The Science OF LEARNING

Daily Retrieval has been introduced into our Numeracy and Literacy lessons to great effect Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve highlights how quickly people forget information It concludes that information is forgotten when there is no attempt to retain it The curve suggests that within an hour of the information being delivered, nearly 60% is lost and that after two days only 25% of information is retained

This knowledge has challenged us to increase rates of retention, improve learning outcomes and to research strategies to overcome the curve Our Teaching and Learning Coordinators, Lynda Raymond and Andrea Thwaites, have most capably instructed and led our teachers to develop a shared understanding and capacity to deliver Daily Retrieval We understand the need to make consideration for students with learning difficulties and so retrieval sessions are planned to cater for all students, enabling each to participate, learn and succeed

Daily Retrieval practice requires the bringing forward of information from long-term memory into working memory Humans do this constantly in daily life: remembering a telephone or pin number, an address, a recipe, a character in a book or the words of a song These are all examples of retrieval practice at work

In the classroom, Daily Retrieval provides us with opportunities for our students to recall skills, knowledge and concepts that have already been introduced in class

Literacy and Numeracy lessons commence with Retrieval This is part of the the Explicit Teaching Cycle, which underpins our lessons After Daily Retrieval the next part of the cycle is known as Presentation That is the direct teaching of a new concept or skill Guided practice follows, which provides the opportunity for students to demonstrate and practise the new skill or knowledge and the teacher the opportunity to provide immediate, corrective feedback The Independent Practice stage then enables students to demonstrate the skill and to develop automaticity – the spontaneous recall of information without conscious thought or attention The conclusion of a lesson will often be the re-checking and re-teaching of the new skill or knowledge, known as Cumulative Review