The KGA Core

What are the KGA core teaching and learning techniques? 

The KGA Core are 8 high frequency and high impact pedagogical approaches which aim to maximise pupils’ attention and form the basis of quality first teaching in the classroom. They are applicable to all phases and all subjects and when executed consistently ensure that all pupils attend, engage and participate fully, therefore maximising both their learning and the learning time.

The idea that "we learn what we attend to" is grounded in both educational theory and cognitive science. John Hattie, through his extensive research on Visible Learning, emphasises that attention is a key driver of student learning - what pupils focus on is what they are most likely to learn. More recently, cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham has reinforced this idea, stating that “memory is the residue of thought,” suggesting that pupils remember what they have actively thought about and, therefore, attended to. Together, these perspectives underline the importance of designing learning experiences and using pedagogical approaches that capture and sustain pupils’ attention.

In the study “Leveling the playing field: Attention mitigates the effects of intelligence on memory (2014)”, Markant and Amso state that attention is a limited resource and needs actively managing to support academic achievement and development in pupils. Learning and cognitive performance improve for all pupils when teachers use a range of strategies to ensure that all pupils focus their attention and participate fully in learning. Pupils with higher levels of engagement inside and outside the classroom not only learn more than pupils with lower levels of engagement (e.g., Howard et al., 2002; Howard & Henney, 1998; Tinto, 1997), they are also more successful in the long run both academically and professionally (Finn & Zimmer, 2012; Ladd & Dinella, 2009). These pedagogical approaches that form the KGA Core aim to minimise distractions, manage cognitive overload and require all pupils to think and participate resulting in higher levels of engagement.

In the classrooms of highly effective teachers, pupils learn at twice the rate they do in the classrooms of less effective teachers; they learn in six months what pupils taught by the average teachers take a year to learn. In addition, in the classrooms of the least effective teachers, the same learning will take two years. Moreover, in the classrooms of the most effective teachers, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds learn just as much as those from advantaged backgrounds, and those with behavioural difficulties learn as much as those without. (Wiliam, D. (2009). Assessment for learning: why, what and how? London: Institute of Education, University of London.)

Sources:

• Willingham, D. T. (2009). Why Don't Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom. Jossey-Bass.

• Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Routledge.

• Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded Formative Assessment. Solution Tree Press.

• Leveling the playing field: Attention mitigates the effects of intelligence on memory

• Listen up, kids! How mind wandering affects immediate and delayed memory in children

• The Big Problem With Little Interruptions to Classroom Learning