Our core business in school is to help young people to learn and remember what they have learnt. Over recent years, there has been lots of research and discussion from cognitive science and psychology that detail how best to remember things. Therefore, our internal CPD programme will be focused on 'mastering memory' and examining how pupils learn.
Throughout the academic year, we will focus all CPD in school on how we learn and the most effective ways of embedding knowledge into our long-term memory. Each half term, we would focus on another area identified as supporting long-term retention and revision. Each half term would follow a similar format, pre-reading on a particular topic, session delivered by a member of staff about the science behind this method and what it looks like in the classroom and then time for departments to “trial” one of these methods. It may be that this method does not work for the particular department, there is no expectation that each of these methods are embedded into the subject curriculum and some methods will work better for certain subject areas. However, it should mean that there is a professional dialogue around what worked and the limitations and why this might be. How might it change our practice long term?
The first remote session exploring the science behind the learning process, first delivered in September 2020. This launched the start of our Mastering Memory CPD programme to support staff and pupils to maximise knowledge and retention across the curriculum.
The second remote session focused on how to effectively use retrieval practice to support knowledge retention and support pupils to become more confident in recalling and retaining knowledge for application.
The third remote session focused on what is spaced practice and how does it lend itself to the support memory retention and the learning process in the classroom.
The session is focused on how to effectively used dual coding in the classroom to enhance and support pupil's engaging with the learning process. This is particularly apt when thinking about remote learning and the presentation of resources.
The session is focused on how to effectively used interleaving in the classroom to enhance and support pupil's engaging with the learning process. This process promotes the idea of switching between ideas as we support pupils with their knowledge acquisition.
The session is focused on how to effectively used interleaving in the classroom to enhance and support pupil's engaging with the learning process. This process promotes the idea of switching between ideas as we support pupils with their knowledge acquisition.
The session is focused on how to effectively used elaboration in the classroom to enhance and support pupil's engaging with the learning process.
The final session in our series focuses on concrete examples and how they can work in different areas of the curriculum.