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A light-hearted look at your new best Friends in the classroom!

Take a stroll to Central Perk with me as I introduce you to six effective learning strategies you may want to get to know better!

Retrieval Practice – Rachel

What you see is what you get. Delightful as they are, it is probably fair to say that neither Rachel, nor retrieval practice, are particularly complicated compared to some of the others. They’re easy to read, likeable and popular! And, like the 90’s hairdo craze inspired by Miss Green, pretty much everyone’s having a go at this one! There’s plenty of examples out there under the # and some really great books to help too such as ‘Powerful Teaching’ by @PoojaAgarwal and @PatriceBain1, and ‘Retrieval Practice’ by @87History.

Chandler – Interleaving

What does he do again...?! No-one understands what Chandler does. And no-one really understands what interleaving does. (OK, some of you do, but be honest, this is the one you shuffled to the bottom of your implementation pile!). It’s the hardest one to get your head around, and there are still large gaps in the research. So, like Chandler trying to explain his job, I’m just going to leave it for now so as not to spoil the moment (but you might like to read my blog on the subject for more info – click here!).

Dual Coding – Monica

Monica is efficient. Obsessively so. And this is the aim of dual coding. You’re trying to get that computationally-efficient message in clear and twice as hard. It might seem easy and simple but, like a swan, a lot has been going on in the background to achieve this organisational magic. Attention to detail is important and this does take some careful time and thought. Many teachers have also moved on to examine the composition, order and logic in the graphic design of their work. Don’t take it too far though folks ;-) You’ve maybe had a little too much @olicav if you catch yourself commenting on someone else’s changes to your perfect document layout with, "let’s see what it looked like in the old spot… just to compare…!”

Elaboration – Ross

He’s gonna tell you 'how' and he’s gonna tell you 'why' - the clever one that adds the details. Some people just aren’t going to know what he’s going on about though. This is how it is with elaboration. Research indicates that using this strategy of adding details to memories isn’t likely to be as effective with novices and they may struggle to know what questions to ask of a topic or lack understanding to answer complex interrogation questions well. But bear with it, some great advice from @AceThatTest can be found here, so don’t be giving this one the Friendly Finger before you’ve tried it!

Concrete Examples – Joey

This one ain’t so much about the theory. This is about making it real and telling it like it is. We understand abstract concepts better when they’re explained using concrete ideas that we can relate to. Like food! But, you do run the risk of making bigger mistakes than trying to share food with Joey (Joey does NOT share food!) by over-focusing your students on real things. @DrSumeracki discovers this to her cost when she tries to teach her students about positive reinforcement using candy.* (No doubt there is some peril in the metaphorical approach I take in this blog also one would imagine!)

Spacing – Phoebe

Sometimes she’s there. Sometimes she’s not. She lives away. You don’t see her for a while. But she’s never gone too long. So you see her again. The gaps in time add to the mystery; have you ever stopped to wonder what happens to her in between though? Well, for Phoebe’s absence gaps unfortunately I can’t help you, but what happens in the gaps between teaching and spaced practice is rather better known and the answer to this is ‘some forgetting’. Doesn’t sound so great, but that’s good in actual fact. A little forgetting is helpful as the effortful retrieval that therefore occurs after time helps to strengthen our memories. So, as Phoebe does at times like shown here, don’t be afraid to take a break.

Central Perk

So, dear learning fans, we finish with some thoughts about getting these all in place. Just as with taking roast beans to the cup, you're going to need to let this percolate. As you ponder on how to take these six into your classroom then you must pause. Take some time. Thing about each one and the role they could each play in your classroom. Each has a place. None are perfect in every situation. All have something to offer.

But don’t leave it too long. Be sure to pour that brew. Because whether it’s downtown NYC cafés or sleepy rural school staffrooms, the pervasive love of great coffee craft no doubt unites us all!

Happy holidays everyone!

Further Reading

Agarwal, P.K., & Bain, P.M. (2019). Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning.

Caviglioli, O. (2019). Dual Coding with Teachers.

Jones, K. (2019). Retrieval Practice: Resources and Research for Every Classroom.

Weinstein, Y., Sumeraki, M., & Caviglioli, O. (2019). Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide.

Notes

*Ironically I was actually unable to recall the exact nature of this example just one hour after re-reading it in ‘Understanding How We Learn’! I could remember the fact that using concrete examples didn’t work too well and that it was to do with sweets, but not the actual topic Megan was trying to teach!!

Coffee is where it's at people. Don't be taken in by Phoebe's tea leaf reading myths like learning styles or the learning pyramid. Warning: not all learning theories were created equal.

F R I E C D S

I did momentarily think whilst preparing this post that I could be really clever and build a FRIENDS mnemonic out of all of these! F – Fab strategies to help you learn , R – Retrieval Practice, I – Interleaving, E – Elaboration, aaagghhhh, D – Dual Coding, S – Spacing. Damn those concrete examples. I’m going to rename them something beginning with N if I can think of anything. Answers on a postcard….