#lfe15 learning is invisible
TRANSCRIPT
Is Learning Invisible?
David Didau
London Festival of Education
28th February 2015
We can’t see when we’re
wrong
If it looks like a duck…
Two definitions of learning:
1. The long-term retention and transfer of knowledge and skills
2. A change in how the world is understood.
Performance
Learning
Warsaw
We believe “engaging in learning activities…transfers the content of the activity to the mind of the student…”
But “as learning occurs, so does forgetting…”
“learning takes time and is not
encapsulated in the visible here-and-now
of classroom activities.”
Graham Nuthall (2005)
The input/output myth
The myth of progress
What we think
progress looks like
What it actually
looks like
Or maybe...?
Not
knowin
g
Knowing
Learning vs performance
• We can only infer learning from
performance
• Performance is a very poor indicator of
learning
• Reducing performance might actually
increase learning
‘Poor proxies’ for learning
• Students are busy: lots of work is done (especially written work)
• Students are engaged, interested, motivated
• Students are getting attention: feedback, explanations
• Classroom is ordered, calm, under control
• Curriculum has been ‘covered’ (i.e. presented to students in some form)
• (At least some) students have supplied correct answers (whether or not they really understood them or could reproduce them independently)
Robert Coe, Improving Education: a triumph of hope over
experience
So where does that leave us?
• Is lesson observation wrong?
The MET Project
• If a lesson is given a top grade, there’s
a 78% chance a second observer will
give a different grade
• If a lesson is given a bottom grade,
there’s a 90% chance a second
observer will give a different grade.
http://www.metproject.org/downloads/MET_Composite_Estimator_of_Effective_Tea
ching_Research_Paper.pdf
Do we know a successful
teacher when we see one?
• Fewer than 1% of lessons judged
inadequate are genuinely inadequate
• Only 4% of lessons judged outstanding
actually produce outstanding learning
gains
• Overall, 63% of judgements will be wrong
Strong, M., Gargani, J., & Hacifazlioglu, O. (2011). Do we know a successful teacher
when we see one? Experiments in the identification of effective teachers. Journal of
Teacher Education, 62(4), 367–382.
So where does that leave us?
• Is lesson observation wrong?
• What about AfL?
• Outstanding teaching?
• Marking & feedback?
What can we do?
• Increasing retrieval strength only
improves performance
• Increasing storage strength depends
on the power of forgetting:
The (New) Theory of Disuse
Retrieval strength (RS)
Sto
rag
e s
tre
ng
th (
SS) Current
telephone number
New
telephone
number
Telephone
number you had 20
years ago
What you
learn in this
session
“As learning occurs, so does
forgetting…”
Desirable difficulties
– Spacing
– Interleaving
– Variability
– Testing
– Reducing & delaying feedback
Hermann Ebbinghaus, 1885
The spacing effect
About
90%?
Blocking vs interleaving
Topic
1
Topic
2Topic
3Topic
4Topic
5Topic
6
Term 1 Term 2 Term 3 Term 4 Term 5 Term 6
Blocking vs interleavingTo
pic
1
Top
ic 6
Top
ic 4
Top
ic 3
Top
ic 5
Top
ic 2
1
643 521
12
Or…
Term 1 Term 2 Term 3 Term 4 Term 5 Term 6
Liminality & threshold concepts
Threshold concepts in English
Impact
Grammar
Structure
Analysis
Evidence
Context
The Testing Effect
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
Feedback: What Hattie
actually says 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) The Power of Feedback (2007)
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.
The Power of Feedback (2007)
Feedback: What Hattie
actually says
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
Bjork on feedback
• 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.
Learning vs Performance (2013)
But, why?
• Immediate feedback can prevent memorisation
• Students can become dependent
• Slows down pace of learning
• Providing feedback of success is a waste of effort (opportunity cost)
What should we do?
• Separate learning from performance
• Introduce desirable difficulties
• Question your assumptions – be
prepared to ‘murder your darlings’.
