Empty Your Brain
AKA: Brain Dump
Empty Your Brain is a type of Spotlight Assessment Activity (tasks that get students to think appropriately hard about specific things, and which tease out misconceptions. There are many other examples here→.)
With this technique, you ask students to summarise everything they know about something, in writing or verbally. For example, you might say:
‘Write down everything you know about… Richard III.’
‘Write down everything you can remember about… series circuits.’
‘Tell a partner the key points you need to keep in mind when… shooting at goal.’
‘Write down everything you know about… the rules of basketball.’
‘Tell a partner everything you know about… safety rules for the workshop.’
Why use this technique?
Empty Your Brain utilises the cognitive principle known as ‘the testing effect’: retrieval strengthens memory. Because students are likely to articulate much of what they write or say in their own words, it also utilises ‘the generation effect’: use of knowledge to create something new, or do something new with, strengthens memory.
As well as helping the teacher get evidence of what is actually known and understood, Empty Your Brain helps generate evidence of what isn’t, including misconceptions students might have, some of which the teacher might never have imagined existed.
Focused reflection
How well do you currently use this technique?
Is it a technique you will focus on developing?
If so, what are the key features you will focus on (things to do, and not do)?