I have been reading a lot about the science of learning lately, in particular around cognitive science. This explains empirically what works in terms of memory, which obviously impacts learning. I have boiled it down to 6 key points that I think all teachers should be aware of.
- Learning is not the same as performance (Soderstrom and Bjork, 2015)
- Learning is a change in long-term memory (Kirschner et al, 2006)
- Learning is built upon prior knowledge (Willingham, 2006)
- Learning is effortful and requires spaced retrieval (Bjork, 2018)
- Memory is the residue of thought (Willingham, 2010)
- Working memory is limited (Sweller et al, 2011)
My plan is to incorporate these into the staff training programme for the next year, but I have not decided how best to go about this just yet.