Applying Cognitive Psychology to Enhance Educational Practice - Professor Robert Bjork
A webpage from Bjork’s website about learning and memory performance in relation to principles of cognitive science. Includes embedded YouTube interviews.
This website helps make scientific research on learning more accessible to students and teachers. It contains a range of blogs and downloadable materials based on the Six Strategies for Effective Learning.
🧵 THREAD! Since introducing these one-pagers in my school in 2022, I’ve seen teachers’ engagement with evidence informed ideas sky-rocket. Teachers are time-poor, so distilling important ideas into an easily digestible format offers a practical solution. Here are 7 ways one-pagers support educators…
1/ WIDER READING: One-pagers spotlight the most important evidence-informed ideas and inspire wider reading. Our teachers have been able to focus on deeper exploration at a later date and learn at their own pace.
2/ BUILD KNOWLEDGE: One-pagers serve as a practical tool to introduce or refresh pedagogical knowledge. They have proved to be invaluable for teachers at all experience levels.
🧠 ‘Why Don’t Students Like School?’ by Daniel Willingham is one of the most influential books for teachers on cognitive science. It explores how students’ minds work and how to use this knowledge to be a better teacher.
🧵THREAD! Here are some of my main takeaways…
Thanks again to @olicav for the excellent learning and memory diagram! 🙌
🧠 WM has limited space and thinking becomes increasingly difficult as it gets crowded. ‘Unless the cognitive conditions are right, we avoid thinking.’ Teachers should promote challenging cognitive work by reviewing each lesson in terms of what students will THINK about.
🧠 ‘Background knowledge from our LTM helps us to make sense of new information’. Knowledge is best learned when it is conceptual and facts are interrelated. A practical way to do this is to get students to learn the unifying ideas of each discipline - the most common concepts.
🧵 FEEDBACK! Feedback should guide students toward improvement, be clear and specific, and encourage action. Here's a breakdown of key strategies to make the feedback process more impactful and move students forward!
🎯 **Make Feedback Specific**: Avoid generic comments like "good work" or "needs improvement." Be precise and clear. For example, “Your analysis is strong because you used…” This approach helps students understand exactly what they did well or need to improve.
🔍 **Make Feedback Understandable, Helpful, and Actionable**: @KateJones_teach explains that teacher must ensure students grasp the feedback and know how to improve.
1. Understandable: Do pupils understand the feedback? Do they understand what they need to do to improve?
2. Helpful: If the feedback isn't helping the learner move forwards and progress with their learning, then the feedback is not effective.
3. Actionable: Can pupils act on the feedback? Teachers should provide a task and time to respond and act on all feedback provided.
**🧵** Being evidence-informed involves blending insights from various educational research. Here’s a list of my favourite papers and reports that can help to refine and improve classroom instruction.
🪜 Principles of Instruction: Research Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know by Barak Rosenshine
In 2012, Rosenshine formulated ten key principles, which he argued underpin any effective approach to instructional teaching.
‘Why Don’t Students Like School?’ by Daniel Willingham is one of the most influential books for teachers on cognitive science. It explores how students’ minds work & how to use this knowledge to be a better teacher.
🪡 THREAD. Here are some ‘brain bites’ I took away from it…
🧠 WM has limited space & thinking becomes increasingly difficult as it gets crowded. ‘Unless the cognitive conditions are right, we avoid thinking.’ Teachers should promote challenging cognitive work by reviewing each lesson in terms of what students will THINK about.
🧠 ‘Background knowledge from our LTM helps us to make sense of new information’. Knowledge is best learned when it is conceptual & facts are interrelated. A practical way to do this is to get students to learn the unifying ideas of each discipline - the most common concepts.