We love to share examples of great teaching on the TLAC blog–especially great teaching that demonstrates core principles of cognitive psychology in action. If you follow the learning science at all you’re probably familiar with the importance of Retrieval Practice: how critical it is to bring previous content back into working memory so students remember…
In this post, I’m going to share a video of Charlotte Pottinger’s classroom at Rivers Primary Academy in Walsall. I’ve been looking forward to sharing it because it’s so lovely on so many levels. I’m going to call it a Retrieval Practice clip because that’s her main purpose–to start her Maths lesson by making sure…
Retrieval Practice is the act of recalling previously encountered information into working memory, or conscious thinking. Brief spurts of Retrieval Practice help students solidify information in their long-term memories, and, importantly, understanding is not learning until it is encoded in long-term memory. We recently had the pleasure of watching Steve Kuninsky conduct some Retrieval Practice with…
Erica Woolway and I had a great visit to University Prep Middle School in the Bronx yesterday. What a warm and positive school with real rigor and a focus on knowledge. Kids focused, worked hard, took pride in their learning and seemed genuinely happy. One of the classes we especially loved was Spencer Davis’ sixth grade…
Had the pleasure of doing a training session for teachers and school leaders in West Texas yesterday at Region 17 Educational Service Center in Lubbock. It was, from my perspective, a great day in which we studied “game film” of teachers. Hopefully it helped folks in the session fall back in love with teaching…