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Hi everyone and welcome to the effective teaching podcast. Today, I want to begin a new mini-series with you. I'm going to start a series that's all about how to apply how students learn to what we're doing in the classroom, I think, overall through our university educations and all that kind of stuff.
00:18
We actually spend not enough time focusing on understanding how students learn and then working out how that applies to our classroom. So I'm gonna start a bit of a series on this. I'm not entirely sure how long the series is going to go for. I'm hoping it'll probably actually go for the rest of the year because there's so much that I want to cover in this.
00:36
This is something that's kind of a hobby of mine. I love learning more about how people learn and then applying I apply it to myself all the time with how I learn things to make sure that I'm learning more effectively and I then apply it into the classroom as well to make sure that the students who I'm helping are also learning more effectively by the processes and systems and strategies that is in the classroom to help them to learn.
01:01
So Today I want to begin this series, by focusing on retrieval or the idea of recall. So
01:09
So retrieval, as I said, it's all about recalling. What people have learnt? So for our students it's about them recalling things that we've taught them already or things that they've learnt already through readings and watching videos and all that kind of stuff. Now, it's actually been lots of research around these days that it's showing us the importance of recall and how it actually helps students to build stronger neural pathways.
01:35
Now, you may not know this, but all of your knowledge, all of your memories, your information that you've learnt, all your ideas and skills, and all that kind of stuff. They are stored in collections of neurones and these neurones are connected to each other and the more connections that exist there means a more things that kind of stimulate that skill or that knowledge.
01:57
And also if you have a thicker stronger pathway from those memories or ideas or knowledge into the section of your brain, that doesn't working memory. Then It means that you actually can recall that information more easily that you can do it faster and that you actually going to be able to utilise whatever your recalling much better and this can apply even in sports when you're learning a skill.
02:25
If you're constantly trying to practise the skill and practise the skill, you're forcing your mural system to really practise, using that process over and over again. And so your body builds up faster and thicker neural connections. So that you can perform the skill faster and better. And that's what we're going to be doing with our brains as we but we do this by doing recall, not by reviewing stuff.
02:48
If you go back and read over something that's actually not helping to develop those neural pathways anywhere near as well as when you try and recall it. And so for our students, each time a student tries to recall information, the pathway to go back to that idea and stuff is getting thicker.
03:07
It's getting faster, it's getting stronger and this enables students to better apply this information that you're trying to get them to recall into the context that's in front of them. And so, in that way, it actually helps them to be better with their high world of thinking skills because they can take long-term memories and recall them faster.
03:26
Use them in their working memory and they can you send them back and forth easily which enables them to use it more frequently and at a better rate, basically. It's basically just means when you're doing critical thinking and you're juggling around multiple different ideas and aspects. You can access that a lot faster, which means that your critical thinking is clearer, You also more confident in it.
03:45
When you can recall something quickly, you tend to be more confident in knowing that you got the right bit of information that you've recalled. So Now what I want to do is talk to you a bit about how to actually do this in your classroom, how to make sure your students are recalling information or recalling concepts and ideas and methods that they've actually already learnt and some of this stuff you're going to be doing already.
04:10
So yeah that's great. Other things will just be tips that you might be able to apply really simply into your classroom to get your students to be recalling the information that they've learnt. So the first tip I want to give you is to stop. Starting your lessons by reminding your students of what they've already learnt I used to do this all the time.
04:30
I used to walk into my classroom and say hey guys, you know how last week we learnt this or how yesterday, we spend lots of time looking at you, the lactic acid energy system. Today we're going to look at the aerobic energy system and a similar, and it's different in these ways, right?
04:44
And what I want you to do is to stop doing that. Stop revising content for them and instead, get them to recall the information themselves and you can do that in lots of different ways. One way is just to ask them to write down from memory, what they learnt yesterday, what they learnt last week in your class, then get them to pair up and get the pair to chat about what they're written down, see what bits of information, they've forgotten and then maybe they can add those bits what that'll do as well, is, it'll stimulate for them because the new ones are connected to each other and there's memories of the connected.
05:21
What happens is that one student will mention something and I'll actually stimulate in the other student, four, five, other things that they've learnt that connect to that piece of information. And that is really good for the beginning of a lesson to make sure your students are accessing that information, they're about to use and a really good way to conclude lessons to is to get the students to do like a brain dump maybe at the end.
05:42
I'll talk to you a bit more about what that is though. Once your students are done in a pair there may be do it as a class, get them to then, give you the answer of what they've learnt. That is related to maybe what you're about to teach them what they learn last week.
05:55
But it could be even what they learnt last term where they learn last year, etc. Really good to just constantly be asking our students to remember what they learnt and the reason I get them to write it down is so that I know that they've actually thought about it and been forced to recall something and haven't just sat there and waited for someone else to say it.
06:11
The second tip that I have is to don't allow students to take notes as you present information or ideas. So, if you are giving a PowerPoint presentation or you just, you're giving students some information about something, maybe you show them how to critique a text or anything like that.
06:27
What I want you to present for a little while and then just stop and give your students a chance to write from memory. So they let them write. While you're talked get them to focus on you while you're talking. And so they're kind of paying attention asking questions and stuff and then get them to write down.
06:42
What they remember that helps in a couple of ways. One, they're forced to recall, what they've just been taught. And the second way is that you're actually forcing them because they're going to write this down their own handwriting. It forces them to kind of summarise it for themselves in their own words and so it helps them to understand it and it helps them to make the connections to other things that they might already know.
07:04
Another tip and this is probably one that you're already doing is to build in lots of short quizzes, that are low or no stakes. So that means basically that there's no marks attached to it and this is to see what they can remember from last week from last month and last term, or even last year, just constantly give them quizzes.
07:21
And even in this quizzes, you can mix stuff up, right? You don't have to just give them a quiz on everything from last week, you can give them a quiz. It's got some stuff from yesterday, some stuff from a month ago. There's a couple of questions from last term and stuff and you're just forcing your students to constantly be recalling information to build those pathways.
07:40
Another thing is to ask students to try not.
07:50
Another tip is to make sure that you're not just telling your kids answers when they ask you questions. If they are asking you questions try and ask them questions back. If they're getting stuck, ask them questions. That get them to recall information is going to help them to find the solution to the problem that they're trying to solve.
08:07
Well, that's a mass problem or a science problem, or an English problem or any kind of problem, just ask them questions, back to make them recall. Might be a question that relates to the information that trying to recall or could be to the skill or the process, they're trying to use to solve the problem.
08:25
Another tip is to provide timing class for students to create and practise going through flashcards Now. I love using flashcards, I use them all the time, and one of the best things about flashcards one, you know, when I get my kids to write my flashcard, their flashcards, The Read part of the reason for that is that they are thinking through and creating that summary and putting things into their own words.
08:46
If you get them to do that, as a recall activity, that's fantastic to actually recall what they're writing on the flashcard first. And then They can use those flashcards to test themselves. So in New South Wales where I am, I put a syllabus content statement on one side and then the content or the answer on the other side with the examples and stuff.
09:08
And so, it's this constant flicking back and forth but the student should look at one side, try and remember, and recall, all the other information, maybe even say it out loud and then check that, they've got it all and that's forcing them to recall information. The last tip I have for you is to as you're finishing off a lesson, ask your students to do a brain dump.
09:27
And basically what that is, is for your students to get a piece of paper and to write out everything they can remember from that lesson and that you could then expand on that and say right, you got five minutes to do this, write everything, remember from this lesson. And if you can't, If you run that stuff to say, right then remember stuff from last lesson or the week before the week before and just get them to write down as much as they can remember.
09:49
Starting from this lesson, going backwards and again, we're forcing to recall that information and writing it down, and it's a good way for you to check. You could use it as a formative assessment to tell you how they're going with their understanding and all that kind of stuff whether or not, they're getting the basics, which is what they need to get in order to be able to do the higher order thinking skills.
10:09
It's a great activity through into your class. So, that's it for this episode. This is episode number 102. So if you would like to come and, you know, have a look at the transcript or anything like that, you can head over to teachers PD.net slash 102. Now I would really love for lots of people to come and join me for this.
10:32
I think teachers no matter what they're teaching should really have a good understanding of how students learn and how to apply that into their classroom. And so if you know some colleagues and stuff that you think might benefit from this, please share this podcast with them. Get them to subscribe.
10:51
You should subscri if you haven't already so you can come back with this series to really get a deep dive into applying how students learn into our classrooms. We want to make sure we're actually using it in the way we structure our lessons and what we're doing. So today was all about recall and and the idea of retrieval.
11:12
Next week, though in episode 103, I'm going to talk about probably the most important thing for us to know as teachers, and for us to leverage as teachers in the classroom when it comes to student learning. So make sure you come back. Make sure you subscribe, bring people to come and listen to it.
11:29
In fact, if you've got a faculty meeting that's coming up, that maybe you could organise for this term with your teachers to do this series together as a faculty to listen to the podcast and then just chat about it and how you can use it in your classroom. Maybe some other ways that you can come up with to apply how students learn into your classroom.
11:49
I think it'll be a fantastic use of teacher, time to be able to think that through, and to improve what we're doing in our lessons. Will that be now lesson plans, our unit designs etc. Yeah, I want us to be basing what we're doing on how students learn to help create those lifelong learners with the skills that they need to be able to learn for the rest of their life.
12:11
So make sure you come back and join me. Here, the subscribe button. If you like the episode, please leave me a review and I cannot wait to talk to you next time about the number one. Most important thing that you need to know about how students learn and applying that into your classroom.
12:29
I'll see you then.
