Video introduction

This video outlines what you will cover in this Block.

Video transcript

Our memory can be a fickle thing. 

You might be able to remember the name of the first street you lived on, but you cannot remember where you left your keys last night or the name of that colleague who introduced themselves to you on the first day of term. 

While it can feel frustrating that our memory sometimes appears only to remember useless information, as opposed to the information we really do need (

where are those keys?),

in fact we now know a lot about how the memory works and, importantly for you as a teacher, how it affects learning.

Cognitive science ‒ that is the science of learning ‒

has come a long way in the past 30 years. Research into the functioning of the mind and the brain have greatly enhanced our understanding of learning, memory, intelligence and emotion, all of which have fundamental implications for education.

By understanding how the brain works, we can design more effective learning for our pupils in terms of instruction, materials, environments and experiences.

Psychologists and neuroscientists have known that there are different parts of our memory which perform different roles since the 1960s. Very simply we have a long-term memory which is where everything we know is stored. Examples of this include facts such as your home address or the formula for the area of a triangle. Information in the long-term memory is organised into groups or “schema”. These schemata are ever-expanding networks of knowledge which make up “what you know”. 

When we encounter a new idea or experience it enters our working memory, which is a short-term store for information while we are processing it. To help us make sense of the new material, we pull relevant information from our long-term memory to see if we can connect this new idea into an existing schema. If possible, we connect the new content to our existing knowledge; this makes it both easier to remember the new idea

and strengthens the prior knowledge we had. 

So why do some items of information end up in the long-term memory and others not?

Well, there are a few reasons:

• It might be that you didn’t have any secure prior knowledge to connect the new learning to and so the new information has nothing to tether it to a schema in your long-term memory.
• It could be that you weren’t paying attention or actively engaging with the new material ‒ such as that colleague’s name when they introduced themselves.
• Another reason might be that there were too many bits of new information in your working memory for you to deal with. We call this “cognitive overload”.

All of this is really important to remember when you are introducing new content to pupils. Pupils are constantly encountering new material. It might seem surprising to you, but pupils’ working memory can easily become overloaded and when that happens, no learning will take place. The same applies if pupils do not pay enough attention to the thing being taught, or if their prior knowledge is either insufficient or

not activated before encountering the new content.

Luckily, what cognitive science has taught is that there are some well-evidenced techniques which you can use to prevent pupils’ working memory becoming overloaded such as:

• Introducing new content in small, manageable steps.
• Breaking complex material into smaller steps.
• Making explicit links to prior knowledge so that pupils can more easily connect it to existing schema.
• Reducing distractions as much as possible, such as superfluous explanations or visuals.
• Sequencing lessons so that pupils secure foundational knowledge before encountering more complex content.
• Providing opportunities for pupils to use new content again, spaced across the year.

If you haven’t come across this before it might feel a bit overwhelming to have to think about cognitive science and how the brain works at this stage in your career, but don’t worry. This Block has been designed to introduce you to the most important aspects of how pupils learn and to provide practical and easy to understand examples to translate into your classroom practice. This is perhaps the most important professional knowledge you need as a teacher

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if you don’t understand how pupils learn, or what prevents learning, then you cannot plan and teach effective lessons. Because of this, you will see that many of the ideas and concepts which you will begin to explore in this Block are repeated and expanded upon as you progress through the next two years. 

You will have plenty of opportunities to work with your mentor to apply the learning from this Block into your lessons. And don’t forget, you can always ask your mentor what that colleague’s name is!