Recently, I have been thinking about how to prepare my pupils to meet
the increased demands of the GCSE reforms. The changes will result in pupils
sitting more linear examinations not to mention: increased content with more
complex topics to master.
There are two strategies that I have worked on and used within my
own practice. They are both highly effective and easy to implement. I regularly
test pupils to help them acquire the
extensive amount of knowledge they require. I also develop my pupils’ ability
to think like experts in order to
help them become more effective at applying their knowledge during examinations.
Increase testing
Generally, tests are considered for assessment purposes only.
Teachers, in the main, have a negative perception of testing due to the
significant increases in the number of tests that pupils now have to take and
the pressures associated with those tests; when in actuality, testing is proven
to be one of the most effective tools to optimise learning!
Testing has to be thought of as in a pedagogical sense. Testing, when used to aid learning, engages pupils in the practice of recalling information learnt
and is often referred to as ‘retrieval practice’. Retrieval practice helps
consolidate the memory by strengthening and multiplying the neural routes by
which the knowledge can later be retrieved more readily. Research proves that
retrieval practice makes learning stick far better than re-exposure.
This does not mean that pupils should be sitting test papers every
week! However, gains in learning can be achieved if they are engaged in
quizzing and low stakes testing. To achieve this I often present pupils with a
‘do now’ task when they arrive to a lesson. This is simply a short activity
that requires them to recall previously learnt material. There are a variety of
activities that can be used to achieve this, including:
ü Daily, weekly, monthly review of
content via quizzing.
ü Cooperative learning structures
(quiz-quiz-trade, rally coach, inside-outside circle etc).
ü Key word games.
ü Cue card activities.
ü Various questioning-strategies.
ü The use of ICT (e.g. Kahoot)
ü Interleaving and spacing out
practice to increase effort required to retrieve learned content.
Teaching pupils to think like experts
‘Pupils are poor at transferring
knowledge learned in one context to another without explicit instruction and
advice’ (David Didau)
As teachers we focus on delivering the content of our subject and when we do focus
on answering exam questions we continue to prompt pupils until we get the correct
answer. But how often do we focus on how to tackle the question?
We have probably all
taught a topic where pupils have successfully answered a question to a
proficient level in class only for them to struggle with a very similar
question in a test because the question is phrased slightly differently.
Pupils have poor
metacognition; they see the surface of examination questions (what it is about)
rather than recognising its deep structure (what it is asking). We are experts in our subjects. When
presented with an exam question we analyse it to determine what it is about,
what it is asking, the level of detail required in the response and exactly
what is needed to gain full marks. Our pupils do not naturally possess this
ability; they often rush to the answer without carefully considering what it is
asking. To
enable pupils to think like experts we need to develop their metacognitive
skills.
Metacognition is about how we go about
preparing pupils to deal with the problems that they face. Basically, as the
quote above suggests, it is ‘thinking about thinking’. Pupils with
well-developed metacognitive skills can think through a problem or approach a
task, select appropriate strategies and resolve the problem more successfully.
Teachers need to provide scaffolds
to help pupils develop their metacognitive skills by making the frameworks for
meta-cognition explicit. Deliberately building this type of framework into teaching
can help pupils develop thought processes that enable them to effectively
answer questions/address the problems that they are faced with.
I used ‘cover it in custard’ as a meta-cognitive scaffold (see
image above) with my pupils to help them deconstruct exam questions and improve their examination performance.
As a result of this strategy I have observed:
ü Reductions in the number of silly mistakes
pupils have been making.
ü More clear and concise answers and less waffle,
ü Answers have a more logical structure.
ü An increase in confidence – pupils feel they
are now in control of the paper.
ü Less time wasted.
It was
not easy to convince all pupils to adopt this strategy initially. I have found that some
pupils felt it was too much effort or too time consuming, but it is important
to understand that ‘thinking like an expert’ does not come naturally. As David
Didau suggested in his post about metacognition; pupils
not only need meta-cognition they also need to know that they need it –
and they need to be to be told this. I had to ensure that pupils
repeatedly engaged with and practiced using the CUSTARD scaffold and, over
time, this way of thinking became habitual.
If we want our pupils to adopt
these models, we need to provide opportunities for them to observe ‘expert
thinking’– teachers need to demonstrate ‘thinking out loud’. Explicitly modeling
how, we as teachers, use the same metacognitive frameworks helps pupils to
understand that they need to adopt this practice. This can be achieved in a
number of ways:
ü
Walking Talking Mock – The
teacher talks through their thought processes as they work through questions.
ü
Annotated paper (annotated
with thoughts only)
ü
Live modelling – often using
a document camera.
ü
Pupil to pupil modelling.
ü
Modelling the thinking and
the answer.
ü
Metacognitive workbook
Thinking about how to meet the increased demands of the GCSE
reforms? Test your pupils more and scaffold and model to increase their ability
to think like experts. Judging by the amount of custard my year 11s bought me at
the end of this year, they seemed to appreciate the advice!
For more information on preparing pupils for examinations and
metacognition you may wish to read the blog posts below:
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