The Hierarchy of Learning: How learning moves from the classroom into the community

As a teacher, it can be infuriating when you’ve planned this incredible lesson, delivered it, watched your learners’ faces change as they’ve had that ‘light bulb’ moment and it’s like the learning has just sunk in… only for them to look at you blankly a week later when you make reference to it again.

What’s going on there?

For some of our learners, the answer might be within the Hierarchy of Learning (Haring & Eaton, 1978).

Whilst we can sometimes be mistaken for thinking learning is a linear process (we go to class, hear new information, process that information and apply it), actually, learning is more of a stepped approach, with each layer of learning building on the layer that came before it.

Let’s think about our own learning…

Step 1: Acquisition

When you’re learning to drive a car, the acquisition phase is when you have to really think through everything you’re doing.  You might be able to drive along the road, but you have to consciously think about how to change gears, how to indicate, where the windscreen wipers are etc.

Step 2: Fluency

Moving to fluency, you’re now able to change gear without thinking about it.  This means you can pay more attention to your environment (maybe noticing road signs or a new coffee shop that’s popped up on the high street).  Now, you’re able to recognise what you’re doing in-the-moment, as well as thinking about what you’re going to do next.  Fluency is achieved through regular practise, preforming the task on a frequent basis.

Step 3: Maintenance

Maintenance occurs over time.  Let’s imagine you win the lottery and go on an all-expenses paid world tour, returning home 6 months later.  If you’ve successfully achieved this level within the hierarchy, this means that despite not having driven for half a year, you will still remember how to drive when you get home.  You’ve maintained that skill without needing regular practise and you don’t need more teaching to pick the skill back up again.

Step 4:  Generalisation

Now confident in your skill, you’re able to drive a different car with ease.  Perhaps you borrow a friend’s care whilst yours is in the garage, or you hire a car whilst you’re on holiday.

Step 5:  Adaptation

Finally, adaption.  This is the ability to apply what you’ve learnt about driving to a different setting.  For example, taking a trip onto the Continent and driving on the right-hand side of the road.

This time, let’s look at the Hierarchy of Learning within a school setting.

1. Acquisition - Learning to read individual words, sounding out each word and drawing on phonetics knowledge.

2. Fluency - Reading words together without sounding them out, allowing the child to focus on meaning and comprehension.

3. Maintenance - Reading fluently after a break in teaching and learning (such as over the summer holidays).

4. Generalisation - Reading the known words in different contexts (for example, moving from the reading scheme into ‘real’ books).

5. Adaptation - Reading different formats of text (e.g. notice boards, sign posts, carvings), out loud and silently.

We often teach to maintenance, but how often do you support your learners with generalisation or adaptation?

Ways of supporting learners through the Hierarchy of Learning

• Allow for repetition, giving plenty of opportunities to practise new skills

• Provide pre-teaching and overlearning sessions through warm-up and plenary activities

• Go back to previous learning as a revision exercise on a regular basis

• Make explicit links between teaching in the classroom and the ‘real world’

• Take learning out of the classroom

Precision Teaching draws strongly on the Hierarchy of Learning and is a highly motivating, evidence-based approach to supporting learners to make visible progress over a short space of time. 

If you’d like to know more about this approach, including the training packages available through Golden Thread Psychology, please email hello@goldenthreadpsychology.co.uk or phone 07452 702287.