for retrieval practice - like replacing starters with short, low-stake quizzes, but also a lot about the theory behind why it works.

https://theeffortfuleducator.com/2017/04/03/promoting-metacognition-with-retrieval-practice-in-five-steps/ - excellent advice on how best to use retrieval practice.

https://lovetoteach87.com/2018/01/12/retrieval-practice-challenge-grids-for-the-classroom/ - Kate Jones' brilliantly simple retrieval grids - easy to use!

https://lovetoteach87.com/2018/01/12/retrieval-practice-challenge-grids-for-the-classroom/ - more brilliant exemplar from Kate and from her twitter followers!

https://teachingtoptens.wordpress.com/2018/09/28/ten-testing-strategies-a-range-of-activities-for-varying-retrieval-practice/amp/?__twitter_impression=true Some excellent idea here about retrieval techniques for your classroom.

https://www.tes.com/news/why-interleaving-curriculum-could-improve-knowledge-retention - a great TES article about interleaving your curriculum to store more into long term memory.

Feedback and Modelling

Feedback, which then allows opportunity for students to build on the feedback, and modelling, which allows feedforward so that there are fewer mistakes made by students, are crucial parts of the learning cycle.

https://www.tes.com/news/five-tenets-effective-feedback - TES article from Mark Ensor.

https://www.tes.com/news/five-steps-better-modelling - and the TES article by Mark on Modelling.

https://teacherhead.com/2017/12/18/fiveways-of-giving-effective-feedback-as-actions/ - Tom Sherrington's thoughts on feedback.

https://mrshumanities.com/category/marking-and-feedback/ - some excellent ideas here from Mrs Humanities - including whole-class marking - something that has really taken off in the UK.

https://reflectingenglish.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/strategic-marking-for-the-dirty-minded-teacher/ - an excellent piece with many thoughts on best practice for feedback.

https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/modelling-how-why-and-what-can-go-wrong/ - modelling is a crucial element of teaching for learning - it allows the student into the thoughts of an expert when completed well, and this metacognitive element to modelling is why it should be a part of all good teaching, as well as part of any feedback policy, as the feedforward element of modelling is eleminating so much need for later feedback!

Studying techniques

Information we should all be passing on to students about how best to learn for their exams - not surprisingly, cramming the night before is not top of the list!

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2018/07/12/guide-to-focus/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=other&utm_campaign=opencourse.GdeNrll1EeSROyIACtiVvg.announcements~opencourse.GdeNrll1EeSROyIACtiVvg.mEpvHYaEEeibchIUxu8xSA - a very thorough piece which breaks down barriers to studying.

https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/how-does-the-brain-learn-best-10-smart-studying-strategies/ - great strategies here that all students should know.