Thread by @SoLInTheWild

A thread about why I told a student no when she asked if we could “do something totally different” today and what that moment says about working memory, novelty, and the engagement trap many students and teachers fall into. 🧵1/10

A student asked me today:

“What are we doing in class?”

I said, “The usual.”

She paused. “Can we do something totally different for once?”

2/10

It was a fair question.

She wasn’t being difficult. She was voicing something many schools in the U.S. have accidentally trained students to expect: novelty and engagement=learning

But I told her no, and here’s why. 👇

3/10

Our working memory, the part of our mind that processes new information, is tiny.

When we change routines or formats too often, that precious mental space gets used up just figuring out what to do, not what to learn.

In other words, it makes learning harder not easier.

4/10

That’s why consistent structures and patterns matter.

When the “how” of class stays familiar, students can focus their attention on the “what” — the actual ideas, connections, and meaning.

Routine and predictability frees up cognition, the ability to think and reason.

5/10

Here’s the trap: teachers are often told to “keep things fresh” or “surprise them.” Even worse is we have come to believe it.

Sure, a little novelty can boost curiosity. But constant novelty? It drains attention, not fuels it.

It confuses interest with investment.

6/10

Yet students grow up in classrooms where every lesson looks different — escape rooms, games, gallery walks, new tech tools.

So they start to expect and even demand novelty. When they don’t get it, they think learning is “boring”.

Or worse—they can’t learn without it.

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The result: teachers chase novelty to create what they, and their observers, don’t realize are poor proxies for learning.

This keeps students, teachers, and admin hooked on the form of learning, not the substance.

Everyone gets exhausted, and little knowledge sticks.

8/10

Engagement doesn’t come from constant change.

It comes from continued success. The feeling of “I get this.” The joy of learning.

Predictable routines create stability for learning to happen. Novelty brings unnecessary instability that makes it harder than it has to be.

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So when my student asked to “do something different,” I smiled and said:

“No, because I want your brain to have room to think about new ideas, not new instructions.”

And that’s the kind of new and different that actually matters.

10/10