What can I do so that students are using all of their energy to think about the topic we are teaching?
We've all been there. Taught a lesson with lots of examples, lots of discussion. You've made sure that the diagrams in your lesson complement your explanation. You don't read off the board. And yet...students still come to the next lesson having forgotten most of what you have told them. Now yes, retrieval practice plays a big part in this, but have you ever thought that maybe students had too much to think about?
Cognitive Load Theory recommends that in order to increase learning, we must reduce extraneous load and optimise intrinsic load. Long term memory and the external store (environment) have an unlimited capacity and your working memory is the bottleneck in between that has a limited amount of space to store information. We need to optimise this working memory space so that it is being used effectively in lesson by students. In the past few years there has been a big increase in teachers understanding different ways of reducing distractions (extraneous load) in lesson so that students can be focused fully on the explanation. The next step for us is to optimise the way we teach the topic so that students working memory isn't being stretched too much and the information is able to be transferred in to their long term memory.
From Ollie Lovells' Cognitive Load Theory book, he speaks about two main methods of teacher instruction that can be effective in teaching students, alternating our instruction and fading examples. Reflecting on my own teaching, I have been using backwards fading predominantly to support students in my lessons. I have found it really effective in slowly reducing the support I give to students. I use cold calling and mini whiteboard questions to check understanding of the topic to formatively assess the class. I have toyed with alternating examples but, for me, it hasn't been as effective and my personal preference is to use fading. I know that Craig Barton has pushed alternation in both his book and on his websites but I have struggled to effectively implement them in my own classes. I like that with backwards fading I am able to ask students to self reflect and think about what would happen next. I ensure there is enough of a pause between steps and during my instruction for students to anticipate the next step. I think its key that we adapt research and ideas from books and articles etc to how you personally teach and the students you have in front of you.
The big takeaway from Cognitive Load Theory, for me, is the idea of the goal free effect. I first read about this a few years ago, from Craig Bartons book, and attempted to incorporate it in lessons with little structure to what I was using and why. This proved not very effective and ended up being something I binned from my lessons quite quickly. However I really like the structure that Lovell uses to ensure the goal free effect is optimised.
- Restricted Actions
- Rapid Feedback
- Reliable Results
This led me to explore some current resources that are already out there and see what could be used to fill this gap. I think Open Middle problems can be incredibly effect for these types of tasks as they allow students to explore the concept more deeply than just answering questions. I also really like how 1 question could be used to replace a worksheet and can then spark some really interesting discussion.
Side note:
In the future I'd like to explore the questions that teachers may use as prompts to go alongside these style of problems to encourage deeper thinking e.g. What would the effect be if this value increased by ...? Which numbers make the question harder/easier to answer? Why? (honestly, mathematical discussion is a weak point in my lessons and something I know I need to develop)
Robert Kaplinsky shared the picture below on twitter illustrating some of the ways that one style of question could be adapted to increase the depth of knowledge.
The issue I have is with students being able to check if they are correct or not. This is fine if students have a good grasp of what the answer should look like, however if students don't know this then they could be drifting through the task not fully developing the understanding that I had hoped for. As an example, I think the fraction task below can be a really nice way of encouraging students to practice multiplying fractions and linking the answer to mixed numbers. This requires students to be secure in the procedure for multiplying fractions, converting improper fractions and understanding which fractions are larger than others. In my view this then needs careful sequencing of the curriculum to build to this level. I don't think this can be something that can be thrown into a lesson to tick a box.
To alleviate some of these issues it could be nice to create some form of self marking sheet that can be used to give students instant feedback. Alternatively we could ask students to 'show me why your correct'. Encouraging them to use different representations and using comparisons etc.
Teaching is pretty simple really, make students think hard about what you are teaching them and repeatedly retrieve that memory once it is locked in so that it isn't lost.
I hope my musings have been of interest, they allow me to put into words some of the thoughts that I am having to help form my ideas. I believe if you have an idea about something you need to be able to articulate it effectively and be willing to be scrutinised. So feel free to disagree with me. Teach me. Help me get better. My aim is simple, get better each week.
What are you going to do this week to get one percent better?