Rosenshine's Principles in Action

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Weekly and monthly review are processes for ensuring that we are spacing practice over time, attenuating forgetting and strengthening retrieval. Present new material in small steps with student practice after each step: Only present small amounts of new material at any time, and then assist students as they practice this material’ (p.

The extent to which students complete tasks by themselves depends how far along they are in the process of mastery over the task or skill in question (Sherrington, p. He contrasts it with a study where ‘only’ 73% success was observed, suggesting even this was less effective. The problem with it being a checklist is that, in unsophisticated hands, it becomes a list of ‘non-negotiables’ to be done in every lesson. Where possible, complex concepts, theories, procedures, methods and pieces of knowledge need to be broken down into simpler ones, each of which can be practised as a student develops their understanding of the more complex area to be learned. Modelling can be carried out by, for instance, the use of ‘worked examples’: a form of modelling where a teacher provides ‘a step-by-step demonstration of how to perform a task or how to solve a problem’ (p.Knowledge about language doesn’t mean necessarily that you are good at speaking the language, likewise, you can speak a language well without knowing about all of its parts (like me). If a teacher were, for example, setting class tests and the whole class were regularly scoring 95-100%, the teacher should make the tests harder, to ensure the class is sufficiently stretched and challenged. If we ‘cue’ the review too much, signposting the solution type, we remove an important aspect of thinking and problem solving –‘what do I need to do here? There’s something about really caring about your students that suggests you’re interested in what they have to say and where they have gaps in their understanding.

This strategy aims to give those students who don’t know the answer or get an answer incorrect opportunities to learn from others in the class and to practise. You set a question or task that makes all of your students think about ideas they’ve encountered before, related to today’s lesson, so that they can start to make new links; to continue to build their schema.There doesn’t seem a need to focus on developing individual strategies only, just an awareness that you can’t focus on everything at once. This method of assisting students towards independent learning and mastery over tasks and skills relates to the concept of ‘scaffolding’: temporary instructional supports used to assist learners, which should be gradually withdrawn as students gain competency (Rosenshine, p. I do get why progressing towards certain skills may be considered optimal, but I feel like a lower-to-higher distinction isn’t the best way to frame things.

Asking questions is also important for teachers to receive feedback about how well material has been taught. Agree a focus on small number of the principles – perhaps one of the four strands I explore – with individuals committing to develop and practise them in a specific series of lessons.

For example, for the first principle, ‘Daily review’, Rosenshine describes an experiment in elementary school mathematics where teachers in the experiment spent eight minutes every day reviewing what had been learned by their students. Objective: to ask each student multiple responsive questions, to explore their level of knowledge and understanding. Depending on class sizes, if it were the default approach, a set of students could be chosen each lesson to be asked questions, so there’s roughly an even balance across the students over a term or course. Rosenshine gives the name ‘more effective teachers’ to those teachers whose classrooms made the highest gains in standardised achievement tests (Rosenshine, p. Sherrington provides a succinct overview of the strands in a blog post in which he argues that Rosenshine’s ‘Principles of Instruction’ is ‘THE must-read for all teachers’.

Rosenshine suggests that the advantages of peer learning are likely to be that students have to explain material to one another; that explanations are provided by someone other than the teacher; and the students have the opportunity to receive peer feedback, which promotes engagement and learning (p.My response is that, if you know your class well and create a positive ‘high challenge, low threat’ culture (to borrow from Mary Myatt), then all of these things build confidence. It’s likely that monthly review will span a wider content range than daily review, so that the learning is more synoptic and avoids the ‘cue’ effect. I would agree that there is a need for some deliberate learning, but we probably shouldn’t overstate the case. Working in an international school really makes me think about how some subjects are ‘content’ focused (facts and info), but language is something else.