This tweet from the #MichaelaScience conference seems to have attracted the attention of a lot of progressive teachers.

Conceptual understanding emerges from knowing the idea’s constituent facts. You cannot understand what you don’t know. 1/ https://twitter.com/mr_raichura/status/1222595321731198976

This is especially true of a complex concept. We teach a rigorous curriculum so expect our pupils to grasp difficult ideas. It would be daunting for pupils to explain a concept without secure base knowledge. That’s why drill is such a useful tool. 2/

With repetition, costituent ideas are learned to automaticity. Of course the facts needs to be understood. It would be silly to believe we teach facts in a vacuum of understanding. We can empower pupils to grapple with complex ideas through drill at first. 3/

Then you build up the facts one by one. You teach X, Y and Z separately. Then you teach how X relates to Y. Then you check they remember X. And Y. And Z. How does X relate to Y?

In this way you build up towards conceptual understanding. 4/

You then move on to application. You know they’ve understood when they can apply it. But there’s little use in getting pupils to apply facts if they don’t know them in the first place.

Drill, build, drill, apply, repeat. 5/

Months later, you come back to an application question. They’ve forgotten! What do you do? Check they recall the fundamentals. If you’ve done enoug drill, the remember it!

Then when you teach how the facts link together again, they get it! Much quicker than before. 6/

And there you see the power of drill.

I’ll say it again: Facts don’t prevent understanding.

It’s not: ‘drill and kill’...

It’s: ‘drill & thrill’.

7/7.