FOUNDATIONS OF THE CHATTA APPROACH ARE BASED ON DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND LEARNING THEORIES

The Chatta Approach is something I have developed in hundreds of classrooms  over several years and it  combines a number of methods, principles and ideas that ‘work’ in that they remove barriers and support progress, in any subject, for students of any age working at any level. Every aspect of the method is based on proven theories and research and all of the techniques are working together simultaneously. – Chris Williams, CEO of Chatta

Chatta is very easy to teach with. It involves learning the method and applying it in the classroom and becoming confident in teaching with it. Chatta saves time and leads to inclusive high-impact teaching and learning. However, like anything new or different it needs people who are prepared to try it and make a few simple changes to the way they teach.

The impact Chatta makes is immediate and can support progress in many areas of education including:

• Spoken Language/Oracy
• Writing
• Vocabulary extension and application
• Memory and retention
• Early Years Communication and Language
• Learning any language (including English as an additional language)
• Removing barriers for dyslexic students
• Removing barriers for autistic students

Whilst Chatta is a simple and effective approach to teaching and learning anyone can learn in minutes and master it in 2 or 3 lessons, it can be helpful for teachers to know why certain techniques feature in their Chatta teaching.

A Chatta activity can take five minutes or several hours. Either way, it still includes methods and ideas from the following theories, techniques and principles.

Read more about each of the fundamental theories and strategies by expanding the boxes below.

Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning+

There are many aspects of the theory but the idea that “people learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone” is the starting point for Chatta, with the emphasis placed on spoken words, not written words.  The goal is to present teaching and learning media in the light of how the human mind works and regarding Chatta the approach is designed to reflect the way people think. That is one of the first things to point out when people see Chatta in action for the first time, the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning is based on teaching students with audio-visual techniques to mirror the thinking process.

All Chatta activities link spoken words and images to link teaching and learning activities to the way people think.

Cognitive Load Theory+

Cognitive load is the amount of information we can hold at any one time. The working memory can be quickly overloaded making processing, retention and understanding difficult. By breaking learning down into smaller parts and modelling worked examples by starting with simple information and building on it cognitive load can be optimised to maximise the strength of the working memory.

George Miller, an early researcher in cognitive load theory, suggested that the largest number of discrete pieces of information the brain could manage was seven. When teaching with Chatta we suggest between 3 and 6. It really helps focus a teacher’s attention on focused teaching and not overloading working memory. It is one of the reasons Chatta can be so fast at achieving strong outcomes for students.

Break everything down into parts. If something is especially lengthy or detailed break that down into parts, and those parts into parts, teaching part one and all its parts first, and so on.

Oral Rehearsal+

The principle that emergent writing is supported by talk, and that an appropriate pedagogy for writing should include planned opportunities for talk is well researched and well understood. However, the process by which talk becomes text is less clear. The term ‘oral rehearsal’ is now commonplace in classrooms and curriculum policy documents, yet as a concept, it is not well theorised. There is relatively little reference to the concept of oral rehearsal in international literature.

Every Chatta activity is centered around talk, hence the name Chatta, a play on the word ‘chat’ a less formal word for talking. All students speak in a Chatta lesson. There are times they join in with the teacher, they may speak with a partner or they may present to an audience. On each occasion, the important thing is that they choose and compose their own words and sentences. During any oral rehearsal activity, the students are turning thoughts into words in the here and now. They are not chanting back parrot fashion or rote learning. As in any conversation, the words used are spontaneous and measured, fluid and fluent.

Talk is the halfway house between thinking and writing.

Oral Narrative Competence+

There is a direct and proven link between oral narrative competence and future writing competence. Oral narrative in the sense of a spoken story or recount involves linking and sequencing ideas, thoughts and phrases to convey an event to a listener. It could be a made-up story, a familiar or traditional tale, or the retelling of a real event or occurrence.

With Chatta sequenced sentences feature all the time. There are lots of opportunities to practice speaking in sentences. It always involves students thinking about what they want to convey and engaging with an audience, either a partner or a larger group. From the youngest age, Chatta leads to sequenced spoken sentences.

Practice turning thoughts into words. What did you do yesterday? Tell me all about it!

Modelled Spoken Language+

Modelling is a teaching strategy where a teacher explicitly shows the students how to complete an activity. When this relates to spoken language a teacher is able to use and apply vocabulary, phrases, and aspects of grammar along with explanations and descriptions covering subject and curriculum content.

With Chatta, teacher modelling takes place throughout the activity and is often fast-paced but doesn’t feel repetitive. The biggest skill with language modelling a teacher can learn is the ability to say the same thing, in several slightly different ways whilst making it look effortless. It is important that modelling is presented for listening not rote-learning and parrot chanting.

Students speak and write with words they hear their teacher use.

Retrieval Practice+

Retrieval practice is a strategy in which bringing information to mind strengthens memory and understanding and boosts learning. Deliberately recalling information forces students to recall knowledge and examine what they know.

Retrieval practice is both a revision activity and a learning activity. It is designed to assist in the memorisation of new material. Once a topic or concept has been taught, students can recap that knowledge by answering questions and offering explanations. Retrieval practice can take place during the teaching of a unit and can place continuously in every lesson.

Teachers using the Chatta approach develop and use retrieval practice in every activity. There are stages of the Chatta process in which all scaffolding is removed and students are expected to recall and explain their understanding. There are additional opportunities, especially related to revision, where content created in the classroom with the Chatta software can be reviewed on any occasion to trigger further opportunities for retrieval and explanation.

The presentation of content to support teaching and learning with Chatta can act as a form of visual schema, strengthening long-term memory and recall.

Review what you do. A lot.

Self-Explanation+

By self-explaining and ‘thinking aloud’, students may become more aware of the level of their understanding – and may provide students and their peers and teachers with insight about areas of confusion and/or understanding. The concept of self-explanation is well-researched and the impact is consistently strong and positive.

Throughout every Chatta activity, students are engaging in self-explanation and they are aware that this is something they will be asked to do and will be able to do successfully. The skill of being able to explain their understanding to others has a substantial impact on learning. The question ‘How would you explain this to someone else?’ is frequently asked in a Chatta activity with students encouraged to step into the shoes of a subject expert.

Practise turning thoughts into words in real-time. Always think about the audience.

Zone of Proximal Development+

The stage in between not being able to understand or achieve something is the Zone of Proximal Development outlined by a psychologist, Lev Vygotsky. There are tasks a learner cannot accomplish, tasks they can accomplish with assistance and tasks they can accomplish without assistance. Passing through the middle stage is vital for new learning to take place and this is where effective teaching and learning happens.

Scaffolding and adult support are critical in learning and with Chatta, it is the scaffolding and subsequent practice that builds skill, knowledge and understanding allowing the scaffolded model to be faded and removed. Links to previous learning,  structured partner work and teacher availability to clarify misconceptions and answer questions are confirmed accurate explanations also are part of this.

The Chatta process provides a predictable and consistent route to independent understanding, and enough support to allow students to feel secure as they pass through the stages of teaching and scaffolding knowing they will soon achieve independently.

Students need to feel safe in the in-between space separating not-knowing and knowing.

Socio-Cultural Theory+

With socio-cultural theory, Vygotsky valued social interactions in the process of development, and  Piaget highlighted the importance of self-initiated discovery-based learning.

According to Vygotsky, much important learning by the child occurs through social interaction with a teacher or parent tutor. The adult models behaviours and provides verbal instructions and explanations for the student. The student tries to understand the language, knowledge or instructions provided by the teacher and then internalises the information.

Vygotsky believed that language develops from social interactions, for communication purposes. Vygotsky viewed language as a human’s greatest tool, a means for communicating with the outside world.

1. It is the main means by which adults transmit information to children.
2. Language itself becomes a very powerful tool of intellectual adaptation.

Thoughts and ideas are internalized to become inner speech. The internalization of language is important as it drives cognitive development.

Chatta is strongly influenced by lots of Vygotsky’s work. Through modelling and scaffolding, Chatta turns thoughts (internal speech) into spoken words ( external speech). The teacher’s role is crucial. Teachers provide the language, the explanations and the answers, and often the experiences too.

However, Chatta does not dismiss independent learning, creativity, play, exploration and discovery. Every Chatta activity begins with meaningful context, an event, an experience, subject content or something relevant. Chatta turns it into spoken words, which in turn can become writing. Chatta turns thoughts into words, allowing learners to compose articulate and accurate sentences for any purpose or audience live in the present moment.

Link modelled language, oral rehearsal, teacher explanation and paired talk.

Dual Coding+

Dual Coding seems to become a bit of a buzzword, with many interpretations and misinterpretations and the idea can become lost in translation when not properly understood, and suffer lethal mutation as it is passed around, so at risk of becoming something pointless.

Dual Coding is presenting information verbally and visually simultaneously. Spoken words, not written words. The information is received at the same time by the eyes and the ears.

Chatta does this all the time. Every image is presented with spoken words, and actual words are recorded and seen to be physically attached to the image. With Chatta the words can be played back both at school and home and they will always be attached to the image. It is important to emphasize that the activity should never be ‘I say… repeat after me’  or dictation type ‘hold a sentence’ teaching. The teacher provides models and explanations, the student conveys their own understanding with words they have chosen as they think.

Pictures and spoken words are presented together. Say what you see.

The Modality Principle+

People learn more deeply from pictures and spoken words than from pictures and printed words. This principle holds that words, when presented together with other visuals, should be presented as speech rather than on-screen text. Narration has been found to be more effective than on-screen text when presentations heavily involve both visuals and verbal information. This principle helps to limit overload on the brain so deeper learning may occur. Quick-paced activities are often recommended in studies related to the modality principle.

With Chatta we teach with images and spoken words, not text. Of course, the understanding of both content and language developed in a Chatta activity leads to writing, and improvements in reading comprehension, but as a teaching method Chatta avoids written words in any presentation. The text can get in the way of thinking. It is sometimes a difficult first step for teachers to take as instinctively the writing of words is something that has become part of their teaching routine. The writing can come later and will be stronger once the oral activities have taken place.

Try text-free teaching. If we accept that oral outcomes unlock understanding then text gets in the way at first.

The Signaling Principle+

Signaling Principle, explains how humans learn best when they are shown exactly what to pay attention to. This is very simple and widely accepted as obvious, pointing and highlighting images, objects, words and symbols is something that can be seen in the work of teachers in every classroom.

Teachers using Chatta add images to the screen one at a time at the appropriate stage in the teaching. By pointing, highlighting or moving images they make it obvious where the learners’ attention should be at all stages. The transition and flow from image to image also scaffolds and bridges the gap for sequencing and extended explanation activities.

Show and tell.

The Redundancy Principle+

This principle suggests that humans learn best with narration and graphics, as opposed to narration, graphics, and text. The theory here is that if you already have narration and graphics, then the text on top is just redundant information which can be overwhelming for a learner.

This reinforces the ideas of the modality principle and again supports the Chatta method of teaching without text. Adding text is something that fits perfectly after any oral explanation and introducing written words and phrases with language and content the students already understand is a later activity in the Chatta process.

Pictures and words. (Spoken words not written)

The Coherence Principle+

The Coherence Principle states that humans learn best when extra, unneeded and distracting material is not included. Too much information can be a hindrance to learning, therefore, the coherence principle states that information that is not directly related to the subject being presented should be avoided.

Teachers using Chatta use discrete images which focus exactly on the content being covered. They also make use of the zoom and focus features of the Chatta software to highlight detail and remove distraction, clutter and unnecessary content.

Cut the clutter.

The Temporal Contiguity Principle+

The Temporal Contiguity Principle states that humans learn best when corresponding words and visuals are presented together, instead of in consecutive order.

Pictures and words are presented at the exact same time with Chatta teaching at the beginning of each session and then throughout. There is a connection.
Present pictures and words at the same time.

The Segmenting Principle+

The Segmenting Principle states that humans learn best when information is presented in segments, rather than in one long continuous stream. The idea is often based on  ‘chunking’ content to support understanding and retention.

Chatta presents all teaching and learning in segments and segments within segments.

Chunk it.  Break things down into parts.