A presentation from the first of the Ryedale Federation Twilight Training Sessions which took place in October where all 4 member schools took part in two training sessions hosted by both Primary and Secondary teaching staff. The evening was an opportunity for staff from the different schools to meet each other, share ideas and teaching practice and participate in two sessions of four which they had prioritised themselves.

1. Making Learning Stick
Federation Training: October 2016.

3. ‘Memory is the residue of
thought.’
‘Teachers must plan lessons
and assessments that make
students think and pay
attention.’
How do we really make them
think about material?

4. Learning to Remember
• 3 Phases – Encoding/Storage/Retrieval
• Working Memory – short term/small capacity
• Permanent Memory – long term
• Iconic Memories - Visual (0.3secs)
• Echoic Memories - Auditory (4-5secs)
• Students learn quicker when they can visualise the concept and
develop mental pictures.
• List A / List B

5. The Power of Emotions
• Stronger the emotions – stronger the
memory
• Co-operative Learning – Powerful learning
experiences become more memorable when
social-emotional memories are part of
learning
• Memory is fluid – The brain revisits,
reorganises and revises based on new inputs.
Less reliable over time.
• Memory storage needs regular attention
• New information is stored in neural circuits
throughout the celebral cortex – stronger the
network – the more resistant to forgetting.
• Robert Winston clip

6. Strategy 1: Interleaving

8. • Stop and Go Traffic • Breaking in a Path

9. ‘Interleaving benefits students’ ability to make important
discriminations between concepts that are easily
confused…by allowing students to notice differences
between two similar concepts.’
(Rohrer 2012)

10. Students using interleaved practice performed worse than their counterparts
using block practice during the practice session but performed better when
tested at a later date.
Dunlosky et al (2013)

11. Interleaving
• Read through the different strategies in the
envelopes.
• Discuss how you could use and adapt these to
support your students memory and retention.

12. Strategy 2: Spaced retrieval practice

13. •The reviews force
retrieval.
•Retrieval creates
learning and embeds
in the long term
memory.
•It also enables
students to practice
pulling information
into their working
memory.

14. Roediger (2005)

15. Leaving time between the sessions (extending the spacing) also improves long term retention.
Dunlosky et al (2013)

16. Not only does testing in this way improve progress…
‘ People tend to think their learning is more complete than
it is.’
‘ Testing and exams are seen as a necessary evil and a
chore.’
(Willingham 2008)

17. PLUS: The power of testing increases…
-With the number of tests taken
-When there’s feedback and discussion after the test
-When the test is more abstract than obvious
-With longer spacing gaps between initially learning the material and being
tested on it, these are better for long term retention. 30 day delays are found
to improve performance.
- The spacing should be 10-20% of the retention time needed. E.g. if you want
them to remember for five years, the testing should be 6-12 months spaced.

18. Spaced Retrieval
• Read through the different strategies in the
envelopes.
• Discuss how you could use and adapt these to
support your students memory and retention.

19. Strategy 3: Embedding Learning

20. ‘The most effective teacher is the teacher who focuses
on embedding knowledge – the teacher who knows
when and how to move students from
surface learning, to deep learning.’
Andy Tharby (2015)

21. The bigger picture• “Framing the Learning.” (Rutherford 2005)
In simplest terms, framing the learning means that the
teacher provides a framework or context for the future
learning that will take place by letting students know what
they will learn, how they will go about learning it, and how
they and their teacher will know that they have
successfully mastered what they were supposed to learn.
• Research shows that content is learned and
remembered better if students understand the
point of what they are learning. Make it clear
to them how each topic fits in to the bigger
picture.
• Making as many links as possible between your
different topics will enable students to fit the
learning into the bigger picture, and this aids
memory.

22. • ‘Learning requires repetition.’ (Carpenter
2014)
• ‘Students need to encounter on at least three
occasions, the complete set of the
information.’ ‘If the information was
incomplete or not experienced on three
occasions, the students didn’t fully learn the
concept.’ (Nuthall, The Hidden lives of
Learners.) In 85% of students tested as part of
the research, this was the case.
• ‘To avoid forgetting, we need to overlearn.’
(Willingham 2008)
• Caveat: Misconceptions and wrong answers
are remembered if they are made 3 times.
The Power of Three

23. Embedding learning
• Read through the different strategies in the
envelopes.
• Discuss how you could use and adapt these to
support your students memory and retention.

24. Strategy 4: SCREAMS

25. SCREAMS
• John Dewey: “We don’t learn from experiences, we learn by
reflecting on them.”
• Reading, itself, does not necessarily lead to learning – Doing,
engaging in two way discourse and thinking will aid learning
and memory. Students are doing, playing with objects,
exploring, experimenting, talking, drawing, writing, listening,
reading, speaking, applying and reflecting on all of these.
• Top Tips

26. SCREAMS
• S – Saying/pronouncing key words
• C – Concept mapping/Word Webs
• R – Reading words in context
• E – Extracting personal links
• A – Active learning experiences
• M – Memory formation (sense making)
• S – Self monitoring for new opportunities to use the new memory

27. SCREAMS
• Read through the different strategies on the
sheet.
• Discuss how you could use and adapt these to
support your students memory and retention.

28. Challenges…

29. •RESOURCES FOR PRINTING

30. TWILIGHT CPD: 18TH October 2016
MAKING LEARNING STICK

31. • S – Saying/pronouncing key words
• C – Concept mapping/Word Webs
• R – Reading words in context
• E – Extracting personal links
• A – Active learning experiences
• M – Memory formation (sense making)
• S – Self monitoring for new opportunities to use the new memory

32. INTERLEAVING: Idea 1
Interleave different topics/ novels/ periods/ exam papers throughout your
schemes of learning.
E.g. rather than studying the entirety of a book/ novel, study one chapter/ part of
this. Then study part of a different book/novel. The study of these novels is then
interleaved.
INTERLEAVING: Idea 2
Interleave within a lesson/ session.
Teach a particular skill/topic/area, break and cover something else.
Then come back to the topic that you covered at the start of the lesson.
INTERLEAVING: Idea 3
Interleave by mixing old topics with new.
For example, tell students that they must use knowledge of their current topic
and ALSO topic X in their responses/ answers during the lesson.
Encourage this through your questioning of students.
An example of this idea
seen in an English lesson:
Students have to interleave
Their knowledge of A
Christmas Carol with An
Inspector Calls.
INTERLEAVING: Idea 4
Interleave through feedback.
Students to look back at the feedback they received on a previous piece of work
and apply the advice and what they learned from that feedback to their current
work.
Would work effectively if from a different topic. The challenge of having to recall
and apply the feedback creates the desirable difficulty.

33. SPACED RETRIEVAL: Idea 1
Pre-test:
Give students a test before they have even started learning
the topic/ unit.
This isn’t for you to test what they already know, but is to help
frame the learning. If our students brains have something on
which to hand the knowledge before they begin learning, it
enables them to learn better.
You can give the students the same tests during and after the
topic to embed and consolidate the learning.
SPACED RETRIEVAL: Idea 2
Start your lesson by testing material from the previous lesson or the
previous topic, or even a topic from last year.
These are low-stakes tests and can be in the form of true/ false, pub
quiz, multiple choice, mind-mapping, fill in the gaps, exam questions,
definitions. Basically anything that requires retrieval from memory
rather than using resources.
An example of a lesson starter test
seen in an English lesson:
SPACED RETRIEVAL: Idea 3
As a homework, ask students to complete mind-maps on
previous topics, without using their books.
They are forced to retrieve what they know and identify gaps
in their knowledge for themselves.
This conscious awareness of what they know and what they
don’t know will help learning stick.
SPACED RETRIEVAL: Idea 4
Ask students to write/ produce their own test (with answers)
for a previous topic, without using any books or resources.
Actually constructing the test is another way of testing them!
They can then use books to check their questions and answers
for accuracy once they have finished.
These tests can then be given to other students to test them.
SPACED RETRIEVAL: Idea 5
Drop in tests without revision and preparation time. This could
be on a topic that was studied months ago.
The need to retrieve the information from long term memory
and move into working memory creates a desirable difficulty
and helps learning stick.
SPACED RETRIEVAL: Idea 6
Cumulative exams and quizzes. Produce tests and quizzes that
cumulate a range of knowledge and skills from across a wide
range of topics. Mix the topics and questions up as much as
possible.
This combines spacing and interleaving and encourages hard
thinking. Hard thinking supports retention and memory.
SPACED RETRIEVAL: Idea 7
Think about how you introduce tests; research shows that if
the testee understands the benefit of testing, they will benefit
more from it.
Talk through the science behind testing and the evidence with
students. Encourage that this is an effective means of learning,
and is not a chore! This will ensure that your testing has
maximum impact.
SPACED RETRIEVAL: Idea 8
The Cornell System. During tasks and note taking in lessons,
students draw a column at one side of their page; in this
column they enter key terms or facts that they think will be
important to remember in future.
At a later date, they can use these lists as a test. For example,
the challenge could be to define the terms.

34. EMBEDDING LEARNING: Idea 1
Introduce key words/ concepts at the start of the topic/ unit.
This could involved giving students a glossary of the topic/
subject.
This gives the students the first exposure to the concept/
vocab/ key term. They will revisit the concepts/vocab/terms as
they learn the topic and again when they are assessed and
tested. This enforces the Power of 3 approach.
EMBEDDING LEARNING: Idea 2
Use WAGOLLS and model/exemplar answers frequently.
Not only does this help teach skills and application, it exposes
the students to the material an additional time as they read
through the model answers.
EMBEDDING LEARNING: Idea 3
Plan three different tasks in a lesson to ensure that students
are not only exposed three times to the material but have to
think about it in three different ways. It is the three different
ways that is crucial.
E.g. teacher explanation, questioning, source analysis, reading,
exam question, mind-map, paired discussion, written work.
Ensure that they have understood correctly each of the three
times.
EMBEDDING LEARNING: Idea 4
Ask students to summarise their own piece of work in a
different way, this could be a good feedback task or extension
task.
E.g. Say it differently. Present it differently. This makes them
revisit and consolidate and think hard / differently about the
topic.
EMBEDDING LEARNING: Idea 5
When questioning a group, ask the same question in a range
of different ways, a number of different times.
Press students to link to other facts/ parts of the topic so that
there is exposure to those topics also.
Repetition of the subject content will reinforce memory.
EMBEDDING LEARNING: Idea 6
Use sets of hexagons (http://pamhook.com/solo-
apps/hexagon-generator/) with key facts and vocab from the
whole course. Students have to tessellate like a honeycomb.
They are forced to find and make links
across the topics and explain them.
This hard thinking will help embed the
learning. Evidence says that the more
complex links, the better the understanding.
EMBEDDING LEARNING: Idea 7
Tell students that they typically need to study for 20% longer
again once they think they have learned something to truly
remember it.
When revising, they should also test themselves until they
NEVER get it wrong or miss things rather than stopping once
they get it correct. Repetition is key to check and ensure it is
embedded.
EMBEDDING LEARNING: Idea 8
Think carefully about the tasks set. What are you actually
trying to get them to learn? How have you asked them to
approach it? Could the task distract from the learning?
For example, if you ask students to learn about X but through
the medium of Y such as: learn about oxbow lakes by writing a
newspaper article. Much of what they will be thinking about is
the article rather than the lakes. This means that some of the
learning or thinking will be lost.

35. Glossary of terms
• Decay Theory – Specific memories and details fade with time.
• Motivated Forgetting – (Repression) Deliberate loss of painful memories.
• Primacy Effect – Remembering information that appeared at the beginning.
• Proactive Interference – Old information interferes with recall of new.
• Recency Effect – Remembering information that appeared at the end.
• Relearning – Learning a second time typically takes less time and effort.
• Retrieval Cues – A clue or prompt that activates the retrieval. Recognition – cue matches information already
in permanent memory. Recall – Active process of searching memory in order to reproduce information.
• Retrieval Failures – Information known to be stored in long term memory cannot be brought to
consciousness.
• Retroactive Interference – When new information interferes with the retrieval of stored memory.
• Tip of the Tongue – A person cannot recall the exact memory item but shows a degree of recall for one or
more charactersistics (I think the name begins with the letter…)