Pedagogy First. Technology Second.

Small Steps, Always

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

New material arrives faster than it can be processed. Rosenshine's first principle is blunt about the remedy: present new material in small steps, with practice after each one, because working memory is narrow and easily overwhelmed.

The discipline sits in the practice-after-each part. A step without a check is just a pause, and telling is not explaining.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

Introducing balancing equations, a science teacher builds the method one move per slide, using animation to reveal each step. After each reveal, pupils try one line of a parallel problem on mini whiteboards before the next step appears.

Try it

A way to begin

Take one explanation you already have planned and mark where each genuinely new idea begins. Those marks are your steps; add a short piece of practice after each one.

What to notice

Reading what happens

  • Where the wheels come off. With small steps, confusion surfaces at a specific step rather than at the end of a long explanation.
  • Whether the practice after each step is completed by everyone, or only by those who were already keeping up.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

  • Step size is a judgement about this class and their prior knowledge; what is one step for a second teaching may be three for a first. The teacher knows the class, not a website.
  • Small steps are not slow teaching; checking as you go can save the longer reteach later.

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

Through the inclusive practice lens, this is one of the approaches that may reduce barriers around:

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Rosenshine's principles of instruction distilled decades of research on effective teaching into this sequence, and Sweller's cognitive load theory explains why it works. 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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