1. Memory is a powerful lens 2. Memory is most usefully thought of 2 interacting components: WM & LTM 3. Our WM has a limited capacity 4. LTM can help us overcome our WM limits 5. Memory is organic, not digital
@DTWillingham These big ideas have provided me with solid foundations upon which to build a more nuanced understanding of learning.
Let me know how your foundations differ.
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@DTWillingham PS. Picture of a fiver as promised ⤵️
@DTWillingham PPS. I write a weekly 5-min email for teachers interested in this kind of stuff....
Labels play an important role in education. They help students access targeted support and guide us in responding to particular needs.
However, they can also have unintended downsides—they are a double-edged sword.
Labels can influence expectations.
Teachers who know a student’s diagnosis can—often unconsciously—lower their expectations, asking fewer complex questions or offering less peer collaboration.
*Diagnostic overshadowing* can thwart inclusive teaching.
What's useful for teachers to know:
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Diagnostic overshadowing is a term originating in medical contexts (and introduced to me by @Barker_J).
It describes the phenomenon where doctors inadvertently place too much emphasis on a patient's diagnosis, overshadowing other significant health concerns.
For example, a patient diagnosed with depression might have their physical symptoms—like fatigue or headaches—mistakenly attributed to their mental health condition, potentially overlooking a critical underlying physical illness requiring separate treatment.
The first idea—cognitive similarity—helps us understand that:
→ the way people learn is more similar than it is different.
Despite its intuitive appeal (largely because it aligns with our modern liberal values), the notion that students learn best when taught in a way that is unique to their particular needs or preferences lacks empirical support and can even impede learning.