Reflect

Reminder of key takeaways

Ms McShane can begin to improve her instruction by understanding that:

• drawing on existing mental models helps us to learn new information and solve new problems more effectively
• weak prior knowledge can lead to misconceptions. Ms McShane must make the effort to diagnose what her pupils do know, don’t know and misunderstand
• Ms McShane can build on this by reviewing pupil prior knowledge and introducing new material in steps while asking lots of questions
• by carefully activating pupil prior knowledge and challenging pupils’ incorrect beliefs, she can support pupils to develop accurate mental models

Reflect on the following questions

1. What did you see in this module that you already do or have seen in other classrooms?
2. What do you feel is the gap between your current practice and what you have seen in this module?
3. Which of the ‘key takeaways’ do you need to focus on? Where and when might you try to apply them to your teaching?