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Connect to Prior Knowledge

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Structuring Explanations in 05 Explanations & Modelling, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

Nothing you explain lands on a blank slate. Rosenshine's advice is to connect to prior knowledge before introducing anything new, because the new idea has to attach to something already there.

Link before you launch, as the card puts it. The few minutes spent activating what pupils already know may decide how much of the explanation sticks.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

Before starting a unit on the causes of the First World War, a history teacher puts a concept map on screen and asks the class to retrieve what they remember about empire and alliances from the previous term. The gaps that show up shape how the new explanation begins.

Try it

A way to begin

Open your next new topic with a two-minute retrieval starter on the specific ideas the explanation depends on, not general revision.

What to notice

Reading what happens

  • What the starter reveals. If the prior knowledge is not there, the explanation you planned needs adjusting before it starts.
  • Whether pupils use the retrieved ideas of their own accord during the new material.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

  • The starter is diagnostic, not decorative; be ready to act on what it shows, even if that means reteaching before launching.
  • Choose retrieval targets that genuinely underpin the new content. Activating unrelated knowledge fills working memory without helping the explanation.

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

This is one of Rosenshine's principles of instruction, part of the same distilled research base that gives the strand its small-steps sequence. The card’s attribution stands as published: Rosenshine.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Explanations & Modelling.

Keep exploring

Where next?

Back to this strategy in 05 Explanations & Modelling, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.

Want to take this further?

Support is available

Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.

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