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A Cognitive Approach to Questioning
A particularly potent view within the learning sciences posits that learning in generative (see, for example, Fiorella, 2023; Enser & Enser, 2020). In this respect, learners are viewed as generating understanding by, amongst other means, connecting new information to what they already know. This notion is consistent with our instinctual views of learning and gels…
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Genetics and learning
If there’s one topic in education guaranteed to lead to fierce debate, it’s behavioural genetics. Opposing sides take up their positions based on nature or nurture; whether academic achievement is based mainly on heritability or environmental influences. Publications such as Robert Plomin and Kathryn Asbury’s G is for Genes and Plomin’s more recent Blueprint: How…
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Book Review: Immoral Education: The Assault On Teachers’ Identities, Autonomy and Efficacy
Simon Gibbs, Routledge 2018 Simon Gibbs has written a compelling and timely account of the UK teaching profession. With teacher recruitment numbers falling and many teachers leaving the profession, this book is certainly a welcome addition to the growing number of works exploring the impact of so-called neo-liberal ideologies on the role of teachers. Early…
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What we get wrong about learning
We learn many things in our lifetime, from learning to walk and talk, read and write, ride a bike and drive a car. The list seems endless, because it probably is. Learning takes on different forms. Learning to walk, for example, differs a lot from learning algebra, or how to evaluate a Sylvia Plath poem.…
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Can brain training make us smarter?
Can listening to Mozart make you better at mathematics? Can learning a musical instrument make you cleverer? We know from studies that some types of learning, such as learning a foreign language or how to play a musical instrument, can slow cognitive decline in later life. But what is their impact on learning more generally?…
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Book Review: Tackling Disadvantage and Underachievement in Schools
Diane Montgomery, Routledge (2020) In Tackling Disadvantage and Underachievement in Schools, Diane Montgomery has written a useful and highly accessible resource for teachers from Early Years to secondary school. Using evidence from decades of research, practical examples and case studies, Professor Montgomery guides the reader through the factors that may cause underachievement, including the role…
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Characteristics of life-long learners
We all have different experiences of formal education and often these experiences shape our future expectations. My formal education was chaotic; six primary schools in three different countries followed by three secondary schools. My final year of schooling was perhaps the worst of all, having started yet another new school that didn’t offer some of…
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Book Review: The Psychology of Great Teaching: (Almost) Everything Teachers Ought to Know
By Pedro De Bruyckere, Casper Hulshof and Liese Missinne. Corwin (2022) It’s only in the past few years that psychology has played a much larger role in teaching and learning, despite many aspects of psychology relating directly to it. However, there has been a tendency to place psychology under the umbrella of cognitive science and…
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Can drawing enhance learning?
We can view learning as multi-representational. We might, for example, learn through reading or listening, but we may also use diagrams, charts, schematics or video. When describing the working memory model I can refer to the different systems, such as the phonological loop and central executive and explain what they are for. But, in this…
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The Emotional Learner 