Aaron Wong > Recent Status Updates

Active learning:
• uses activities and/or discussions e.g. group work
• higher-order thinking
• creating, consolidating, reinforcing, extending neural links in LTM
• information in LTM (e.g. definitions, examples, accumulated associations) are foundation for conceptual understanding (absorbing, retaining, analysing new information) & springboard for creativity
- p. 40-41

Active learning makes students 33% less likely to fail compared to talk&chalk; grades improved by 6%. - p. 39

Error analysis — identify, explain, fix errors in poor sentences
1. Work through with private think time
2. Compare responses with partner, increasing accountability & social motivation
3. Provide much practice & immediate corrective feedback
- p. 34-35

Teachers & working memory:
• students are worse in self-directed learning, and better with teacher direction
• practice builds info into long-term memory thru quick & automatic procedural learning pathway
• LTM enhances working memory thru automaticity e.g. punctuating sentences
• listening to teacher uses working not LTM, so they can’t implement
• have opportunities to practise during class
- p. 32-33

Improving note-taking for lesser-capacity working memories:
• provide skeleton outline with gaps students fill
• don’t speak/write quickly
• structure cues (signposting)
• mini-breaks to reread/clarify notes
• pause to ask open-ended hinge question to retrieve new information
• retrieve-taking: don’t take notes, but jot key points during pauses
- p. 31

Implications for working memory:
• avoid music when studying, especially maths
• ADHD benefits from white noise & music though
• If one struggles with simultaneously note-taking, focus on listening only and review others’ notes; however, some may tune out without note-taking, so perhaps take notes when we can.
- p. 30-31

Create strong varied links in long-term memory:
• downsize class notes to flashcards — simplifies & crystallises concepts with elegant simplifications
• frequently quiz one another
• being tired lessens working memory capacity, but makes one more creative
- p. 29-30

Differentiating instruction:
• paragraph frame for writing
• learning stations
• personalised agendas; adjust difficulty, not duration
• Carol Ann Tomlinson’s teaching up: aim high & scaffold differently
• orbital studies similar to main topic
- p. 29

Scaffolding:
• Hikers: allowing more time, breaking down steps, extension criteria
• Race cars: in-depth questions about connecting concepts, working with others, complex layered problems, authentic texts, extension projects, AI-differentiated instruction
- p. 28-29

Gauging working memory capacity:
• Excellent: can understand complex explanations & simultaneously take notes
• Average: can take notes but might lose track of challenging material
• Lesser: struggle to take notes & understand simple material simultaneously
• Circumstances (e.g. interest, home conditions) can affect
- p. 25

Education doesn’t change working memory capacity, but instead increases knowledge on long-term memory. - p. 24

Chunks of information — a word, sentence, concept — can get bigger with practice. - p. 23

Strategies for lesser-capacity working memory:
• be brief & linguistically-simple
• students should look at teacher
• one-at-a-time instructions
• instructions on board
• mnemonics
• disregard spelling when writing
- p. 22

In an average class, 20% of the class will have the working memory of a child 3 years above/below their age, 3-6+ pieces of information. - p. 20

Write directions down for students to mitigate limited working memory; 14yos already have adult-sized working memories, twice a 4yo. - p. 19

Jot Recall:
• notes/sketches: without looking at notes/page, jot most important ideas covered; compare & discuss in groups
• spaced repetition: jot stuff they learnt in the previous day/week/month
- p. 12-13

Retrieval practice is drawing ideas from your own mind (e.g. flashcards); students need to be taught this. - p. 8

Test anxiety can be reaching into long-term memory and not finding the studied information. - p. 8

Average working memory holds four items; students can’t increase the items, but can make the balls of information bigger. - p. 7

Varied practice of new foreign words can be using them in different sentences & contexts. - p. 7

Short-term memory only what you’re temporarily holding in your mind (e.g. in your mind’s eye/ear), whereas working memory is also the ability to manipulate that information. - p. 6

Recall (retrieval practice) trumps rereading, highlighting, concept maps. - p. 6

Working memory is a slanted shelf, where balls of information roll off as soon as you let go. - p. 5

Brain’s information storage is a quadrillion bytes — a million billion. - p. 4

Oakley, B., Rogowsky, B., & Sejnowski, T. (2021). Uncommon sense teaching: Practical insights in brain science to help students learn. New York: TarcherPerigee.

Facilitating groups:
• Shared visual: Writing looks less formalized (compared to typing) and so keeps people creative
• Populating the map: Allow groups to rotate & populate the quadrants in four corners of a room, perhaps summarizing with an image
• Third Way: metaphor, made-up word/phrase
• Think-Pair-Square: personal to group vulnerabilities
- p. 115-117

Third Way is more doing than being, and will not always be equally weighted. However, getting more X without losing Y might seem utopian and result in effort inflation. - p. 114

Include other stakeholders in retreats e.g. PSG, SAC. - p. 109

Don’t simply transfer opposites to the other diagonal; discuss each quadrant separately and check the opposites later. - p. 107