Date post: | 04-Aug-2015 |
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Education |
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Please imagine: In this room…
– Your son or daughter • asleep on a sofa in an empty room
• under a blanket with ‘I GET IT’ printed on it.
• This is being filmed by a film crew with pink hair
• Whilst the director gives them a neck rub and shouts ‘Another take!’
There is no great
secret to revising...
It is a ques*on of being prepared
before you start and
using your *me properly
Be Prepared…and Get Organised…
Have your text books and notes with you, in an ordered way so that you can find anything you need quickly.
Interleaved Prac*ce
When revising a subject, the tempta*on is to do it in ‘blocks’ of topics. Like below:
The problem with this is, is that it doesn’t support the importance of repe**on – which is so important to learning. So rather than revising in ‘topic blocks’ it’s beGer to chunk topics up in a revision programme and interleave them:
This means that you keep coming back to the topics. So, instead of doing a one hour block of revision on
topic 1, do 15 minutes on topic 1, then 15 minutes on topic 2, then the same for topic 3 and 4.
Speed of forgetting depends on difficulty of the learned material, how it is represented, stress, sleep. Memory is developed
a) By using better techniques (e.g. mnemonics)
b) Through repetition based on active recall, especially spaced repetition
KEY FINDINGS
• You must understand the learned material. • You cannot easily learn or remember something you
don’t understand.
UNDERSTANDING
Stress • You must be unstressed for your memory to function
and for you to be able to revise effectively.
By:
– Not leaving to the last minute. – Understanding the material before learning – Having ordered notes. – Having a quiet place to work. – Rehearsing assessment as well as content
• You must be rested. • People in their late teens need 9 hours sleep a night. • Most teenagers are chronically sleep-deprived.
“sleep deprivation produces impairments in cognitive and motor performance equivalent to legally prescribed levels of alcohol intoxication.”
(Williamson, 2000):
REST
Effective Revision needs:
Your son or daughter
• asleep on a sofa in an empty room = Sleep / organised • under a blanket with ‘I GET IT’ printed on it. = MATERIAL THEY
UNDERSTAND • This is being filmed by a film crew with pink hair = INTERESTING
VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS • Whilst the director gives them a neck rub = LACK OF STRESS • and shouts ‘Another take!’ = REPETITION
Why?
• Low challenge. • LiGle thinking required. • Makes the student think that they are ‘doing something’
We all learn in different ways but the most
effective ways include the use of a multi-sensory
approach.
• Notes of notes of notes • Revision Cards / Flash cards • Acronyms • Pictures
A Mixed method is the most effective…
Test yourself
• Past papers
• Revision sessions
• Ask the teachers to set questions
• Do “Question and Answer” sessions with friends
And: web tools • All the sites below are free (in their basic
form).
• www.stixy.com – an online bulletin board • www.mindmeister.com – an online mindmapping tool • www.tumblr.com – a blogging tool • www.weebly.com – a website creation tool • www.wallwisher.com – an online post-it tool • www.wordle.net – an online vocabulary poster tool • www.popplet.com – makes mindmaps
Use the results you get to…
• Go over weaker areas
• Check them
• Have another go!
Remember…the brain builds understanding and remembers through
spaced repetition
Summary
• “Memory is the residue of thought”. • Tes*ng. • Space it out. • Keep asking ‘why’? • Build on what they know. • Explain their steps in problem solving.