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Learning: The importance of timing

April 6, 2021April 6, 2021

I’ve written elsewhere about how British psychologists at the MRC Applied Psychology Unit, now the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, worked with the British Post Office to design the most memorable system of postcodes in the world. The Unit was also involved in other projects for the Post Office, primarily concerned with changes takingContinue reading Learning: The importance of timing →

The Forgetting Curve: How useful is it?

March 24, 2021April 6, 2021

In recent years, the phenomenon dubbed the forgetting curve has tweaked the interest of a growing number of teachers and other educationalists motivated by the application of cognitive psychology to learning. Put simply, the forgetting curve states that newly learned information will fade quickly unless returned to regularly. This makes intuitive sense; if I learnContinue reading The Forgetting Curve: How useful is it? →

Attention in the classroom

February 2, 2021February 20, 2021

What is it to pay attention? Why is it that sometimes I can be engaged in a conversation when suddenly my focus of attention is drawn away from it, only to return when I realise I’m expected to offer a response to a comment I didn’t catch? And what was it that disrupted by attentionContinue reading Attention in the classroom →

Attribution Theory and Learning

November 19, 2020November 19, 2020

Adapted from Chapter 10 (Control) of Becoming Buoyant, now available. Control, within an academic environment, refers to the belief that students are able to control their own academic outcomes. Control in this context doesn’t refer to students ability to dictate their own learning (such as choosing activities), but rather, to be the vehicles of theirContinue reading Attribution Theory and Learning →

What’s that all about? Prog vs. Trad

October 31, 2020October 31, 2020

You may have heard the terms progressive and traditional used within educational discourse. They represent two distinct schools of thought that encompass both the theory and practice of teaching, each with their own unique features and often polarising views based around the underlying purpose of education. On some level these distinctions create a rift thatContinue reading What’s that all about? Prog vs. Trad →

Where does creativity come from?

October 27, 2020

Creativity is a tricky concept. Some would suggest its spontaneous nature sits outside traditional learning and that it can be nurtured through flexible forms of education. Others insist that in order to be creative we need to already have knowledge and facts stored in long-term memory. Both are legitimate proposals, yet as a predominately cognitiveContinue reading Where does creativity come from? →

Video: The Friday five #2

September 25, 2020

Still not entirely sure what to call this series; Friday Five, Five on Friday? Anyway, here are five tips to help you overcome procrastination. Other videos are available on the channel, so please consider subscribing.

Student taking test

regular testing improves outcomes

September 19, 2020November 12, 2020

The role of testing in education is always going to divide opinion. My position on the matter had always been clear, in that regular low stakes tests or quizzes not only aid learning but also reduce test anxiety by normalising something that, in essence, isn’t normal. Test anxiety is, in part, the result of theContinue reading regular testing improves outcomes →

Video: The friday five #1

September 18, 2020

For the first of the Friday Fives, I look at 5 tips to help you learn better.

instructional design: Working memory & expertise reversal

August 2, 2020August 31, 2020

Working memory limitations indicate that we should design learning in such a way as to reduce cognitive load. Working memory is a resource with limited capacity and duration – there is only so much we can attend to at any one time. This is not just a proposal of working memory theory – it’s alsoContinue reading instructional design: Working memory & expertise reversal →

Becoming Buoyant

June 19, 2020November 3, 2020

Exciting news! Becoming Buoyant: Helping Teachers and Students Cope with the Day to Day is due for publication next month (July 2020). It’s taken me about five years to write this, indeed, I began investigating resilience well before I began writing The Emotional Learner. If you’re a regular visitor to the this site or you’veContinue reading Becoming Buoyant →

What are non-cognitive skills?

May 28, 2020October 28, 2020

The term non-cognitive skills has become increasingly prevalent within education over the past few years. But what do we actually mean by non-cognitive, how do these skills differ from cognitive ones and is any aspect of learning truly non-cognitive anyway? The roots of non-cognitive skills lie in the writings of sociologists Samuel Bowles and HerbertContinue reading What are non-cognitive skills? →

Re-evaluating Failure

April 14, 2020April 14, 2020

Failure is still seen as something to feel ashamed of rather than a vital component of eventual success. The need to succeed first time and our propensity towards perfection, however, can often lead to either the illusion of success or act as a barrier to it. Failure is ubiquitous, it’s experienced by everybody, from studentsContinue reading Re-evaluating Failure →

10 Podcasts to Educate & Entertain

March 22, 2020March 22, 2020

I don’t listen to as many podcasts as I would like to, so I asked people on Twitter to recommend some. Here’s a list of some of my favourites and suggestions from the Twittersphere, in no particular order. PsychCrunch The podcast of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest. This is the place to start ifContinue reading 10 Podcasts to Educate & Entertain →

Memory: A Curious Journey

February 23, 2020March 12, 2021

When we discuss memory, particularly in the context of learning, we usually refer to psychological models, such as the Working Memory Model of Baddeley and Hitch or the earlier Multi-store Model of Atkinson and Shiffrin. At a push we may refer to Cowan’s Embedded Process Theory or discuss working memory from within models of instructionalContinue reading Memory: A Curious Journey →

Resources & Ebooks

February 2, 2020

I’ve added eBooks to the resources page. Resources are free but I’d really appreciate a mention if you use them – many of them take quite a long time to compile and it’s always great to know that people are finding them useful. All I really ask is that you don’t sell them. It’s REALLYContinue reading Resources & Ebooks →

Book Review: Powering up Children

February 2, 2020

[Originally published in The Psychologist] Powering Up Children: The Learning Power Approach to Primary Teaching. Guy Claxton and Becky Carlzon, Crown House Publishing 2019 £16.99 Powering Up Children represents the latest addition to Claxton’s highly successful Learning Power Approach, a set of strategies and metacognitive skills that aim to empower learners to become more confidentContinue reading Book Review: Powering up Children →

Why reading aloud leads to better recall

January 31, 2020January 31, 2020

The production effect states that when we read aloud, our memory of the information is stronger than if we read silently to ourselves. Yet this behaviour is often viewed with disdain, especially in older students. When we first learn to read we read out loud, perhaps to a teacher or a parent. Once we becomeContinue reading Why reading aloud leads to better recall →

When is a chunk not a chunk?

October 25, 2019February 27, 2021

Chunking describes the process by which individual pieces of information are broken down and grouped together. The process is said to make the recall of information easier because it helps to bypass the inherent limitations of working memory. However, chunking also relies heavily upon long-term memory. Chunking is, therefore, related to another aspect of memoryContinue reading When is a chunk not a chunk? →

5 Cognitive Effects

October 8, 2019

The Generation Effect The generation effect refers to the long-term benefit of generating an answer, solution or procedure versus the relatively poor retention seen in being presented with it. The retrieval of learned information, therefore, is a more effective strategy than, say, re-reading the material because of the cognitive effort required. One study, for example,Continue reading 5 Cognitive Effects →

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Recent Posts

  • Learning: The importance of timing
  • The Forgetting Curve: How useful is it?
  • Attention in the classroom
  • Attribution Theory and Learning
  • What’s that all about? Prog vs. Trad

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