Perhaps the most popular of all cognitive science topics is retrieval practice. It is popular, practical for teachers, familiar enough compared to lots of common teaching habits (quizzes and similar) and it has lots of research to explore its impact. Right now, we hear notes of caution around potential lethal mutations, such as mandated quizzes …
When I was growing up I sought out books that mirrored my world. I can name the narratives that walked me through my tortured teens, or those books that helped me attempt proper adulting. From each reading, familiar character became both a reflection and a fragment of myself. When I became a teacher, few books …
Ask a group of teachers in the staffroom about how research evidence can help them teach and you may well receive a rather sceptical response. I can hear the complaints now: ‘more bloody work’…’box ticking’…’don’t give me ‘action research’, mate’…’another shiny new toy’, and worse. No doubt, given our fatigue with the merry-go-round of curricula change …
Let me first say that I am a big fan of educational research and undertaking trials in schools. Of course, we are not doctors and surgeons dealing with the clear boundaries of sickness and health, or the obvious dichotomy between medicine and placebo. We can, however, design far more robust trials that help us work …
Feedback has always been all the rage! In all my years of teaching I think I know instinctively the things that make the difference to learning. Once such tipping points of learning for me has been those small, nearly unremembered, chats with students about their work. The subtle hint to change course; the exasperated plea …
