Why weren't you there?

Reading time - 5 mins

Keynote Speech – Baronness Estelle Morris

As we filed into the room to take our seats I could sense a real energy and purpose about the place, many were present who had battled through treacherous conditions to get to the venue epitomising their dedication to their craft.

I could dedicate an entire blog to this keynote speech, but I will stick to the key takeaways.

‘Research has the significant power to change education, if we have the passion, ambition and the knowledge’

This is based on the idea of teaching as a profession having a shared body knowledge that is evidence based, so that new teachers don’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel but can stand on the shoulders of the giants that preceded them. If we want to truly progress ourselves as teachers and the profession, we need to be the next set of shoulders upon which the next generation of educators will stand.

‘What makes a movement?’

Estelle also discussed the feeling she had that evidence informed education is now becoming a movement, and this could be defined as having 5 features – a common cause, vision and values, inclusive, learns from experience and an urgency for change.

I believe this caused a great deal of reflection and excitement in the room and it certainly did for me, wondering how I could contribute to this movement in my own ways.

Estelle also highlighted how so much of what we are doing now is teacher led, the Education Endowment Foundation, ResearchED etc.

Be honest about the problems

It was also noted that we have to acknowledge and face the problems that exist in educational research

1. Research is often slow and schools sometimes would prioritise a quick fix
2. Consistency of findings – examples include conflicting reports on the value of TAs within the classroom
3. Some heads don’t care – a common theme throughout this conference was the varying levels of support staff felt for these initiatives from their SLTs, this support is critical to change
4. Implementation of research faithfully – if results aren’t immediate can we trust educators and institutions to follow recommendations faithfully?
5. Funding as ever is a hot topic issue

Session 1 – Science of Learning with Lia Commissar (@misscommissa @WTeducation)

Can you define learning

Right at the start of the session Lia asked if people could define what learning was, it was surprisingly difficult for a group of educators with varying experience to agree, this prompted a lot of discussion about various memory stores and experiences which was really stimulating.

A bridge too far

I feel I could only do this section injustice if I tried to sum it up, however my main takeaway from this was that there is a huge amount of difficulty in translating ideas from science into the classroom, with conflicts between research fields and ability to faithfully implement recommendations. Furthermore, it was highlighted that the language we use needs to be made more accurate and fit for purpose

Session 2 – Retrieval Practice with Efrat Furst (@Efratfurst)

Retrieval Malleability

One of the key takeaways I took from this session was that when we retrieve information it becomes malleable, therefore allowing for long term modifications – erasure, updating or enhancing. Adding to this the post activation experience has a significant impact.

Students love of the short-term gain

It was shown through evidence that testing and retrieval were not as effective as rote memorising in the short term, however in the long term it was shown to be significantly more effective. Why do students not adopt this method? Because they are only interested in the easier short-term gains and cannot predict the long term.

Therefore, to fully engrain this technique we need to shift learners from the mentality of short term difficulty to long term goals.

Benefits of retrieval practicelearning is a location you would like to get to, retrieval practice allows you to have multiple routes and ways of getting there.

Session 3 – Ditch Revision and start learning from the first lesson with Dawn Cox (@MissDCox)

Quick 1-10

This is actually something I regularly use in my KS4 lessons so I was interested on Dawn’s          perspective and implementation. Every lesson Dawn starts with a 1-10 quiz on blank paper, she will split the questions between content taken all over the course, thereby continuously practising retrieval. She was not interested in the score of students, but rather that they had the correct answers, and maybe they will get it right next time.

I do this with my year 11s every lesson using a few questions from every topic and while it does take up lesson time, I think they have found it beneficial, and hope this pays off come exam time!

Plan your course with Interleaving

I absolutely loved how Dawn had designed her RE KS4 course, instead of being very linear there was continuous bouncing back and forth between modules and concepts, this forces students to retrieve regularly and creates connections between topics

Session 4 – Evidence in practice: from evidence to classroom practice with Karen Roskilly and Kate Mouncey (@sandresearch @MissRoskilly)

Effective feedback

It was highlighted just how much time we take to give written feedback, but are we doing everything to ensure that this feedback is effective? It is really important to ensure that students get a chance to feedback on your comments, and feedback ‘should be more work for the recipient than the donor’  (Dylan William)
Ideas included React/close the gap tasks, checklists, nor giving grades (a particular favourite of mine but one harder to implement without support from higher up in the school I feel) and peer and self-assessment

Metacognition

We were presented information about how students who are higher attainers tend to have a higher degree of metacognition – they think about their thinking. This is an incredibly effective technique and some ways of implementing this were by thinking aloud and modelling in a classroom (I think walking talking mocks are a fantastic example of this, but regularity would make it even more effective) and exam wrappers that ask students to reflect on their revision more fully to help understand where they can improve – its amazing how many students will still spend hours rewriting and highlighting when this time could be used so much more effectively!

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed my day at ResearchED St Albans, it had a brilliant cast of speakers who were very knowledgeable in their fields, it was very interesting to see different peoples styles and I have many ideas I want to take away, I also had a good chance to chat with colleagues from all around and in particular I had a really good (if too short!) discussion with @candidajavald.

The biggest takeaway for me from this experience is to not just let it lie here, I need to apply these things I’ve learnt, question them, engage with the speakers about certain topics and finally become a more reflective practitioner. Starting with designing a reflective exam wrapper and close the gap for my year 11 students who have just taken their mocks.

It was also an excellent chance to meet and get to know some of my future colleagues when I will be joining Sandringham this summer term.

Please find and follow all the fantastic speakers at the link below:
https://sandringham.researchschool.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/researchED-programme.pdf
I will also update with the location of all the presentations when it becomes available!