Ahmer Mumtaz

@C_Hendrick It surprises me that many believe that AI will somehow provide a magic pill whereas the real issue is focusing on short term outcomes and in doing so ignoring what leads to actual learning that can be used and built on

The Innovation Illusion: Most of what’s worth knowing in education isn’t new, and most of what’s new isn’t worth knowing.

@george__mack Based on my understanding of how we learn and apply what we learn, these skills can't be taught but rather are an outcome of what we know, it being well organised and practiced.

I can't think of two meta skills more important than real world problem solving and accessing the present moment. The entire education system barely touches either. It will probably be something that is neglected by the media but will be studied by historians

@KateJones_teach It seems that to effectively counter the forgetting curve, retrieval needs to be both timed and personalised. This level of precision is only possible with technology that uses a spaced retrieval algorithm to track each learners progress and deliver questions at the right moment

There are lots of ways to provide opportunities for retrieval practice inside & outside of the classroom. There are pros/cons or benefits/limitations to different techniques that's why I have always embraced variety. As a history teacher MCQs & short answer quizzes are great for knowledge recall but students must also be given opportunities for elaboration & application too.

We've created a free SCIENCE app called Memory Magic to help students improve memory retention with daily quizzes & spaced repetition. Perfect 4 keeping knowledge fresh during the holidays! Teachers, help us spread the word! #chatbiology #chatchemistry #chatphysics #CogSciSc

@open_door_teach @missdcox 😢

Following news from @missdcox’s partner Roy, the world is a bit less wonderful today. Dawn is a huge loss as a colleague and the most spectacular devil’s advocate. I was really enjoying becoming friends. In all you do today, be more Dawn - unapologetically yourself. #teamRE

@missdcox @C_Hendrick @dylanwiliam @effortfuleduktr @EfratFurst @BradleyKBusch things can be remembered and quickly (and effortlessly) applied to solve problems / makes sense of other things. I would say if this is the goal of revision then spaced retrieval and practicing applying knowledge in different contexts would be the strategies.

@missdcox @C_Hendrick @dylanwiliam @effortfuleduktr @EfratFurst @BradleyKBusch What you are saying is that there are strategies that help introduce new material in the most effective way leading to some change in LTM (e.g. to regulate attention, leverage curiosity, ensure meaning based processing etc.) and then there are strategies to help ensure

Can anyone recommend research/papers on strategies for revision (not new learning) beyond retrieval please? What I can find tends to use research on learning to apply to revision when they’re different things @C_Hendrick @dylanwiliam @effortfuleduktr @EfratFurst @BradleyKBusch

@ninja_maths Totally agree. I have a copy.

This is an excellent book. I encourage all those interested in the science of learning to grab a copy. Sections: * Memory & cognition * How the brain works * Prerequisites for learning * How learning can be supported * Teacher activities * Learning in context * Cautionary tales Authors: @P_A_Kirschner, @C_Hendrick. There's a great episode of @rastokke's Chalk and Talk podcast featuring @P_A_Kirschner that I encourage you to check out, too. open.spotify.com/episode/59Mkxv…

@C_Hendrick @dylanwiliam Could it be that how material is processed at the time of first learning, regular spaced retrieval and application (e.g. attempting exam questions) all play a part eventually developing the subject specific problem solving skills we want kids to develop?

Sure but 'heard once; never forgotten' doesn't work for students learning how to read or solve quadratic equations. If only! Bjork's brilliant idea was that we actively inhibit information to prevent proactive interference. This suggests I think that forgetting serves an adaptive purpose; our brains are designed to retain what seems important and discard what doesn't. The problem then is that for most students, the stuff we want them to learn doesn't seem important.

A really important question; how often do students need to encounter something to remember it? I first encountered this idea through Graham Nuthall's work and his estimation based on close examination of students thinking processes that students learn concepts when they encounter it three times (see passage) but it wasn't until I read the literature around varied retrieval, spacing and interleaving that I understood what was going on. Basically it's not so much the amount of times you retrieve something as the ways in which you retrieve it. So what we want is not so much rote repetition 3 times (although this has its place for certain things) so much as a kind of variation in how students retrieve knowledge. We want students to have to retrieve something in a range of different ways, across a range of different times and to apply it in a range of new ways. So when planning retrieval, the key things are: 1. Structuring learning so concepts are revisited through different activities and assessment types. 2. Ensuring retrieval occurs across distributed time intervals. 3. Creating opportunities for students to apply knowledge in novel contexts. 4. Designing assessments that require different forms of processing the same material. There is a broad consensus that varied retrieval practice enhances long-term retention significantly more than simple repetition or rereading. When students encounter material through different modalities and contexts, they develop multiple retrieval pathways to access that information.

@Emma_Turner75 As a parent I hope the word ability is not used to quantify their ability to learn but rather their ability to perform based on what they know.

There’s a phrase I often hear in education that makes me sad. It’s when I hear a colleague refer to a child or group as ‘my lowers’. That child is someone’s baby and I’d be so sad as a parent to hear them referred to and labelled in this way as somehow less or lacking.

@MmeLockhartLDSB @VIUniversity @AnaVieira21C We built a system that implements a spaced retrieval algorithm to disrupt forgetting.

@Teacher_Fulton @hruizmartin The crazy thing is that in most classes spaced retrieval is done but done ineffectively.

Spaced practice works. “Although spaced practice has a beneficial effect on its own, research also shows that if spaced practice sessions involve retrieval, its impact on learning is much greater than if they are dedicated to restudying.” —@hruizmartin, #HowDoWeLearn p53

@aniqapirzada That's an interesting idea. I have been involved in a project to enable teachers to (properly) incorporate spaced retrieval in their teaching. The aim is to ensure both high storage and retrieval strength of learnt material. Would love to tell you more about it.

@Rahat Not really, I have made a GPT for generating retrieval tasks eg for low stakes starter tasks but it's currently a WIP

If you have been with me on my Twitter journey you will know how much I love Guided Reading Tasks! I have created a GPT to help generate these tasks. Please read my article and have a go at it yourself and do let me know what you think! #edutwitter tinyurl.com/z2w343yr

@MrLandesman @MJMA_Ed I am not a teacher but a parent who noticed that while moving through the years my kids didn't understand or retained what they were being taught. I started reading about the science of learning and (unfortunately) I definitely know a lot more about it then a lot of teachers

Educational textbooks and graduate schools do not have any cognitive science in them. @MJMA_Ed #rEDDE

@MrZachG Absolutely stand behind our implementation of an automated and personalised spaced retrieval system. It's about time that teachers do retrieval right!

If you’re going to stand behind an educational product, choose one that you’ve a) personally used, b) saw better results for kids than you had without it, c) would save people’s time and enable them to do their jobs better, d) is going to give a lot of value for their money.

@aisha_c10 .

@ImpactWales It seems like the way retrieval practice is done in schools is not effective. In most cases its do nows with a few questions from previous lessons. I think technology is necessary to do retrieval practice that actually leads to high storage and retrieval strength.

NEW - Retrieval Practice is one of the most well replicated learning strategies from research. BUT, which type of quizzing is best for which level of expertise? Check out our sketchnote to see our suggestions. For teacher professional learning informed by research, contact us enquiries@impact.wales

@C_Hendrick Could anyone give an example to illustrate?

I keep coming back to this book again and again. In many ways I think it’s the most important work about learning and memory in the last 50 years or so. The Ebbinghaus tradition has given us a rather misleading concept of learning and memory for education which Ausubel (and Bartlett before him) correct. Essentially remembering is not a neutral act, it’s defined by meaning and is far more about imbrication than linear retrieval. (BTW I’ll be talking about this and more at #rEDDE this weekend.)

@C_Hendrick Would it be correct to assume that this applies more to retrieval practice that requires an extended answer / solution compared to MCQ or simple recall cased retrieval?

Why do some people benefit more from testing than others? New study 🔓 shows that the benefits of testing for learning depend on how much working memory (WM) an individual has. People with higher WM capacity benefit more from testing, especially with difficult material, while those with lower WM capacity may find testing less effective unless they receive feedback or work with simpler material. I think it's very interesting how this study aligns with the desirable difficulty framework, see this paragraph ⬇️ nature.com/articles/s4153…