How this works
Start with the learning need
Explore the approaches that speak to it. Think about your subject, your phase and your pupils. Decide what might help. Then, and only then, ask whether technology adds anything useful.
Every strategy below is one of the original 144, written exactly as it appears on its card. Nothing has been renamed or rewritten; a strategy can appear under more than one need. Each link takes you to the strategy on its guide page, where you'll also find its suggested technology, the research behind it, its neighbouring strategies and the thinking for the whole area. Prefer the original structure? Browse the six guides or search all 144.
Help pupils remember more
These strategies all work the same muscle: getting knowledge back out, repeatedly, with gaps in between. Start with one routine you can sustain every lesson, like a three-question starter, before adding anything else.
- Retrieval Beats Re-reading Replace re-reading with retrieval. Instead of reviewing notes, ask students to write down everything they remember, then check. The testing is the learning, not the preparation for it. 01 Retrieval Practice · The Testing Effect
- Low-Stakes Starter Quizzes Five questions per lesson on prior content; nothing in the gradebook. Agarwal found routine quizzing reduces test anxiety rather than causing it. The quiz is not the assessment. It is the learning. 01 Retrieval Practice · The Testing Effect
- Distribute Practice Over Time Spread retrieval across days and weeks rather than cramming it into one session. Build review points into your medium-term plan. The calendar is part of the pedagogy. 01 Retrieval Practice · Spacing & Interleaving
- Yesterday, Last Week, Last Month Three questions per lesson: one from yesterday, one from last week, one from last month. These intervals are a starting point; complex topics may need revisiting more frequently. 01 Retrieval Practice · Spacing & Interleaving
- The Retrieval Schedule Dunlosky's review ranked re-reading among the least effective strategies. Teach students the evidence: study, return after two days, then a week, then a month. Many students do the opposite. 01 Retrieval Practice · Spacing & Interleaving
- Cumulative Review Plan retrieval into your medium-term planning, not just lessons. Bring back earlier content in starters and assessments. When it never reappears, students conclude it no longer matters. 01 Retrieval Practice · Spacing & Interleaving
- Forget Before You Retrieve Do not retrieve immediately after teaching. Wait a day, then quiz. Wait a week, then quiz again. The gap between learning and retrieval is where consolidation happens. 01 Retrieval Practice · Desirable Difficulties
- Study Strategy Audit Dunlosky's review rated ten strategies: re-reading scored low; practice testing scored highest. Ask students how they revise, then show them the data. That conversation is the intervention. 01 Retrieval Practice · Metacognition & Calibration
- Spaced Retrieval Practice Low stakes quizzing on prior content, not today's lesson. Returning to older material at increasing intervals is one of the most robust findings in memory research. Re-reading notes is not the same as retrieving. 02 Formative Assessment · Students as Owners of Their Learning
- Spaced Self Quizzing Teach students to quiz themselves rather than re-read notes. Re-reading feels productive but produces weak retention. Self quizzing feels harder but works. Retrieval effort drives long term memory. 02 Formative Assessment · Students as Owners of Their Learning
Check understanding
The common thread here is evidence from every pupil, not just the confident ones. Pick one strategy that shows you the whole room at once, and plan what you'll do when the answers reveal a misconception.
- Hinge Questions A hinge question is a diagnostic question at a lesson turning point. Wrong answers each map to a known misconception. Responses tell you whether to move on or go back. Never improvise it. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- Plausible Distractors Engineer wrong answers as carefully as the right one. Each distractor should map to a real misconception. Every wrong answer a student gives tells you something precise. Wrong answers are the diagnostic data. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- Mini Whiteboards All students write their response and hold it up simultaneously. The teacher reads the room in seconds: full participation, no waiting, no dominant voices. Works across all subjects. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- ABCD Response Cards Give each student a card: A, B, C and D. Pose a question and all students hold up their answer at once. No hands, no opt-out. The spread of responses shows instantly where misconceptions lie. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- The Muddiest Point At lesson close, each student anonymously writes the one thing they are least clear about. The teacher addresses the most common muddy points publicly at the start of the next lesson. Two minutes; high value. 02 Formative Assessment · Students as Owners of Their Learning
- Review Little and Often Begin every lesson with a brief review of prior content: yesterday's, last week's, last month's. The most effective teachers check understanding constantly. If most students cannot answer, adjust the pace of teaching. 02 Formative Assessment · Students as Owners of Their Learning
- Check, Don’t Assume Listening is not learning. Use live polls or mini whiteboards to check understanding at every step. Rosenshine: reteach before moving on. The explanation is the start, not the finish. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
- Teach the Illusion of Knowing Show students their own illusion of knowing. Ask them to rate confidence before revealing the answer. When they were certain and wrong, that is the precise moment to intervene. 01 Retrieval Practice · Metacognition & Calibration
- Confidence Ratings Dunlosky and Metcalfe showed students are most confident about things most recently read, not things they actually know. Rate confidence after each attempt, then reveal the answer. That gap is the target. 01 Retrieval Practice · Metacognition & Calibration
Improve classroom discussion
Talk improves when the ground rules, the questions and the follow-up moves change together. Start with how you respond to answers; it shapes everything pupils say next.
- Think-Pair-Share Lyman’s think-pair-share gives every student thinking time before public exposure. Pairs test ideas with a peer first. The result is more considered and more substantive discussion. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Wait Time & Thinking Space
- Five Principles of Dialogic Talk Alexander identifies five qualities of dialogic talk: collective, reciprocal, supportive, cumulative and purposeful. Most talk meets two or three of these. Audit and start with the gaps. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Dialogic Teaching & Discussion
- Break the IRE Pattern IRE (Initiation, Response, Evaluation): ask, answer, judge. Alexander shows this pattern limits thinking. Replace evaluation with a follow-up question. What makes you say that? 04 Questioning & Discussion · Dialogic Teaching & Discussion
- Exploratory Talk Mercer distinguishes disputational, cumulative and exploratory talk. Only exploratory talk, where students challenge ideas with evidence and build on each thinking, improves outcomes. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Dialogic Teaching & Discussion
- Ground Rules for Talk Mercer found teaching norms of exploratory talk transforms discussion. Norms co-constructed with the class outperform those displayed or modelled. Make the ground rules together. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Dialogic Teaching & Discussion
- Accountable Talk Michaels, O’Connor and Resnick hold students to accurate knowledge and rigorous reasoning. Teach moves: I agree because..., The evidence is..., Say more.... Language shapes thinking. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Dialogic Teaching & Discussion
- Build on Student Responses Alexander’s EEF programme showed gains when teachers extended rather than evaluated. Return an answer: Aisha says X. Does anyone want to add or challenge? Conductor, not judge. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Dialogic Teaching & Discussion
- Interthinking Through Questions Mercer’s interthinking describes shared cognition built through language. Student questions sustain joint enquiry. The goal is thinking in common, not performance for the teacher. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Student-Generated Questions
Ask better questions
Better questions are mostly planned questions. Choose one strategy for planning and one for what happens in the moment, and give both a fortnight before judging either.
- Questions That Make Thinking Visible Anderson and Krathwohl map six levels: remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, creating. These are not a hierarchy of worth. Recall is foundational, not inferior. 04 Questioning & Discussion · The Quality of Questions
- Surface, Deep and Transfer Hattie and Zierer distinguish surface (what), deep (why) and transfer questions. Each serves a different stage. Reaching transfer before surface is secure sets students up to fail. 04 Questioning & Discussion · The Quality of Questions
- Plan Questions Before the Lesson Improvised questions default to recall, not because recall is wrong but because planning stops there. Anderson and Krathwohl works as a planning tool: write questions at every level. 04 Questioning & Discussion · The Quality of Questions
- Alternatives to Questions Dillon found statements and silence elicit richer responses than questions. Try: Tell me more. I had not considered that. Not every probe needs to end with a question mark. 04 Questioning & Discussion · The Quality of Questions
- Wait Time 1: After You Ask Rowe found most teachers wait under one second before speaking. Extending to three seconds increases the length and complexity of responses. Silence is thinking, not a gap to fill. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Wait Time & Thinking Space
- Wait Time 2: After a Student Speaks Rowe identified a second wait time: the pause after a student responds. Three seconds prompts elaboration and self-correction. Silence after an answer signals that more is expected. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Wait Time & Thinking Space
- Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce Wiliam’s PPPB: pose the question, pause, direct to one student, then bounce the answer to another. The bounce keeps all students alert and spreads thinking across the whole room. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Participation & Equity
- Teach Question Stems King found students trained to generate questions using stems produce richer discussion than those answering only teacher questions. Generating questions demands deeper processing. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Student-Generated Questions
Increase participation
Every strategy here removes the option to opt out, kindly. The pairing that works: a way for everyone to compose an answer, then a way for anyone to be asked for it.
- Deliberate Cold Call Select who answers deliberately, not at random. Track participation so nobody stays invisible across lessons. Where appropriate, target the students whose thinking you most need to hear. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- Mini Whiteboards All students write their response and hold it up simultaneously. The teacher reads the room in seconds: full participation, no waiting, no dominant voices. Works across all subjects. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- ABCD Response Cards Give each student a card: A, B, C and D. Pose a question and all students hold up their answer at once. No hands, no opt-out. The spread of responses shows instantly where misconceptions lie. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- Every Voice, Every Time Eliciting evidence only works if every student can respond. Offer written, verbal, visual and digital means of expression. The method you choose decides who gets to show what they know. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- Think, Pair, Share: Disciplined Individual thinking first; paired discussion second; nominated response third. Nomination makes the report-back evidence, not just the most confident voice. Without it, the share is optional. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- Write Before You Speak Ask students to write before any verbal response is taken. Writing prevents the quickest from foreclosing others’ thinking. The pen democratises the room before the voice takes over. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Wait Time & Thinking Space
- Hands Down Wiliam shows hand-raising distorts who answers. A small group volunteers repeatedly; the rest disengage. Remove hands and direct to named students. Every student should be asked. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Participation & Equity
- Cold Call Without Threat Good and Brophy showed differential questioning reinforces attainment gaps. Direct questions are equitable only when the climate supports it. Norms: no wrong attempts, only thinking. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Participation & Equity
- Track Who You Ask Good and Brophy found teachers direct harder questions to higher-attaining students. Track participation across lessons. Patterns invisible in the moment become visible on paper. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Participation & Equity
Explain difficult ideas
These come from the same body of research: working memory is small, so explanations succeed when they respect it. Start with the strategy that removes something from your current explanations rather than the one that adds something new.
- Small Steps, Always Rosenshine: present new material in small steps with practice after each. Use animations to chunk information and reveal content gradually. Let students process before continuing. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
- Concrete Before Abstract Willingham: anchor new ideas to concrete examples first. Use images, video or objects to make the abstract visible before naming it. Move to the abstract once the concrete is secure. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
- Connect to Prior Knowledge Rosenshine: connect to prior knowledge before introducing anything new. Use a retrieval starter or concept map on screen to activate what students know. Link before you launch. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
- Clarity Over Novelty The EEF found clarity matters more than delivery method. A diagram under a visualiser can outperform a polished video. Choose the tool that makes the idea clearest, not the newest. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
- Four Slots, No More Sweller: working memory holds about four items. Every screen element competes for those slots. Strip slides to essentials. Press B to blank the screen when you want attention on you. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Managing Cognitive Load
- Chunk and Reveal Mayer’s segmenting: break content into chunks. Use slide animations to reveal one idea per click, not auto-play. Let working memory process before the next chunk arrives. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Managing Cognitive Load
- Words and Images Together Paivio’s dual coding: the brain processes words and images through separate channels. Design every slide with both: a key visual paired with minimal text. Two routes to the same idea. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Multimedia & Dual Coding
- Pre-Train the Vocabulary Mayer’s pre-training: teach key terms before the main explanation. A vocabulary slide or pre-lesson video builds familiarity first. Learners who know the words can focus on the ideas. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Multimedia & Dual Coding
Make modelling clearer
Modelling works when pupils see the thinking, not just the finished product. Combine one strategy for showing the process with one for fading the support afterwards.
- Think Aloud Rosenshine: model the process, not the product. Use a visualiser or screen share to think aloud live. Narrate your decisions as you work. Make invisible expertise visible to all. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Modelling & Worked Examples
- The Visualiser as Stage A visualiser turns any desk into a modelling stage. Show handwriting, annotate text, build diagrams under the camera. The EEF found this among the most promising classroom technology. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Modelling & Worked Examples
- Worked Examples on Replay Sweller and Cooper: students learn more from worked examples than equivalent problems. Record a screencast of the example so students can pause and study the method at their pace. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Modelling & Worked Examples
- Alternate Examples and Practice Atkinson: alternate worked examples with practice. Display an example on screen, then set a parallel task. Example, try. Example, try. Interleaving builds understanding faster. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Modelling & Worked Examples
- Fade the Scaffolds Rosenshine: begin with full support, then fade. Show a complete example, then a partial one with gaps, then independent practice. Use fillable templates to structure the fading. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Modelling & Worked Examples
- Exemplars Before Rubrics Show work at different standards before students start their own. Students spot quality in someone else's work more readily than in their own. A rubric tells students what quality is; an exemplar shows them. 02 Formative Assessment · Clarify Learning Intentions
Make feedback more useful
The theme is focus: less feedback, better aimed, directed at the work rather than the pupil. If marking workload is the pressure, start with the whole class and comment-only approaches.
- Feedback Is Not Marking If a student never reads or acts on your comments, you have marked but not given feedback. Before returning work, plan how students will engage with it. No engagement, no feedback. 03 Feedback · What Feedback Is
- Feed Up, Feed Back, Feed Forward Every comment should answer three questions: where am I going, how am I doing, what next? Most feedback answers only the second. Check yours covers all three before you hand it back. 03 Feedback · What Feedback Is
- Four Levels of Feedback Before writing a comment, ask: am I addressing the task, the process or the person? Task and process feedback improve learning. Self-level praise undermines it. Name your target. 03 Feedback · What Feedback Is
- Comment Only, No Grades Butler found comments alone produced the greatest gains. A grade cancels the comment: students see the score and skip the words. If grades are mandated, delay until feedback is used. 03 Feedback · Timing & Frequency
- Reduce Volume, Raise Focus A page of comments overwhelms. One or two precise targets land. Identify the one thing that would make the biggest difference right now and focus entirely on that. 03 Feedback · Timing & Frequency
- Whole Class Feedback Read the set and identify patterns: common strengths, recurring errors, one priority next step. Teach to the gap, not to each paper. Sustainable for teachers; precise for students. 03 Feedback · Source & Direction
- Task, Not Person Feedback that threatens self-concept decreases performance. "This paragraph needs restructuring" works. "You need to try harder" does not. Direct feedback at the work, not the person. 03 Feedback · Feedback & the Learner
- Comment Only Marking Remove grades from work in progress. Research showed comments alone produced the greatest gains. Adding a score to a comment cancels it out: students read the grade and ignore the feedback entirely. 02 Formative Assessment · Feedback That Moves Learning Forward
Help pupils act on feedback
Feedback only counts when the pupil does something with it. Every strategy here builds the response in; choose one and protect the lesson time it needs.
- Dialogic Feedback Build reply loops into feedback. Let students question and clarify comments over time rather than receive a final judgment. Carless showed uptake rises when feedback is a conversation. 03 Feedback · Source & Direction
- Feedback Must Cause Thinking Write "why might this be stronger with evidence?" not insert the evidence yourself. If feedback needs no effort from the learner, it is information, not feedback. Thinking is the point. 03 Feedback · Feedback & the Learner
- Build Feedback Literacy Teach students how to read and act on feedback before you give it. Model with an exemplar: here is the comment, what it means, what to do next. Feedback literacy is taught, not assumed. 03 Feedback · Feedback & the Learner
- Build In Time to Act Feedback with no time to act on it is wasted. Begin the next lesson with students reading and responding to comments before anything new. The response is the learning event. 03 Feedback · Closing the Gap
- Questions, Not Corrections Return work with questions, not corrections. "What evidence supports this claim?" demands more thinking than rewriting it for them. The cognitive work belongs with the learner. 03 Feedback · Closing the Gap
- Build In Time to Act Feedback with no time to act on it has no value. Begin the next lesson with students reading and responding to feedback before anything new. Time to act is where the learning happens. 02 Formative Assessment · Feedback That Moves Learning Forward
- 3 Questions, Not Corrections Return work with three questions rather than corrections. Students must respond before moving on. Cognitive effort belongs with the learner. Feedback that corrects for them removes the struggle. 02 Formative Assessment · Feedback That Moves Learning Forward
Build independence
Independence is built by handing over deliberately, not by stepping back and hoping. Choose one strategy that teaches pupils a method, then one that fades your support.
- Self-Assessment as Process Ask students to assess their work against criteria before you mark it. Andrade found the act of comparing, not the accuracy of the judgment, improves performance. Process is the point. 03 Feedback · Source & Direction
- Sustainable Feedback Boud argues feedback should build the learner's capacity to judge quality. If students always need you to tell them how they did, the system has failed. Design for independence. 03 Feedback · Closing the Gap
- Know the Strategy Itself Flavell: students cannot deploy a strategy they have never been taught. Teach retrieval, spacing or self-explanation explicitly as named methods before expecting independent use. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Strategy Knowledge & Use
- Fade the Scaffold Zimmerman: support must be withdrawn for self-regulation to develop. Move from modelled to guided to independent use, removing prompts as students show they no longer need them. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Strategy Knowledge & Use
- Schedule Your Own Spacing Regulating when you study is a planning act. Teach students to set their own calendar reminders to revisit topics over time, owning the spacing rather than waiting to be told. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Digital Cognition
- Make Your Own Questions Writing a good question forces you to judge what matters. Have students build low-stakes quizzes and flashcards from their own notes, so the tool supports retrieval they have authored. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Digital Cognition
- Retrieval Journals Zimmerman showed students who monitor their performance make better revision decisions. Log what came back, what did not, and what needs revisiting. It is a map of what to do next. 01 Retrieval Practice · Metacognition & Calibration
- Fade the Scaffolds Rosenshine: begin with full support, then fade. Show a complete example, then a partial one with gaps, then independent practice. Use fillable templates to structure the fading. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Modelling & Worked Examples
Develop metacognition
Metacognition works on knowledge, so anchor whichever strategy you choose inside a topic you're teaching now. Naming the method explicitly for pupils does more than it sounds like it would.
- Set the Goal First Zimmerman: planning begins with a specific, proximal goal, not a vague aim. Have students state what a good answer to this question looks like before they start writing it. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Forethought & Planning
- Analyse the Task First Zimmerman: strong learners break a task into its demands before starting. Ask students what this question is really asking and which prior topics it draws on before they answer. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Forethought & Planning
- Pick a Strategy on Purpose Flavell: planning means selecting an approach, not defaulting to one. Have students name which method they will use for this problem and why, before the first line goes down. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Forethought & Planning
- Ask Yourself As You Go Flavell: monitoring means questioning your understanding mid-task. Teach students to pause and ask “do I actually understand this?”, so gaps surface in time to fix them. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Performance & Monitoring
- Credit the Method, Not the Gift Zimmerman: how students explain a result shapes the next attempt. Steer attribution toward the method used, which they can change, rather than fixed ability, which they cannot. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Self-Reflection & Evaluation
- Turn Reflection Into a Plan Butler: feedback only regulates learning if it changes the next action. Have students convert each reflection into one concrete adjustment they will make on the very next task. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Self-Reflection & Evaluation
- Compare Predicted to Actual Winne: calibration improves when students see the gap between expected and real scores. Have them predict a mark, then compare, so monitoring is corrected by evidence over time. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Self-Reflection & Evaluation
- Know When to Use Each Winne: conditional knowledge, knowing which strategy suits which task, is what separates skilled learners. Teach not just the method but the cues that signal when it is the right one. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Strategy Knowledge & Use
- Teach the Illusion of Knowing Show students their own illusion of knowing. Ask them to rate confidence before revealing the answer. When they were certain and wrong, that is the precise moment to intervene. 01 Retrieval Practice · Metacognition & Calibration
Reduce unnecessary cognitive demand
Almost all of these subtract: fewer words, fewer competing elements, smaller steps. Audit one existing explanation or slide deck against them before building anything new.
- Small Steps, Always Rosenshine: present new material in small steps with practice after each. Use animations to chunk information and reveal content gradually. Let students process before continuing. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
- Four Slots, No More Sweller: working memory holds about four items. Every screen element competes for those slots. Strip slides to essentials. Press B to blank the screen when you want attention on you. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Managing Cognitive Load
- Avoid Split Attention Sweller’s split attention: separate text and diagrams force learners to search between them. Integrate labels directly into the image. Use annotation tools to build the diagram live. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Managing Cognitive Load
- Say It or Show It, Not Both Sweller’s redundancy effect: narrating text on screen forces double processing. Say it or show it, not both. Use the B or W key to blank the slide while you talk through the idea. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Managing Cognitive Load
- Remove the Clutter Mayer’s coherence: remove every word, image and sound that does not support learning. Strip clip art from slides. Cut background music. Every element on screen must earn its place. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Managing Cognitive Load
- Signal What Matters Mayer’s signalling: bold, arrows and highlights direct attention to what matters. Use annotation tools to signal live during the explanation. Without it, learners search alone. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Managing Cognitive Load
- Chunk and Reveal Mayer’s segmenting: break content into chunks. Use slide animations to reveal one idea per click, not auto-play. Let working memory process before the next chunk arrives. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Managing Cognitive Load
- Keep Words Near Images Mayer’s spatial contiguity: place words near the images they describe. Labels sit beside the diagram, not in a separate list. Use slide design to keep related information together. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Multimedia & Dual Coding
- Pre-Train the Vocabulary Mayer’s pre-training: teach key terms before the main explanation. A vocabulary slide or pre-lesson video builds familiarity first. Learners who know the words can focus on the ideas. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Multimedia & Dual Coding
Make thinking visible
You can't respond to thinking you can't see. Pick one strategy that makes every pupil's thinking inspectable, then treat what it reveals as the most useful data in the lesson.
- Make Thinking Visible Flavell: regulation you cannot see, you cannot coach. Have students leave a brief trace of their reasoning as they work, so you and they can inspect the process, not just the product. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Performance & Monitoring
- Questions That Make Thinking Visible Anderson and Krathwohl map six levels: remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, creating. These are not a hierarchy of worth. Recall is foundational, not inferior. 04 Questioning & Discussion · The Quality of Questions
- Write Before You Speak Ask students to write before any verbal response is taken. Writing prevents the quickest from foreclosing others’ thinking. The pen democratises the room before the voice takes over. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Wait Time & Thinking Space
- Questions as Evidence of Understanding A student’s question reveals the depth of their understanding. Ask for one written question before leaving. Why does X cause Y? shows far more than What is X?. Questions are windows. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Student-Generated Questions
- Mini Whiteboards All students write their response and hold it up simultaneously. The teacher reads the room in seconds: full participation, no waiting, no dominant voices. Works across all subjects. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- Think Aloud Rosenshine: model the process, not the product. Use a visualiser or screen share to think aloud live. Narrate your decisions as you work. Make invisible expertise visible to all. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Modelling & Worked Examples
- Concept Mapping from Memory Karpicke and Blunt found concept mapping from memory outperformed re-reading for retention. Not just what students know but how ideas connect. Relational knowledge beats isolated facts. 01 Retrieval Practice · Retrieval Formats
Support access and participation
Small changes to how pupils receive ideas and how they show understanding widen who can take part. Start where the barrier actually is: receiving the explanation, or responding to it.
- Every Voice, Every Time Eliciting evidence only works if every student can respond. Offer written, verbal, visual and digital means of expression. The method you choose decides who gets to show what they know. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- Mini Whiteboards All students write their response and hold it up simultaneously. The teacher reads the room in seconds: full participation, no waiting, no dominant voices. Works across all subjects. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
- Concrete Before Abstract Willingham: anchor new ideas to concrete examples first. Use images, video or objects to make the abstract visible before naming it. Move to the abstract once the concrete is secure. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
- Words and Images Together Paivio’s dual coding: the brain processes words and images through separate channels. Design every slide with both: a key visual paired with minimal text. Two routes to the same idea. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Multimedia & Dual Coding
- Keep Words Near Images Mayer’s spatial contiguity: place words near the images they describe. Labels sit beside the diagram, not in a separate list. Use slide design to keep related information together. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Multimedia & Dual Coding
- Pre-Train the Vocabulary Mayer’s pre-training: teach key terms before the main explanation. A vocabulary slide or pre-lesson video builds familiarity first. Learners who know the words can focus on the ideas. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Multimedia & Dual Coding
- Write Before You Speak Ask students to write before any verbal response is taken. Writing prevents the quickest from foreclosing others’ thinking. The pen democratises the room before the voice takes over. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Wait Time & Thinking Space
- Think-Pair-Share Lyman’s think-pair-share gives every student thinking time before public exposure. Pairs test ideas with a peer first. The result is more considered and more substantive discussion. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Wait Time & Thinking Space
Help pupils connect prior and new learning
New learning sticks when it attaches to something already there. These strategies either surface prior knowledge before you teach or force connections back across time.
- Connect to Prior Knowledge Rosenshine: connect to prior knowledge before introducing anything new. Use a retrieval starter or concept map on screen to activate what students know. Link before you launch. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
- Yesterday, Last Week, Last Month Three questions per lesson: one from yesterday, one from last week, one from last month. These intervals are a starting point; complex topics may need revisiting more frequently. 01 Retrieval Practice · Spacing & Interleaving
- Vary the Retrieval Context Retrieve the same content in different formats and settings, decontextualising knowledge so it is not tied to one context or format. Harder for students; that is precisely the point. 01 Retrieval Practice · Desirable Difficulties
- Concept Mapping from Memory Karpicke and Blunt found concept mapping from memory outperformed re-reading for retention. Not just what students know but how ideas connect. Relational knowledge beats isolated facts. 01 Retrieval Practice · Retrieval Formats
- Spaced Retrieval Practice Low stakes quizzing on prior content, not today's lesson. Returning to older material at increasing intervals is one of the most robust findings in memory research. Re-reading notes is not the same as retrieving. 02 Formative Assessment · Students as Owners of Their Learning
- Questions That Drive Enquiry King found connecting questions to prior knowledge produces the most powerful learning. Ask students to write what they know and want to know. Their questions become the entry point. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Student-Generated Questions
- Analyse the Task First Zimmerman: strong learners break a task into its demands before starting. Ask students what this question is really asking and which prior topics it draws on before they answer. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Forethought & Planning
Use technology with greater purpose
The question is never the tool; it's whether the tool serves the learning in front of you. These strategies show what purposeful use looks like, including when the right choice is to switch it off.
- Clarity Over Novelty The EEF found clarity matters more than delivery method. A diagram under a visualiser can outperform a polished video. Choose the tool that makes the idea clearest, not the newest. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
- Supplement, Never Substitute The EEF: technology works best when it supplements teaching, not replaces it. A screencast works alongside classroom explanation, not instead of it. Supplement, never substitute. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
- Simulations Beyond Physical Limits The EEF found simulations let students manipulate variables and see consequences beyond physical limits. Use to extend your explanation, not replace it. Technology serves pedagogy. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Modelling & Worked Examples
- Technology as Feedback Source Use automated tools for factual accuracy and procedural correctness; reserve your time for voice, argument and creativity. Match the feedback source to what is being assessed. 03 Feedback · Source & Direction
- Scaffold Focus, Then Fade Zimmerman: monitoring needs a low-distraction environment first. Use classroom.cloud to scaffold focus while students are learning, then withdraw it as they manage attention themselves. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Performance & Monitoring
- Regulate the Device Too Self-regulation now includes the screen. Teach students to use focus modes and silence alerts as a deliberate choice, regulating the tool so it serves attention instead of stealing it. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Digital Cognition
- Partner, Not Substitute Willingham: memory is the residue of thought. Offload the thinking to AI and nothing is learned. Have students use it to check and challenge their reasoning, not to do it for them. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Digital Cognition