Post on 06-May-2015
From error springs insight. Erring [is] vital to any process of invention and creation. How can we trust when perception is accurate and when it is not? We cannot.
Katherine Schultz, Being Wrong
The Illusion of Naïve Realism
Katherine Schultz, Being Wrong
The Illusion of Naïve Realism
Katherine Schultz, Being Wrong
• Our brains are not rational or logical: we protect ourselves from being wrong – Confirmation bias – The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight – The Backfire Effect – Sunk Cost Fallacy – The Anchoring Effect
David McRaney, You Are Not So Smart
• You can see learning
• Increasing pupils’ performance is a good thing
• Outstanding lessons are a good thing • Feedback is always good (AfL)
• We can only infer learning from performance
• Performance is a very poor indicator of learning
• Reducing performance might actually increase learning
We believe “engaging in learning activities…transfers the content of the activity to the mind of the student…
as learning occurs, so does forgetting…
learning takes time and is not encapsulated in the visible here-and-now of classroom activities.”
Graham Nuthall
The input/output myth
Rob Coe
Introducing difficulties at the point of acquisition increases long term retention and transfer.
The (New) Theory of Disuse
Retrieval strength
Sto
rag
e s
tre
ng
th
Old friend’s telephone
number
New friend’s telephone
number
Telephone number you had 20 years
ago
What you learn in this
session
• Increasing retrieval strength only improves performance
• Increasing storage strength depends on the power of forgetting: – Spacing – Interleaving – Variability – Testing
Hermann Ebbinghaus, 1885
Blocking vs interleaving
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Which study pattern will result in the best test results?
1. STUDY STUDY STUDY STUDY – TEST 2. STUDY STUDY STUDY TEST – TEST 3. STUDY STUDY TEST TEST – TEST 4. STUDY TEST TEST TEST - TEST
• Sustained & rapid progress • Consistently high expectations • Excellent subject knowledge • Systematic, accurate assessment • Well judged, imaginative teaching strategies • Sharply focused & timely support • Enthusiasm, participation & commitment • Resilience, confidence & independence • Frequent & consistently high quality feedback • Engagement, courtesy, collaboration &
cooperation
✓ ✓
✗
✗
? ?
? ? ?
?
• ‘Outstanding’ lessons focus on performance at the expense of learning
• There is no such thing as an outstanding lesson
• Don’t get me started on lesson grades!
The power of feedback
Response type
Feedback indicates performance…
exceeds goal falls short of goal
Change behaviour
Exert less effort Increase effort
Change goal Increase aspiration Reduce aspiration
Abandon goal Decide goal is too easy
Decide goal is too hard
Reject feedback Feedback is ignored Feedback is ignored
Dylan Wiliam
Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement, but this impact can be either positive or negative. Simply providing more feedback is not the answer, because it is necessary to consider the nature of the feedback, the timing, and how the student ‘receives’ this feedback (or, better, actively seeks the feedback)
With inefficient learners, it is better for a teacher to provide elaborations through instruction than to provide feedback on poorly understood concepts… Feedback can only build on something; it is of little use when there is no initial learning or surface information.
• Empirical evidence suggests that delaying, reducing, and summarizing feedback can be better for long-term learning than providing immediate, trial-by-trial feedback.
• Numerous studies—some of them dating
back decades—have shown that frequent and immediate feedback can, contrary to intuition, degrade learning.
• Working memory is severely limited
• Experts think differently to novices
• Our brains are not designed for thinking.
@websofsubstance
@websofsubstance
@websofsubstance
• Abandon the Cult of Outstanding
• Be careful about how we give feedback
• Introduce ‘desirable difficulties’
• Question all your assumptions – be prepared to ‘murder your darlings’
David Didau @LearningSpy
www.learningspy.co.uk ddidau@gmail.com