Study Skills: Family Learning Event 24th October 2024

Understanding how we learn

• Working memory is important for paying attention. This is key for lessons where new material is being taught.
• Movement of information to long term memory is necessary for learning to take place (the hard bit!)
• The rate of forgetting is fastest within the first 24 hours of learning. Teachers use techniques in classes to support recall and long term memory.
• Good studying essentially replicates this important work at home!

Study techniques

LEAST

USEFUL

MOST

USEFUL

Highlighting

Re-Reading

Summarising

Interleaving

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Retrieval practice

Spacing

Interleaving

Interleaving is the mixing of concepts within a topic/unit.

Why does it work better than revising everything in one topic in a block?

1. Discrimination Learning - When we spot the differences between similar things, we tend to remember more. (This supports thinking).
2. Interleaving helps us to group similar things together. This supports the identification of trends, rules and concepts that complement each other. This creates “anchor points” for new information.
3. Includes an element of spacing (each time the information is revisited, it helps to cement it into long term memory).

Retrieval Practice

Retrieval Practice activities include:

• Quizzes
• Flash cards
• Multiple choice questions
• Verbal question and answer
• Past papers

Regular retrieval practice helps reduce forgetting and editing and rewriting of knowledge by the brain.

Using a range of retrieval techniques strengthens connections.

Evidence suggests that the more we know, the easier it is to learn new information!

Spacing

Human tend to forget large amounts of information if they only learn something once (cramming).

Spacing means studying little and often (e.g. 1 hr per day rather than 7 hours in 1 day).

Evidence suggests spacing improves memory retention by 10-30%. Ironically, spacing allows time to forget the content before re-learning it. To commit something to memory it takes time and repetition. Each time we forget and re-learn, we cement and ingrain information deeper into long term memory.

Spacing is less stressful!

Planning for Senior Phase - Study Timetables

• Start early!
• Recommend scheduling between 4-6 hours over the course of the week (at a time that works)
• Support will be given by class teachers and through MyWorld for organising revision and study timetables
• SQA website is a valuable support for creating a study plan
• School Google classrooms will be populated with resources that you can look at together at home. Teaching parents helps learning!

Useful Websites

Education Scotland

SQA

BBC Bitesize

Learning Scientists

Third Space Learning - How to revise effectively

Innerdrive - 10 ways parents can help their child revise

Parentkind - Learning for exams

The Parents’ Guide to - revision - five proven strategies

Teacher Toolkit - For Parents: 16 Tips to Support Your Child with Revision