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What is The Science of Learning
Learning is at the heart of education, or should be. Over the years, as someone who has studied the Science of Learning and how that can be applied to formal learning settings, I have spoken at conferences, given numerous workshops and seminars, and worked to support teachers who were in need of…
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Lecturing
As methods of teaching go, lectures are the most widely used (89%) method of teaching in higher education today. The reaction of most teachers who read this is one of extreme defensiveness. The evidence is overwhelming about the effectiveness of lecturing and the visceral reaction of most people who lecture causes me…
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Downfall of Science
One of the real challenges I face in trying to convince people that there are better ways to approach education is an attitude towards evidence that I don’t understand. I was talking to one educator about the evidence from psychology about how to motivate students to engage in their academic studies. Her…
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Learning
Learning is at the heart of education, or should be. Over the years, as someone who has engaged in The Science of Learning and how that can be applied to formal learning settings, I have spoken at conferences, given numerous workshops and seminars, and worked to support teachers who were in need of help.…
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Subjective Judgments of Learning
Subjective judgments about learning are somewhat problematic. One of the aspects of metacognition (a future article) is the ability to assess your own learning. Metacognitive abilities are difficult to develop, and it is unusual to find students with highly developed metacognitive skills. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that people consistently overestimate what…
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The Science of Learning and The Art of Teaching
Knowing what the research tells us about how people learn is not enough unless we use what we know to make a difference in our students’ lives. Usually, when I begin to talk to teachers about the science of learning, I find that they get very defensive. I can understand the defensiveness.…
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Why The Science of Learning?
The Science of Learning is a blend of scientific knowledge. There is a wealth of scientific knowledge that has been accumulated about how people learn. The knowledge is spread across a number of disciplines and is brought together under the umbrella term The Science of Learning. The Science of Learning is the…
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Effective Cramming
Why is cramming so effective as a method of study, and for millions of students? The why is really quite simple. When students study for a test they are using what is called episodic memory. Episodic memory is a type of memory that we use every day. When you think about what…
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Academic Skills: Why should We have to Teach Them?
In the late 90’s when the skills agenda was all the rage in the UK, I was tasked to develop a skills program. At the time they were key skills, and they were slowly transformed into employability skills. I don’t think anyone cared what they were called, they were all the same thing.…
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Cramming – Episodic Memory
Actually cramming works to pass a test, and for millions of students that is the only goal for their education. Eighty-five percent of the students entering university in 2016 were doing so in order to get a qualification that would lead to a better job. For them, cramming works, because they have no intention…
