To know more and remember more
At Denbigh we want students to know more and remember more. The transfer of knowledge to our students and their ability to recall and apply this knowledge is at the heart of our every aim at school. It sounds simple - in principle it is - however in practice we know it is complex.
This focus on knowledge and recall makes memory an important concept for all teachers to grasp. At Denbigh, we use the multi-store model of memory as a starting point to explore the concept of memory and how it works. It may be familiar to you if you have ever studied psychology!
 |
| The multi-store model of memory. Read more about it here. |
The multi-store model of memory states a few important things for teachers to consider:
- For knowledge to enter the short-term memory (working memory) students must pay attention to it - easier said than done.
- We must be careful not to overload too much new knowledge at once as this can cause an overload of the short-term memory. On average our short-term memory can take 5-9 items of new information and keep it there for around 20 seconds. Too much new information will cause knowledge to be displaced and forgotten... forever.
- For that knowledge to remain in the short-term memory it needs to be repeated and practised (maintenance rehearsal), hopefully some form of understanding may take place. If no maintenance rehearsal takes place, the knowledge will decay and be forgotten again... forever.
- Maintenance rehearsal on its own does not guarantee that knowledge will transfer to the long-term memory. For knowledge to process from the short-term memory to the long-term memory, it needs to be repeated over time and linked to other knowledge that already exists in the long-term memory (this relates to the schema theory of memory that we will encounter at our next PDD day).
- Even if we are successful in transferring knowledge to the long-term memory without retrieval practise, students can experience retrieval failure - the inability to recall. This is different to forgetting; however it is just as disasterous in an exam setting. Therefore students need to practise the skill of remembering - we call this retrieval practise.
Our new Teaching and Learning Model - PEPPA
Please believe me when I say that, when designing this model, I did not start out with PEPPA and then force a model into it. I assure you it was the opposite. The new model came into existence with the sole purpose of supporting our core aim - creating students who know more and remember more with a grounding in the multi-store model of memory. The mnuenomic PEPPA was a happy little accident, as Bob Ross would say, that fell out of this thinking. So what does PEPPA stand for?
A starting point for all teachers is the planning phase. At a macro level the important considerations are what knowledge we want to transfer and in what order we want to transfer it in (this is also known as the curriculum). At a micro level we are also talking about the planning of individual lessons - in what order do we sequence knowledge delivery, rehearsal and retrieval activities to maximise knowledge acquirement and recall.
Engagement
Now if we have the planning secure we need to move on to the delivery and the most important part of delivery is engaging the students. If they are not engaged, they will not pay attention and we have already lost as there will be nothing in their short-term working memory. How do we engage? Well there are considerations we make in planning - well laid out resources, clear sequencing, clear explanations, setting the right level of challenge. There are also simple human factors to consider; do we have positive relationships with our students? Do we know our students' names, understand their individual needs, include everyone, and smile at them? Together, it is these considerations that make lessons engaging (not necessarilly 'fun').
Pedagogy
If the conditions are set through good planning and high engagement, it is now all about the knowledge transfer, practise and retrieval - this is live classroom pedagogy. This can vary from subject to subject and teacher to teacher; no lesson should look the same. The list of pedagogical strategies to be used is endless, from: reading, teacher modelling and explanations, debates and discussions, quizzes, group work, essay writing and so on. The most important thing however, is their effectiveness in knowledge transfer, practise and retrieval.
Progress
And the effectiveness can be measured through the progress students make - do they know it, do they remember it? As a class teacher, progress can be measured through assessment and feedback, formative and summative. Progress over time can also be seen by looking at books, Google classrooms and (the best way) by talking to students about their learning.
Achievement
Now achievement is the outcome. If we apply this model succesfully, our students will know more and remember more and this is what will help improve their life chances and prepare them for the challenges of an ever changing world or whatever other moral or social aim of teaching you would like to instill.
The Big Picture
New models should never sit on their own and look pretty. They must have a purpose. This model has a clear purpose in drawing teachers' focus to helping our students to know more and remember more by considering how memory works and focussing our thinking on sound evidence informed pedagogy. In addition, this model is integral to the wider teaching and learning ecosystem informing our approach to learning, quality assurance, appraisal and continuing professional development.
An example of a way this will be happening at Denbigh is through our instructional coaching programme. Using aspects of the Teaching Walkthrus handbook, teachers are able to access guides to refresh and reinvigorate their pedagogical practices as well as work with coaches over a sustained period of time to implement new strategies to drive improvement according to our new model.
I hope you all have a great start to the new term. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions and rememebr to follow this blog or my twitter for updates of further teaching and learning news at Denbigh.
