Induction tutor materials
Training session - establishing secure knowledge
Duration: 60 minutes
Session objectives
Learn that:
- 3.3. Ensuring pupils master foundational concepts and knowledge before moving on is likely to build pupils’ confidence and help them succeed.
- 3.5. Explicitly teaching pupils the knowledge and skills they need to succeed within particular subject areas is beneficial.
- 3.6. In order for pupils to think critically, they must have a secure understanding of knowledge within the subject area they are being asked to think critically about.
Learn how to:
Support pupils to build increasingly complex mental models, by:
- 3h. Drawing explicit links between new content and the core concepts and principles in the subject.
Help pupils apply knowledge and skills to other contexts, by:
- 3k. Ensuring pupils have relevant domain-specific knowledge, especially when being asked to think critically within a subject.
How to prepare for the session
Read the ECT’s self-study materials for this topic.
You may also find it useful to read:
Session structure:
Introduction to the session (10 minutes)
Welcome ECTs and explain the focus for the session.
Think, pair, share activity: Ask, what’s meant by ‘foundational concepts and knowledge’?
Answers may include:
- the key concepts within the subjects you teach
- the key knowledge within the subjects you teach
- all the things that a pupil will need to know to be successful in the subjects you teach
- all learning will be based on these concepts or knowledge
Ask, why is it important to define these in your subject?
Ensure pupils master foundational concepts and knowledge before moving on (15 minutes)
ECTs might feel as though the amount of content they need to cover makes it very challenging to sequence effective learning. It might feel as though taking time to secure learning in memory is a luxury that they cannot afford.
Emphasise that racing through content without embedding and rehearsing is not going to result in progress.
Share one of the short lesson observation reports below. You can select whichever is most relevant for the ECTs you’re working with.
A) An observer joins a secondary geography lesson on sustainable development. The pupils have been asked to compare approaches to sustainable development in a higher income country and a lower income country. The pupils have been given a text that includes case study examples of Kirklees and Bali which they are comparing. Pupils work so far shows that most are using the text provided to extract detail about each country. However, pupils are not relating the detailed extract from the text to the question provided. In the pupils’ writing, it is not clear how the content they include relates to the idea of sustainable development, and pupils do not explicitly write about the different approaches to sustainable development.
Pupils put up their hands to ask how much they need to write. The teacher responds that they need at least two approaches for each country. One child asks if the teacher can check she has written the right things. This child has identified the problems such as traffic congestion, but not possible approaches. Pupils are using a range of vocabulary from the text, e.g. ‘population density’, ‘flexible working’, ‘pesticides’ and ‘crop rotation’. However, when asked what these words mean, many pupils are unsure. Some are not sure if Kirklees is in the UK and they don’t know where Bali is. When they are asked about what is meant by sustainable development, some pupils cannot say and others say something vague about ‘it’s to do with the environment’. When pupils are asked if they have learned about sustainable development in other countries or regions, pupils say they have not. Pupils’ books show that they have covered topics such as population and arable farming, but they are not able to use this learning to recognise terms related to this new topic.B) An observer joins a Year 2 primary lesson on the Great Fire of London. The pupils have been asked to plan how they will build a model of a typical house from the period based on accessing a range of written and video sources. Pupils are animatedly discussing how they will build their models and what type of houses they will create. One pupil puts up their hand and asks if they can build it as big as they want so they could actually live in it? The teacher explains that a model should not be big enough to live in and they will also need to think about the actual size that houses were at this time.
Another pupil asks if they can use green card when they make their model so they have a green house? The teacher responds asking the pupil to think about what material houses would have been made out of at this time to which the pupil is unsure so the teacher finds the paragraph in one of the texts which explains that houses were made of timber and thatch and directs the pupil to read it. The teacher notices that no pupils are looking at their sources anymore and so calls the class back together. The teacher asks the class what houses were made out of at the time. The pupil who has just read the paragraph calls out timber and thatch. The teacher asks the pupil to explain what this means but they are unable to and no other pupil is able to explain it.
Ask ECTs how the teacher concerned has considered:
- what pupils most need to pay most attention to in the task?
- the extent to which pupils have mastered foundational concepts and knowledge needed to access this task?
- the sequence of activities that most enables learning?
- issues of cognitive load in this lesson?
Ask ECTs to consider:
- how might it feel to be a pupil in this lesson?
- what advice might you give to this teacher?
To think critically, pupils need to have a secure understanding of the knowledge within the subject (15 minutes)
Ask ECTs to consider the example they’ve just been looking at. Ask, were the pupils able to think critically in this lesson about sustainable development? Why, or why not?
Ask ECTs to work in groups and discuss examples from their own teaching of where pupils need to have a secure understanding of the knowledge within the subject before being asked to think critically.
Ask ECTs to review the range of scenarios below and consider:
- what are pupils being asked to think critically about?
- what foundational knowledge needs to be taught in order for the pupils to succeed?
- how might that learning be sequenced over a series of lessons?
| Scenario | Year group and subject/topic | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6: Mathematics | To be able to add mixed numbers without a calculator, including fractions, for example 5. 35 35 + 6 |
| 2 | 11: English | To analyse how Shakespeare presents the theme of loyalty in this extract from Macbeth? |
| 3 | 1: Science | To predict which objects will float |
| 4 | 5: History | Describe a day in the life of a ‘chimney boy’ in Victorian England |
| 5 | 9: Science | Design an experiment to determine the value of acceleration due to gravity |
| 6 | 7: MFL | Hold a conversation in the target language with a partner about what activities they enjoy outside of school |
| 7 | EYFS: Measuring comparisons | Categorise items into groups, for example, longer/shorter, thinner/fatter, heavier/ lighter |
| 8 | 8: PE (Dance) | Create a warm-up routine for a partner |
Gather feedback from ECTs. Ask:
- how did you identify what pupils were being asked to think critically about?
- how did this help you work out what foundational knowledge needed to be taught in order for the pupils to succeed?
- why is this process useful when planning?- what does it show us?
- what are the dangers of missing out these steps?
- how does following this process help you sequence learning?
Explicit teaching of knowledge and skills helps pupils to succeed (15 minutes)
ECTs covered the importance of explicit teaching in Year 1.
Recap that where a fundamental idea or concept has been identified for pupils to master, you should not leave it to chance that pupils will learn it. When a teacher is explicit, and clearly directs pupils to the knowledge and skills needed in a particular subject area, they help to structure the acquisition of new learning.
Ask, what might explicit teaching include?
You could use a ‘Think, pair, share’ activity to gather responses. These might include:
- explicitly teaching key vocabulary pupils will need for the topic
- modelling answers or processes on the board
- carefully pacing explanations with appropriate use of questioning and practice time
- using a variety of examples and non-examples
- not expecting pupils to work out concepts for themselves, and using methods like discussion with their peers or inductive reasoning instead
Ask, what are the characteristics of explicit teaching?
ECTs could discuss this in groups and compile a list.
Go through the lists together and pick out anything that they missed. Lists should include:
- slow introduction of new concepts
- using definitions in explanations
- introducing concepts carefully through sequenced examples and non-examples
- using multiple examples to reinforce understanding by showing the common features between them
- using examples and non-examples helps to understand boundary conditions (the rules, what’s included, what’s not) and make abstract or conceptual understanding more concrete
- regular, purposeful pupil practice
- regular review of past material
- takes into account the limitations of working memory
- uses economy of language
- incorporates misconceptions
Planning for action (5 mins)
Ask ECTs:
- what will you now do differently in your practice?
- what will you put into action in your lessons?