All teachers across the school began Term 2 with a professional development day focusing on maximising learning for students by understanding more clearly how our memory works and knowing which strategies to use at the most appropriate times. This focus on evidence-based research is something that we have been committed to as a school for many years as it is important that we respond to developments in cognitive science which have the potential to significantly impact the learning outcomes for our students.

Some key take aways from the day that you may find interesting:

• We learn what we think about and pay attention to.
• Learning is a change in our long term memory.
• The brain is not designed for thinking as this is hard. Automaticity is preferred which is why we need to move things to our long term memory.
• Our working memory can hold around four things at a time.  If it becomes overloaded, there is a risk that information will not be transferred to the long term memory.  Therefore learning will not have taken place.
• We need to help learning stick.  One way to do this is to keep retrieving information on the point of forgetting it.  The more we recall it without prompts or cues, the stronger the memory pathway becomes.
• By developing background knowledge around a topic, the greater the chance that new learning will attach to it.
• Students studying for tests would be best served by spacing their practice over a period of time rather than cramming.  

Aspects of this understanding will be implemented across P-12 in the coming weeks and months.  Infact, this has already started in many classrooms.