Teach Secondary Issue 14.3

Ready or not? Stop students expending energy they don’t have on ineffectual revision techniques, and show them how to revise smarter, sooner, advises Alex Quigley ... ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alex Quigley is National Content Manager at the Education Endowment Foundation, a former teacher and author of books that include Why Learning Fails (Routledge, £16.99); for more information, visit educationendowment foundation.org.uk T he final mile of exam revision can be an exhausting one for teachers and their students. It’s tiring to wade throughmarking mocks and offer last minute guidance – which is why we need to make sure, for teachers and students alike, that we work smarter , and no harder than we need to. When we think about pre-exam revision, we might picture a pupil poring over lengthy notes, highlighter in hand, just hours before their exam is due to commence – but how effective is this likely to be? Is it really the smartest strategy for securing exam success...? Building good habits earlyon To support young people in developing effective study habits and routines, it’s crucial that we teachers embed effective revision strategies into our classroom practice as early as possible. Previous research has highlighted that relatively ineffective strategies – such as re-reading notes, for example – are often those that prove to be most popular amongst pupils. Many will rely on such approaches because we haven’t been explicit or consistent enough in teaching themhow to study more effectively. By incorporating more effective learning techniques – such as practice testing and summarisation – into our teaching, we can help pupils 5. Guided practice – Support pupils in using flashcards with structured tasks 6. Independent practice – Encourage them to incorporate flashcards into their own study routines 7. Structured reflection – Ask pupils to evaluate what worked well, what didn’t and how they might refine their technique in future revision sessions Encourage self- reflection Tying into the final step of the seven-step model, self-reflection is a crucial part of the revision process and promotes greater independence in learning. Research can point us towards the most effective study techniques, but we know that no two students are the same. Encouraging students to reflect on their own learning will allow them to further personalise their revision approach. Many students will tend to stick with familiar study methods – even if they aren’t the most effective, and will only cause them to work harder without any added benefits. Learning is a process that evolves, however; it may be that certain revision strategies need to be adapted at various stages of a student’s education journey. To encourage self- reflection, we can ask pupils to identify those topics they’ve struggled with the most and prioritise these for revision. We can also guide them in evaluating their own revision practice – considering whichmethods have beenmost effective, when they worked best and what adjustments might enhance their impact. The likely experience of most teachers is that students don’t necessarily take the time to reflect and work smarter to be as prepared as possible for their exams. Or that even when they have received advice from their teachers on how to do so, they’ll still falter in the final mile. By embedding these strategies into our teaching, however, we can equip students with the tools they need to revise effectively much sooner, leading to more confident and prepared learners later on who will flourish throughout the marathon of summer exams. establish these as standard revision habits at a much earlier stage. Frameworkmakes the dreamwork Scaffolding is a well- established approach in teaching, and can also play a key role in supporting revision. Providing pupils with a structured framework for their revision will help them organise their exam preparationmore efficiently, in a way that’s easy to follow. The seven-step model below provides a useful framework for embedding effective revision strategies. Let’s take, for example, the use of self-testing with flashcards. Through this model, we can: 1. Activate prior knowledge – Ask pupils when they’ve used flashcards before and how useful they found them 2. Provide explicit strategy instruction – Offer clear guidance on how to create and use flashcards effectively for your subject, particularly in terms of howmuch information to include 3. Model the strategy – Demonstrate effective flashcard use in action 4. Memorisation and practice – Encourage pupils to test themselves, rather than simply reviewing information passively “Ineffective strategies are often themost popular” 31 teachwire.net/secondary G C S E s TEACH SECONDARY SPECIAL GCSEs