Research Led Sheffield

In recent years we have seen the growing popularity of applying cognitive science in the classroom. Cognitive load, retrieval practice, spacing learning are all ideas from cognitive science regularly seen in schools.

In this twilight session we will look at the recently produced EEF evidence review and reflect on what the evidence tells us about the effectiveness of these strategies and how they could be implemented in the classroom.

Delivered by: Alastair Gittner and Julie Kettlewell/ Jane Elsworth.

Effective learning behaviours have emerged from the rich and diverse evidence base represented in the EEF guidance reports on improving behaviour, metacognition and self-regulation, special educational needs in mainstream schools, working with parents, and social and emotional learning.

Successful learning behaviours rely on layering all these areas to wrap around every child in our schools.

This twilight will support school leaders to begin to consider some of the evidence and how it might be applied to their context.

Delivered by: Rob Newton.

Feedback, when done well, has the potential to be one of the highest impact, lowest cost strategies at our disposal.

The recently published ‘Techer Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning’ guidance report focuses on the principles of effective feedback rather than advocating one particular form of feedback over another.

We will explore these principles and consider implications for both classroom practice and school policy.

Delivered by: Stephen Foreman and John Coats.

This twilight will be based on the findings from the new ‘Effective Professional Development’ Guidance Report. Its aim is to support schools in selecting external PD and designing and delivering their own PD, this is underpinned by a new review of evidence that seeks to move the evidence forward.

We know that supporting high quality teaching is pivotal in improving children’s outcomes. Indeed, research tells us that high quality teaching can narrow the disadvantage gap. There is a growing consensus that promoting effective professional development plays a crucial role in improving classroom practice and pupil outcomes, and this guidance further reflects this, offering recommendations on how to improve professional development, and design and select more impactful PD.

This twilight briefing is for anyone in their organisation who has a role in selecting or designing PD to support improved pupil outcomes.

Using the suite of EEF literacy guidance reports, this session will consider the balanced approach to teaching children to read. Using Scarborough's Reading Rope, we will explore the evidence- informed teaching of decoding and reading comprehension. To support teachers with the complexity of reading comprehension strategies, the session will explore key questions about how we can use the evidence to develop all children as strategic readers in all phases.

Using the suite of EEF literacy guidance, this session will look at the ‘golden thread’ of speech, language, and communication. The session will develop delegates’ understanding of how to teach children to talk, through, for example, the explicit strategies we use to develop vocabulary. We will also consider how children learn through talk by focusing on strategies which support high-quality adult interactions with children, and a dialogic classroom.

In this session, we will consider evidence-informed teaching of writing as a process rather than an event. We will look at the planning and drafting stages of writing, as well as the review and editing phases and also, the significance of writing for a purpose and audience. We will consider the implications for different types of writing in different key stages and subject areas.

This Twilight session is based on the Metacognition and self-regulation Guidance Report and will dig deeper into the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of metacognition and self-regulation at all phases from early years through to secondary age pupils.

Evidence suggests the use of ‘metacognitive strategies’- which get pupils to think about their own learning- can be worth the equivalent of an additional +7 months progress when used well. This session is designed to support teachers in developing their classroom practise to improve their pupils’ metacognitive skills- in short, their ability to plan, monitor and evaluate their own academic skills so they become better at learning and studying.

The evidence tells us that teachers should priorities familiar but powerful strategies, like scaffolding and explicit instruction, to support their pupils with SEND. This mans understanding the needs of individual pupils and weaving specific approaches into every day, high-quality classroom teaching.

This twilight focusses on applying these strategies to support and develop high-quality SEND practises in mainstream classrooms.

The effective deployment of Teaching Assistants is critical for securing a good education for pupils with SEND. This twilight looks at how we can work more effectively in supporting these students by developing better Teacher/ Teaching Assistant relationships.