Roshenshine’s Principles of Instruction: The Ultimate Guide

 

Welcome, intrepid educator!

You're about to embark on a journey through Rosenshine’s 10 Principles of Instruction: a research-informed, classroom-tested, tutor-approved set of ideas that help make learning stick. But don’t worry - we’re not throwing you into the deep end of educational theory alone.

Think of this blog as your guided tour. Neil, a member of our leadership team and all-round education brainbox, is your expert. And we’ll be tagging along throughout - adding a few reflections, some practical prompts, and the odd dodgy metaphor (consider yourself warned).

Right - ready to hit the road?

Author: Neil Hamilton-Fairley

Senior Regional Director and Personal Development Lead at Yipiyap

Roshenshine’s Principles for Tuition

Rosenshine (2010: 6) determined 10 principles for instruction based on research in Cognitive Science, observation of high-level teachers and findings from studies that taught learning strategies to students. Rosenshine (2010: 6) is confident in these findings as the three areas he investigated all seem to complement each other. They form a useful framework and focus for teachers and tutors alike, though it is worth noting that they are primarily based on classroom activities, rather than tutorials.

The principles are:

1.        Begin a lesson with a short review of previous learning.

2.        Present new material in small steps with student practice after each step.

3.        Ask a large number of questions and check the responses of all students.

4.        Provide models.

5.        Guide student practice.

6.       Check for student understanding.

7.        Obtain a high success rate.

8.        Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks.

9.        Require and monitor independent practice.

10.   Engage students in weekly and monthly review (Rosenshine 2012: 12).

They are sometimes presented as 17 principles, but for the purpose of this article, I will treat the additional seven principles as a way of spelling out in more detail some of the simpler ten points and will not cover them as seventeen separate principles. If nothing else, it would be a very long article! This should hopefully make it a bit easier to use, but the seventeen are there if you happen to find that useful.  

Rosenshine states that better practice leads to better performance (Rosenshine 2012: 39). The principles he sets out help to ensure that the best practice is the one used by teachers and they form a great starting point for thinking about how to structure your sessions and what you are trying to achieve in your day to day as a tutor. His aim can be understood as trying to maximise the ratio of the cognitive load of learners to their learning i.e. that they learn the most for effort they put in.

In more detail, Cognitive Load Theory states that working memory is limited and can be overloaded if too much is given too quickly, so the load on people’s cognition needs to be limited so that their working memory retains capacity to absorb new information. That information can then pass into their long-term memory. Items in long term memory can then be recalled into working memory as needed. 

His principles are targeted at teachers in a classroom first and foremost, and lots of his ideas are pitched at this level of use. This is not always appropriate for the tutoring role, which focuses more on individual learners and less on classroom dynamics. That said, there are valuable insights for your practice as a tutor in these principles and I will be addressing the differences between in-class and tutorial support as they appear. 

The principles also roughly fit an “I, We, You” model of instruction, according to which you as the teacher demonstrate or explain a topic, then work on it together with the learner, before allowing the learner to practice independently. I will relate the principles to this each is discussed. Principles 1-4 cover “I”, principles 5-8 cover “We” and 9 & 10 compose “You”.  Another way to put it is that the procedure for scaffolding can be ‘providing a prompt, modelling, guiding practice and supervising independent practice’ (Rosenshine 2010: 14). This brings out that even in the “you” part of the support, learners should still be monitored to check for errors and misunderstandings.   

Here’s our first stop. We’re pulling into the layby marked “Review,” and for good reason. Rosenshine’s first principle reminds us that before jumping into new content, it’s a good idea to look in the rearview mirror. What’s already been covered? What needs a quick polish before moving on? This applies whether you're working with a whole class, a small group, or just helping your little brother with homework. This kind of review isn’t about repeating things endlessly - it’s about helping learners retrieve knowledge from long-term memory and feel confident taking the next step. Let’s take a look.

Principle 1: Begin a Lesson with a Short Review of Previous Learning

Rosenshine (2012: 3) cites research that when certain processes are automatic, the learners have more capacity in their working memory to improve in more advanced areas. Doing frequent recall can help learners to make certain pieces of knowledge or skills be more automatic. In the classroom, this can manifest as students marking each other’s papers, doing a short quiz, asking what learners found difficult, review errors going over concepts from the homework, and reviewing concepts needed for that lesson (Rosenshine (2012: 13)). These were short exercises at the start of a session for learners in elementary schools, no more than 8 minutes long (Rosenshine 2010: 8). All these techniques can transfer well to tutorials and make great starters and finishers. I have observed tutors use quick fire recall questions to great effect in starting their sessions to recap previous knowledge and it is worth experimenting with these to see what works best for you and your learners.

When deciding what to review, consider what learners will need to do automatically, and what concepts they will need to understand to progress in the following lesson (Rosenshine 2010: 9). As a rule of thumb, you can focus on what will get the learner the most marks in the exam. You can also use these starters to get a sense of what you need to teach your learners for them to engage with the material. This can help you decide which topics need more focus in the session and where to provide more scaffolding.

Whilst you will not be seeing your learners daily in most cases, weekly recaps are also useful for you to use, especially on areas that learners have struggled with. If they know that they will be asked about it at the start, they are more likely to check ahead of the start of the session. Similarly, if you can activate their previous understanding of a topic, they are more likely to connect what they are learning now to what they have covered previously and develop a more meaningful understanding of it (Cottinghatt 2025).

One way that you can think about this is to reduce the learners cognitive load (more on this to follow in a separate article, watch this space).  Back to the principles!

And we’re off again - this time, winding our way through the hills of new content. But before we accelerate, here’s your reminder: take it slow. This principle is a gentle nudge to present information in bite-sized pieces. Overloading learners with too much, too quickly is like giving someone the entire instruction manual when all they need is step one. Whether you’re explaining fractions or the causes of the Cold War, breaking things into chunks helps reduce cognitive load and builds real understanding. Let’s check out what the research has to say.

Principle 2: Present New Material in Small Steps with Student Practice After Each Step

The aim is not to overwhelm learners’ working memory (Rosenshine (2012: 3)). This can involve doing more examples and scaffolding, more lecturing, using small steps to guide students through a method and using “I, We, You” to guide learners (Rosenshine (2012: 14). As a recap, “I, We, you” is a format for scaffolding in which I, as the teacher, model an answer or a method, we (teacher and learner) work through an example together, before you (the learner) attempts the task independently. By working through material in smaller pieces, learners have a chance to internalise the material, and it prevents misunderstandings. Whilst it can take a little longer to cover material, it saves time by avoiding having to correct misconceptions later.

Presenting too much information at once, without checks, will cause learners to fill in gaps in their knowledge with misconceptions (Rosenshine 2012: 17). Once mistakes take root, they can be harder to correct. This point about scaffolding relates to other principles, especially points 4 through 9. For the moment, keeping new material “bite sized” for learners is the key point.

One of the things that Rosenshine (2010:11) found was that more successful teachers would spend more time ‘in lecture, demonstration, questioning and working examples’ than others. This provides more scaffolding for learners to make use of when learning new material and is invaluable in teaching. As a tutor, your role will require a more student led approach, and sessions should have a fair amount of student activity. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that where a learner is struggling, taking the time to go over material in this way can be an incredible tool to have in your tool belt.

If you are not sure where to begin in your explanation, it is worth relating the material to something more general that the student already knows (Cottinghatt 2025). Bonus points if you can relate it to an interest that the student already has! For example, I have found that many learners who struggle with ratio can grasp it much more easily if they play competitive games, as they understand a win: loss ratio in that context.

Once material has been mastered, it is then time to move onto the next part (Rosenshine 2010:10). If you try to rush through too much material, or have learners attempt to use skills they are not comfortable with in more advanced questions, they will really struggle to work independently. This can lead to behaviour issues and demotivation from the learner. When it comes to understanding when a learner has mastered material, remember to be a detective! You can ask them comprehension questions, check their working and see if they can apply that material in a different context e.g. exam questions etc. Once you are confident in a learner’s understanding, you can then move then to the next piece of information.  

This point does not mean that you must stay on a given point ad nauseum if a learner is struggling to grasp it. Again, you will need to be mindful of the wider context and how prepared a learner will be going into their exams. For example, you could spend a few weeks trying to get a learner to master simultaneous equations, and that might get them four or so marks in the exam. Alternatively, you can spend those weeks on lower-level materials that will add up to more marks in the exam and increased confidence in the learner. Struggling with the same topic for weeks can also be demoralising. So, make sure to use your judgement and speak to staff in the school or your RD if you are unsure. Back to the principles!

We’ve arrived at one of the most interactive stops on our journey - the land of questioning. And not just any questioning. This principle is about using questions to figure out what learners understand and how they understand it. It’s not enough to ask “Does that make sense?” and hope for the best (spoiler: it usually doesn’t). Instead, it’s about asking thoughtful, targeted questions that help you peek inside your learner’s brain - whether they’re eight years old or eighteen. Ready to dig deeper?

Principle 3: Ask a Large Number of Questions and Check the Responses of All Students

When practicing this, teachers aim to determine how well the material has been learned, whether to provide more instruction (Rosenshine (2012: 14). More successful teachers use questions that get the student to explain the process they used to answer the question (Rosenshine (2012: 14). This helps you as a tutor to understand how much a student understands, where they might be going wrong and when to move on to different topics.

There are a few different formats that this checking can take. This can involve getting the learner to answer you directly, tell a neighbour, summarise the main idea, raising hands if they know, raise their hand if they agree with someone else’s answer etc (Rosenshine (2012: 14).

This provides an opportunity for learners to practice what they have been taught (Rosenshine 2010: 12). You can use a mix of open and closed questions to provoke ideas from students and check their understanding (Moore 2024a: 8), please see the appendix below for some examples of open questions.  It also allows all learners to participate and for you to determine who needs more support with the material (Rosenshine (2010: 13). Remember to be a detective in the classroom and ask lots of questions! Back to the principles!

Pulling over here to build something. Not an IKEA bookshelf (thankfully) - but a strong example. This checkpoint is all about modelling. Showing how a task is done - whether that’s solving an equation, analysing a poem, or planning an answer. It gives learners a starting point, a reference, a framework. Something they can lean on before they go solo. If you’ve ever had someone say, “Can you just show me how you’d do it?” - that’s what this principle is all about. Let’s dive in.

Principle 4: Provide Models: Providing students with models and worked examples can help them learn to solve problems faster

Modelling helps to support learners’ focus on the specific steps needed to solve a problem and comes in as the first step in a scaffolding exercise, the “I” of “I, We, You”. Presenting examples and going through steps for specific problems can help with specific problem solving (Rosenshine 2012: 15).  Worked out examples show students how to focus on the essential parts of the problem (Rosenshine 2010: 15). Your aim is to give learners a template to follow when they come to do their own work.

As you begin to remove the scaffold, partially solved problems can also be used (Rosenshine 2012: 16).

These can help to keep student attention (Rosenshine 2010: 15) and give you more information on where they might be going wrong. For instance, if they can do the last half of a problem when the first half is done for them, but not the other way around, then you know they are struggling with the initial steps in the problem. You can also use examples that someone else has done incorrectly to see if they can spot the mistake.

Practicing many times with support from a teacher is a great way for learners to benefit (Rosenshine 2010: 14). There are a number of forms that modelling can take, for instance, you can provide a checklist for the process that they should be using, you can include a version that you have done, with another next to it for students to work out, and you can provide prompts for discussion in the form of example sentences (Moore 2024b: 23). It is important that you work towards slowly removing these supports as the learner progresses, and that you are monitoring their progress to correct errors. As we will see in the next principle, this is very important! Back to the principles!

Now we’re in the “We” phase of the journey - the bit where you and your learner walk through things together. This principle is about guided practice: supporting learners as they try out what they’ve just seen. You’re there as a second pair of eyes, a confidence boost, and a safety net. It’s where you start to hand over responsibility - but not too quickly. This is a powerful moment for learning. Let’s unpack what it looks like in action.

Principle 5: Guide Student Practice - Successful teachers spend more time guiding students’ practice of new material

This can be understood as a part of the “we” section of scaffolding. You are guiding learners through their understanding of the material and correcting as needed. This should not be a totally independent activity. Indeed, one of the advantages of one to one and small group tutoring is that you can have a more in-depth discussion about the key concepts that learners will need for their exams than they would otherwise have the opportunity for. You should be checking student practice for errors and misconceptions.

Rosenshine (2012: 16) also states that ‘students need to spend additional time rephrasing, elaborating, and summarizing new material in order to store this material in their long-term memory’. Once this has been performed, that information can then be used to solve additional problems.

Rehearsing their knowledge can help to make recall easier and this rephrasing needs to be corrected with feedback, where misconceptions have been formed by the students (Rosenshine 2012: 16). Having learners recite things in their own words makes it easier for them to store that information, reducing the demand on their working memory and making it easier to access new material. It can also help them to connect what they are learning now to things that they have previously covered, and this will develop their understanding further (Cottinghatt 2025). This shows the value of discussion and guided practice.

Rosenshine also found that spending more time on classroom explanations meant that less time was needed to correct mistakes that learners had made (Rosenshine 2012: 16). Guiding practice, asking questions and checking for understanding is a key part of this practice, as well as correcting errors. You may not want to correct every single error, as this can be demoralising for students, but you should ensure that you are correcting mistakes that will affect them further on or that are important for their next steps. Whilst Rosenshine is focused on classrooms, this applies to tuition as well, and this guided practice is essential to getting the most out of your sessions.

This investment in explanation and scaffolding can also help to ensure that learners are able to focus on the material in their independent practice (Rosenshine 2012: 16). Often, when learners in tutorials are not focusing on their work, it is because they are not sure how to engage with the task that they have and have run out of track for them to progress along. Giving them this support means that the learner can progress further when they are acting more independently. To be able to learn completely independently, a person needs to have already attained a high level of expertise to prevent getting the wrong idea once they start (Moore 2024b 25).  As it is unlikely that you will be tutoring subject experts at GCSE, you need to check that they have the right understanding of the concepts that they are using.

 You can also ask students to summarise the main points that they have been taught (Rosenshine 2010: 16). This works well as a finisher for the session you have run, you can tell pretty quickly what they have understood, what they have not and what you may need to come back to later. You can also use this technique during the session when a learner appears stuck or if you want to check that they have understood your explanation. This can take various forms, whether that is asking them to complete sentences, answer questions or explain things to each other. It also serves as a chance for learners to practice their recall in the session, so well it is well worth fitting into your tutorials. Back to the principles!

We’re halfway through the journey now, and it’s time to take stock. This checkpoint is your understanding pit stop - a place to check whether what’s been taught is really landing. Because let’s be honest: learners can get a question right for the wrong reason. They can smile and nod while silently panicking. This principle is about digging a little deeper - making sure the foundation is solid before building further. Let’s explore how to ask better questions, spot misconceptions, and keep everyone on the right road.

Principle 6: Check for Student Understanding: Checking for Student Understanding at Each Point can help learn the material with fewer errors

These checks provide both an opportunity to move information to long term memory for the learner and allows the teacher to check for misconceptions (Rosenshine 2012: 16). These questions can take the form of giving a summary of what they know so far, how they would solve a problem or whether they agree with other learners’ answers (Rosenshine 2012: 16), as suggested above.

It is worth noting that these checks should be done carefully. Students should not only be asked “Are there any questions?” as this is less effective ((Rosenshine 2010: 18). The risk here is that learners may not be inclined to answer, or it may be too open a question.

It is not uncommon for learners who have not understood a topic to simply say “no” in response to this as that lets them move on and not face the discomfort of admitting they are not sure. This is particularly worth bearing in mind for in class support. Instead, questions should be more specific and, where possible, tailored to the learners’ abilities. So, for learners who are struggling more, questions should be focused on simpler aspects of the curriculum. They can also be simpler yes or no questions, or more open critical questions. You can then build back up from there.

As students summarise information for themselves, they can be more liable to make mistakes, so allowing them to verbalise their ideas provides a valuable opportunity to correct misunderstandings (Rosenshine 2012: 17). One way in which students can make misunderstandings is that they will have connected the specific ideas you are trying to teach them with other ideas in an incorrect way (Cottinghatt 2025). To give an example of this, instead of connecting the idea of subtraction to the idea of addition as being opposites, they may have taken them to be the completely unrelated. Each learner will have a different web of ideas and connections that you will be trying to attach new concepts to, so it is important to check for understanding. Back to the principles!

Feeling successful is a powerful motivator. And no, we’re not talking about handing out gold stars just for turning up - we’re talking about deliberately setting learners up to win. This checkpoint is about structuring learning so that success is likely - and meaningful. That’s not the same as making everything easy; it’s about pitching tasks just right so learners can grow in confidence and competence. Let’s explore how success, done well, builds momentum.

Principle 7: Obtain a High Success rate: It is important for students to achieve a high success rate during classroom instruction

This is a goal that you should have when you are providing scaffolding for your learners. A higher success rate in guided practice leads to a higher success rate when working on problems of their own (Rosenshine 2012: 17). Essentially, if you are explaining a topic to a learner and each time you ask them a question and they make a mistake, that suggests that they have not understood the topic or task very well. Checking for understanding in the guided practice is important as it keeps learners from practicing mistakes, they need to practice the correct method to benefit from what they are doing (Rosenshine 2012: 17). If not, correcting the error can be more difficult than learning it correctly the first time (Rosenshine 2010: 20). It can also lead to learners become frustrated when they are working independently, losing motivation or confidence. This should be avoided, so try to check that the learners understand the material before moving on to their independent practice

Effective teaching was found to increase correct answers from 73% to 82%, and a success rate of 80% shows that students were learning the material (Rosenshine 2010: 20). So, if learners are getting 4 out of 5 questions that you pose correct, the chances are good that they have understood the material. They do not have to get it all correct first time around for you to have them practice their independent work. But, if they are still making a lot of mistakes, then that is a sign that they need some more support before they do more independent work.

That being said, if learners fall behind the rest of the class, they are more likely to practice mistakes and develop misconceptions (Rosenshine 2012: 17). So, they should not be practicing their errors, as this will only reinforce them and make them harder to correct later. Practice makes permanent, not perfect! You may need to provide more scaffolding for these learners, using a method of adaptive teaching. Click here to read Brooke’s blog here on differentiation!

Higher success rates were achieved by ‘combining short presentations with supervised student practice, and by giving sufficient practice on each part before proceeding’ (Rosenshine 2010: 20). This can form a great structure for your tutorials. As you are not a teacher, you should avoid having long periods of teaching and should instead focus more on short explanations and tasks in a student led fashion. This can also make it easier for you to adapt what you are doing to suit the needs of your learner. Providing small pieces of information for students to then practice also makes it easier for them to internalise that stage before moving on to the next. Getting this correct will aid their independent practice. Back to the principles!  

We’re climbing now - tackling more complex tasks - and this is where scaffolding becomes essential. This principle is about supporting learners as they navigate difficult material, gradually removing that support as they become more confident. It's the ultimate balancing act: not doing the work for them, but making sure they’ve got what they need to keep moving forward. Let’s explore what that looks like in practice.

Principle 8: Provide Scaffolds for Difficult Tasks: The Teacher provides students with temporary supports and scaffolds to assist them when they learn difficult tasks

This principle touches on principles raised earlier, especially 4 and 5. Scaffolds are temporary supports used to assist a learner in difficult tasks, which can then be withdrawn as learners gain competence (Rosenshine 2012: 18). Some examples of scaffolds include modelling a step-by-step approach, the teacher thinking aloud as they solve a problem, use of tools like cue cards, partially completed problems and a completed version of the task with an error to check their method (Rosenshine 2012: 18). These are all ways that you can support a learner towards completing tasks independently. It is worth noting that which tasks are the difficult ones will vary depending on the learner, and the support that you give should reflect this.

Being able to spot common mistakes is also very valuable in this context, as is contrasting with expert examples of best practice for comparison with the learners’ work (Rosenshine 2012: 18). This can help learners to see where they can earn additional marks. So, you may want to ask the learners to compare their work with an example in their target grade bracket. These scaffolding techniques help to boost learner engagement and improve behaviour. If they can clearly see what they need to do, it is a lot easier for them to do it.   

As you provide scaffolding for students, you are aiming to take them from dependent learners to independent learners on that topic. There are several stages that a learner can go through to reach this point.

1.        Dependence, the tutor explains and models content.

2.        Heavy guidance, the tutor provides lots of support with practice via questioning.

3.        Light guidance, the tutor gives regular feedback, but the students are attempting it independently.

4.        Independence, students can use the new knowledge without support.

5.        Autonomy, students can apply the knowledge to a new context independently (Moore 2024b, 11).

Lots of learners will start in different places for different topics on this list, so it is worth getting to know them and testing their understanding of a host of different topics. The scaffolding should be appropriate to the student’s ability with that topic, and you can use a variety of techniques listed here to help them.

To relate this to our other framework, step 1 is the “I”, steps 2-3 are “we” and steps 4-5 are “you”. For the purposes of a lot of tutorials that we give, you can think of step 5 as the student being exam ready, they will need to be able to independently apply the skills and knowledge they have acquired with you to new questions. So, bear this in mind as you progress through the year! We will next look at the “you” part of scaffolding. Back to the principles!

We’ve hit the part of the journey where your learner takes the wheel. Independent practice is where everything that’s been modelled, guided, and checked comes together - it’s their turn. But here’s the catch: it’s not about walking away and hoping for the best. It’s about ensuring they’re ready, offering light-touch support, and checking in just enough to keep them on track. Let’s see how this principle plays out across different settings.

Principle 9: Require and Monitor Independent Practice: Students need extensive, successful, independent practice in order for skills and knowledge to become automatic

This is the “you” section of the tutorial, in which the learner practices what you have covered previously. Practice is essential for what is being learned to become automatic, which can then allow the learner to acquire new skills more easily (Rosenshine 2012: 18). As mentioned above, once learners are comfortable with one set of skills, they can then begin to use that on other topics, and in this way build on what has come before. This means that the independent practice will form a crucial part of your tutorials and the learner’s preparedness for their exams.

There are myriad forms that this independent practice can take, whether it is working through exam questions on a given topic, analysing a piece of text, answering as many questions as they can in a given time period and so on.

It is also worth noting that the independent practice does not necessarily mean solo practice, it is independent of your direct support. You can also set small group work for learners. Having learners work together can also help to promote their understanding of the topic (Rosenshine 2012: 19). They get feedback from each other by doing this and can learn more about correct and incorrect responses (Rosenshine 2010: 25). It also ties into the mentoring aspect of being a Yipiyap tutor, as this can help to increase a learner’s confidence. Between individual and group activities, there are a number of ways that this can be implemented, and it is worth experimenting to find what works best for your learners.

Independent practice for learners does not mean that their work is entirely unsupervised, you should still be checking their work and maintaining a presence in the session. Circulating the room and monitoring/supervising independent work has been shown to make learners more engaged in independent work (Rosenshine 2012: 19). Around 30 seconds per check in was usually enough when learners were doing independent work (Rosenshine 2010: 24). Whilst this is generally going to be a good rule of thumb for the classroom, you may want to experiment with different frequencies for your checks in tutorials, e.g. after they have completed a set of questions, when they appear to be stuck or after a set period of time. Hovering over learners every 30 seconds can be disquieting for some learners in a 1:1 setting. 

As discussed above, students need to be prepared for their independent practice (Rosenshine 2010: 24). It is not enough to “throw them in the deep end”, they need to understand the task so that they can apply their knowledge to it. Not knowing what they are doing will lead to behaviour issues and they will need a good foundation before attempting independent practice.

It can be worth feeding back to staff if you notice that many learners are making the same mistake so they can correct for this in their lessons, it may be that it is an area that may learners are struggling with and this can also help you to build your relationships with other members of staff and work as part of a team. Keeping track of topics covered and how well learners that you are working with are progressing is useful for you and staff when it comes to planning sessions and knowing where to focus to get the most benefit for these learners. Back to the principles!

We’ve made it to the final checkpoint - but the journey isn’t over. This principle is about regular review: looking back to strengthen memory, build connections, and help learners see the bigger picture. It’s not revision in the “cram and panic” sense - it’s meaningful, spaced review that reinforces learning and helps it stick long term. Because learning isn’t just about what’s taught. It’s about what’s retained. Let’s round things off with a look at the power of review.

Principle 10: Engage Students in Weekly and Monthly Review: Students need to be involved in extensive practice in order to develop well-connected and automatic knowledge

This principle is not about giving learners a performance review on how they are doing at regular intervals, though it may read like that! Rather, the point is that learners benefit from practicing recall of the different ideas and skills that they have covered. Students need extensive and broad reading, and practice, to develop a well-connected network of ideas (Rosenshine 2012: 19). You can think of this as learners developing a web of ideas that shows how they are connected to each other, as opposed to having a number of individual blocks of information that are not understood in relation to one another. For instance, a learner could understand solving quadratics and understand how they look on a graph, but they will be much better placed if they understand the relationship between these two ideas.  

This network of ideas makes it easier to learn new information and solve new problems (Rosenshine 2012: 19). Rather than having to start from scratch, a learner can draw on these interconnected ideas to better understand the new material they are learning. Well organised information takes up less of one’s working memory, and this can help to free up more of that for problem solving and new reflections (Rosenshine 2012: 19). Consider the difference between “if we start with any number and add 0 the answer is the same number we started with” and “For any number x, x+0=x” (Cheng 2023: 59). Whilst both say the same thing, one being more concise makes it easier to process, though it requires more expertise to understand. It is a similar idea with well organised networks of information. Better organisation makes the use of the information easier, but it can take some work to get to that point.

You can help learners to organise the information that they are being given in a variety of ways, but as a general strategy, you can use the following steps:

1.        Get to know what the learner already knows on a topic, what do they have to connect to the knowledge to?

2.        Make explicit links to that knowledge.

3.        Use activities to help them to make these links explicit. Use open and comparative questions, and concept maps (see the appendix on open questions for some examples of this), as well as some of the other techniques mentioned above.

4.        Check how they have formed that link, have they made misconceptions? Be curious about this.

5.        Correct as needed, repeat from 1 as needed (Cottinghatt 2025).

For example, if you wanted to teach someone how to solve an equation, you might start by finding out what they know about how different operators affect algebraic terms. Then, as you go through an example of solving an equation, you can link back to this knowledge e.g. “we divide 2x by 2, to get x, just like we did before”. You can then have the learner practice the technique and use question about their practice to make them draw links e.g. “last time you did this, so what should you do for this question?” You can then discuss and correct misconceptions that they may have made. If they are very confused, you start by going back to what they know and building back up from there.

Organised knowledge takes less space in working memory, so creates space to solve problems (Rosenshine 2010: 26). This makes variety, discussion and review very helpful as they help learners to organise the information they have (Rosenshine 2010: 26). So having opportunities to review what you have covered previously with a learner is valuable not only for improving their recall, but also for making it easier to absorb new ideas, by helping them to understand the connections between their various ideas. This will help the learner to apply that knowledge to new scenarios.

As a tutor, you may only have one session each week with a learner, so you will not be trying to constantly recap what you have previously covered on a weekly basis. There are, however, other ways that this can be used. You can, for instance, use starter activities for a quick recap of what was covered in previous weeks. Similarly, the last 5 minutes of a session provides an opportunity for reflection the key points they have covered. You may also want to try interleaving different skills, so that instead of having a single topic in a session, you cover something new and mix that with other skills that they have acquired. You can also have revision sessions, especially as the exams draw closer. Back to the principles!

You’ve reached the scenic viewpoint - the moment to pause and reflect. Neil shares a few important caveats here: how Rosenshine’s principles translate differently depending on your setting, your learners, and your style. This is your reminder that good practice isn’t one-size-fits-all - it’s responsive, reflective, and human. Let’s take a moment to think about how to adapt what you’ve learned.

Adjust the Map As You Go

Rosenshine’s principles provide a useful understanding of how to instruct learners and are worth considering when conducting tutorials. There are a few limitations or things to bear in mind, however. One is that it is not clear whether the evidence supports their use outside of the classroom and whether there is a difference in age groups and the topics that he discusses being made automatic are typically more basic skills around numeracy and literacy, it wasn’t clear whether there is evidence for more advanced skills becoming automatic in this way. That said, it seems plausible that they would scale to more complex ideas, and chimes with ideas around competence e.g. that we go from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence, to conscious competence to unconscious competence (a pattern credited to Noel Burch). Rosenshine’s aim to make learner’s processes automatic so they can acquire new skills suggests that his aim is this unconscious competence.

It is also not clear that, as tutors, you should be spending large chunks of time explaining things to students in the manner of a teacher. Tutorials should be more student led, rather than tutor led. This means that modelling and explanation are important for learners to grasp what they are needing to do, but you should aim to keep these sections interactive, to the point, and follow them up with opportunities for the learner to practice those skills. You are not aiming to replace the teacher but provide the leaner with the means to further their educational journey and confidence.   

The principles are helpful, but there is so much to learn about pedagogy that they should not be taken as the be all and end all. Rather, they provide a framework and potentially areas for you to concentrate on, as well as a way to understand session structure and engagement with learners (learners who do not engage are more likely to be ones who do not understand the material). You may need to adjust them as suitable, for instance, principle 10 (to have frequent reviews) provides a great idea, but if you only see a learner once a week, spending a long time on recap will not make the most of your time, and monthly reviews may already be being covered in class. Recaps can be done as a starter, as in principle 1, instead of a larger review. It is also unclear whether this is for all learners or all content, there are some skills e.g. numeracy that will not be appropriate as a point of focus or frequent review for some learners but will be for others.   

Some of the principles can be read as explaining how to do the others well, rather than standalone principles e.g. 4 and 8 are about guiding practice. Modelling is a form of scaffolding, and it may be that you should not be focusing too much on enacting specific principles in your sessions, at least not once you have gotten familiar with them. Instead, you should aim to make use of them as a means to an end and make use of the spirit of them more than the letter. You will need to use your judgement when applying these principles, so rather than following the letter of these particular laws, aim more for the spirit of them in supporting your learner.  

These principles do not consider the individual needs of students, such as SEND or other Alternative Educational Needs, and could be inappropriate in these cases.[1] For instance, asking a learner who has selective mutism to contribute to discussion may not be appropriate. You can discuss this with the SENDCo at the school, your RD (if you’re a Yipiyap tutor!) or other SEND support available to you if you are unsure of how best to work with these learners. Back to the principles!

Here we are - the end of the road. But if we’ve done this right, you won’t be leaving empty-handed. Rosenshine’s principles aren’t a checklist to follow rigidly - they’re a framework to support great instruction. Use them to shape how you plan, respond, and reflect. Keep what’s useful. Let go of what’s not. And remember: learning is a journey too. And now you’ve got a pretty solid map.

Rosenshine sets out ten principles that can be used to guide your tutorials and inform a targeted approach for your tuition, so that learners are able to process information effectively so that they can use it when they need to. There is a strong focus on providing scaffolding to learners, whether that be your own example, activities you do together or support they receive from their peers. This then allows them to go on to work independently on the topic and begin to achieve what they want. There is also a strong emphasis on feedback and correcting mistakes early to make practice more effective.

Your aim when using these principles is to make it as easy as possible for learning to happen, by making the material as accessible as possible, whilst also encouraging the learner’s independence. That is, you are ensuring that for the cognitive load placed on the student, they are getting the best long-term performance for that effort.

They will need your judgement to apply them well and you should not be aiming to implement them all in each session, apart from anything else, it can be overwhelming for you. Rather, they provide tools for you to use and help to shape your practice and goals in tuition. Back to the principles!

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Jennifer Haynes