What you will learn

Instructions

• Look over the statements covered in this Block.
• Watch the video, which introduces what you will learn in this Block and why it is important.
• Take your reflections, and any questions you have, to discuss in your first mentor session.

In this Block, you will learn the following:

Learn that:

• Learning involves a lasting change in pupils’ capabilities or understanding. - Prior knowledge plays an important role in how pupils learn; committing some key facts to their long-term memory is likely to help pupils learn more complex ideas.
• An important factor in learning is memory, which can be thought of as comprising two elements: working memory and long-term memory.
• Working memory is where information that is being actively processed is held, but its capacity is limited and can be overloaded.
• Long-term memory can be considered as a store of knowledge that changes as pupils learn by integrating new ideas with existing knowledge.
• Where prior knowledge is weak, pupils are more likely to develop misconceptions, particularly if new ideas are introduced too quickly.
• Worked examples that take pupils through each step of a new process are also likely to support pupils to learn.
• In all subject areas, pupils learn new ideas by linking those ideas to existing knowledge, organising this knowledge into increasingly complex mental models (or “schemata”); carefully sequencing teaching to facilitate this process is important.

Learn how to avoid overloading working memory, by:

• Taking into account pupils’ prior knowledge when planning how much new information to introduce.
• Breaking complex material into smaller steps (e.g. using partially completed examples to focus pupils on the specific steps).
• Reducing distractions that take attention away from what is being taught (e.g. keeping the complexity of a task to a minimum, so that attention is focused on the content).

Learn how to build on pupils’ prior knowledge, by:

• Identifying possible misconceptions and planning how to prevent these forming.
• Linking what pupils already know to what is being taught (e.g. explaining how new content builds on what is already known).
• Sequencing lessons so that pupils secure foundational knowledge before encountering more complex content.
• Encouraging pupils to share emerging understanding and points of confusion so that misconceptions can be addressed