Teach Secondary Issue 13.4

76% of teachers, when surveyed in May 2023, reported that misbehaviour had stopped or interrupted teaching in at least some of their lessons within the previous week Source: National Behaviour Survey produced by the DfE Recall tasks play a pivotal role in reinforcing learning, assessing understanding and fostering retention of information. In short, they’re one of the key tools we have for ensuring that what’s been taught has actually been learnt. They’re tasks that prompt students to retrieve previously learned material from their memory, actively engage their cognitive processes and solidify connections between concepts. The idea is that over a period of time, their ability to recall said information will steadily improve in a way that significantly helps them in their final exams. Recall tasks serve as a form of retrieval practice, which itself is a powerful learning strategy that involves actively recalling information frommemory. This practice is intended to strengthen students’ memory retrieval pathways, making it easier for them to access and retain information in the long term. When we step back and look at the holistic picture, it soon becomes clear just how important it is to regularly revisit information – not just from yesterday, but also last week and last month. The setting of recall tasks is also important when checking for understanding – especially when gauging the comprehension of material covered in class. By prompting students to recall key YOUR GUIDE TO... RECALL ADAMRICHES IS ATEACHER, EDUCATION CONSULTANTANDWRITER Anew report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies appears to confirmwhat many in the teaching profession have long suspected, but thus far been unable to prove with numbers – that the Sure Start programme largely succeeded in achieving what it set out to accomplish. Introduced under the then Labour government in 1999, Sure Start saw the establishment of 250 centrally funded and locally-run ‘one-stop shop’ projects that combined health and parenting support services with early learning and childcare provision. Key to the policy was the way in which these projects were set up in areas with high concentrations of young children under 5 living in poverty. Sure Start’s funding was severely cut in 2010, and it was ultimately abandoned as a policy in favour of the gradual expansion of universal free pre-school childcare over the coming decade. As the IFS research shows, however, children living within 2.5 kilometres of a Sure Start centre for their first five years attained higher GCSE grades, with an especially pronounced impact among children eligible for free school meals. The research does, however, indicate that themost notable improvements were drivenmore by the Sure Start Local Programmes established early on, than the (lower funded, less community-led) Sure Start Children’s Centres that subsequently replaced them. The full report, titled ‘Short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start on educational outcomes’, can be downloaded via bit.ly/ts134-LL2 concepts, facts or processes, teachers can quickly assess the depth of understanding and identify any areas that might call for further reinforcement or clarification. Research indicates that frequent retrieval practice leads to better long-term retention of information. By incorporating recall tasks into their lesson plans and the homework assignments they set, teachers can help students encode information more effectively and transfer it to their long- termmemory, facilitating retention beyond the immediate classroom setting. Recall tasks can also prompt students to reflect metacognitively on their own learning processes. As they retrieve information from memory, students will gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to develop their metacognitive skills and become more effective, self-regulated learners – which will ultimately be key to them succeeding. Using recall tasks is a quick and easy way to ensure that your learners are remembering what they’re being taught, and more importantly, will show them how to learn independently. Recall tasks might be a low stakes activity, but they can have huge value in the classroom. L E A R N I N G L A B 79 teachwire.net/secondary