WELL-BEING
LEARNING
Rosenshine’s Principles in Action at Bangkok Patana School By Carly Ellis and Aidan McDonagh, Learning and Teaching Advisors, Secondary School
A
t Bangkok Patana School we are committed to developing our students to achieve their full potential as independent, motivated and engaged learners. Our passionate teaching staff make this possible by continuously striving to enhance their own professional learning. They work collaboratively in teams, both within faculties and across multiple subjects. In Term 1 the staff focused on a book called Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington. This concise book summarises the work of Barak Rosenshine, a psychology professor and classroom teacher whose extensive research identified 10 ‘Principles of Effective Instruction’ for teachers. Tom Sherrington groups the 10 principles into four different strands: Reviewing Material, Questioning, Sequencing Concepts/ Modelling and Stages of Practice. He then expands on each of the principles using academic research as well as his own experience as a teacher and school leader in the UK and abroad. Bangkok Patana staff received the book during the first day of school in August. Tom Sherrington Visits Bangkok Patana School We were fortunate enough to have Tom Sherrington visit the school virtually in October, where he expanded upon some of his writing and worked with teachers to apply the principles to the Bangkok Patana context. Teachers spent time discussing memory; the limits of our working memory, how to cement knowledge in long term memory, and lastly how to retrieve that information. The trick being that our working 10
• Bangkok Patana School
memory is limited, we can only hold about five to seven items in our working memory at one time. Therefore, teachers need to help students to consolidate their understanding in the limitless longterm memory and build upon previously learned knowledge. One teacher commented that “Both speakers were excellent. The resources which Tom used in particular, drawn from Rosenshine’s Principles in Action, were clear, interesting and relevant. I appreciated the way in which Tom used examples across many different subject areas and topics in order clarify what these principles entail”
Secondary Workshop
The following day in the Secondary workshop, Tom and teachers focussed on Strand 1: Reviewing Material. Studies have shown that students should start each lesson with a small review
of the previous lesson’s content, so they can build upon the previous knowledge learned. This helps students build and secure their schemas. Additionally, students need spaced practice over the weeks and months at school to give them the opportunity to remember topics and material from the past. This concept is called retrieval practice. Tom gave teachers some hands-on ideas and strategies to help our students remember and retrieve all the information they process in the school days, weeks and months. These include: short quizzes, brain dumps, knowledge organisers and flash cards. Retrieval practice is not only great for revision (Year 11 and Year 13!) but also helps students to remember content in the long term. One teacher reflected that they will be “Dedicating more lesson time to teach and model recall techniques and strategies to provide students with the skills necessary to study independently at home.”
