Post on 12-Apr-2017
transcript
What if everything you
knew about how to design
an English curriculum was
wrong?David Didau
researchED English & Literacy #rEDEng7th November 2015
Research I’ve found useful• Bjork: Desirable difficulties (memory)
• Meyer & Land: Threshold concepts (organisation)
• Siegler: Overlapping waves (progress)
3 predictions• Students will forget at a predictable
rate
• Students will get stuck at predictable points
• Students will not make progress at a predictable rate
3 problems• Learning is invisible
• Learning is liminal
• Learning is unpredictable
Learning is invisible• Learning is the long-term retention
and transfer of knowledge and skills
Performance
Learning
Onomatopoeia
MIMICRY
The (New) Theory of Disuse
Retrieval strength
Stor
age
stre
ngth
Your phone number
Phone number
Childhoodaddress
What you learn today
“As learning occurs, so does forgetting…”
Learning vs. performance
• The higher the retrieval strength, the smaller the gains from additional study or practice
• Forgetting creates the likelihood of increased learning
• If learning is difficult, retrieval strength will decrease in the short term but will increase in the long term
Desirable difficulties– Spacing– Interleaving– Variability– Testing– Reducing & delaying feedback
Hermann Ebbinghaus, 1885
The spacing effect
The Testing EffectWhich study pattern will result in the best test results?
1. STUDY STUDY STUDY STUDY – TEST2. STUDY STUDY STUDY TEST – TEST3. STUDY STUDY TEST TEST – TEST4. STUDY TEST TEST TEST – TEST
Blocking vs interleaving
Topic 1
Topic 2
Topic 3
Topic 4
Topic 5
Topic 6
Term 1
Term 2
Term 3
Term 4
Term 5
Term 6
But what should we interleave?
Learning is liminal
Not knowin
gKnowing
What we think progress looks like
Learning is messy
What it actually looks like
Overlapping waves theory
1. At any one time children think in a variety of ways
2. These varied ways of thinking compete with each other
3. Cognitive development involves gradual changes in the frequency of these ways of thinking, as well as the introduction of more advanced ways of thinking.
Threshold concepts in English
• Understanding the relationship between grammar and meaning
• Understanding the effect of context, both on writers and readers
• Understanding the need to use supporting evidence for ideas
• An awareness of the ways in which language can affect readers
• Understanding how the structure of a text can produce different effects and meanings
• Understanding that texts can be subjected to analysis to reveal a variety meanings.
Interleaving threshold concepts
Writing WritingReadingAw
aren
ess o
f im
pact
Spel
ling,
pun
ctua
tion
&
gram
mar
Stru
ctur
e &
coh
eren
ce
Anal
ysin
g te
chni
que
Usin
g ev
iden
ce
Und
erst
andi
ng c
onte
xt
Awar
enes
s of i
mpa
ct
Spel
ling,
pun
ctua
tion
&
gram
mar
Stru
ctur
e &
coh
eren
ce
Anal
ysin
g te
chni
que
Usin
g ev
iden
ce
Und
erst
andi
ng c
onte
xt
Awar
enes
s of i
mpa
ct
Spel
ling,
pun
ctua
tion
&
gram
mar
Stru
ctur
e &
coh
eren
ce
Anal
ysin
g te
chni
que
Usin
g ev
iden
ce
Und
erst
andi
ng c
onte
xt
The best of both worlds?
Key messages• Improving learning is more important
than improving performance
• Threshold concepts might help us space & interleave more effectively
• The unpredictability students’ progress is predictable
There’s nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.
@LearningSpylearningspy.co.uk
ddidau@gmail.com