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learning

Can we make learning permanent?

2015-08-31T21:32:07+01:00August 30th, 2015|learning, psychology|

How can we know whether a student has learned something? To answer that we need a working definition of what we mean by learning and the one I've come up with is tripartite; learning is composed of retention, transfer and change. In order to know whether something has been learned we should ask ourselves three questions: Will students still know this next week, next month, next year? Will students be able to apply what they have been learning in a new context? How will this transform a students’ understanding of the world? Of course, I can't prove that I'm right about [...]

Dipsticks: It all depends on what you mean by 'engagement'

2015-04-01T11:21:06+01:00April 1st, 2015|learning|

Yesterday I wrote a post - Does Engagement Actually Matter? - detailing some very interesting findings on the links between intrinsic motivation, enjoyment and attainment. It turns out that the more motivated you are and the more you enjoy learning the less likely you are to achieve. Who knew? The report about which I was writing sets out its terms thus: Student engagement refers to the intensity with which students apply themselves to learning in school. Traits such as motivation, enjoyment, and curiosity—characteristics that have interested researchers for a long time—have been joined recently by new terms such as, “grit,” which now approaches [...]

Does engagement actually matter?

2017-02-10T07:42:19+00:00March 31st, 2015|learning|

Suggesting that student engagement might actually be a bad thing tend to get certain people's dander up. There was a mild spat recently about Rob Coe reiterating that engagement was a 'poor proxy' for learning. Carl Hendrick unpicked the problem further: This paradox is explored by Graham Nuthall in his book ‘The Hidden Lives of Learners,’ (2007) in which he writes: “Our research shows that students can be busiest and most involved with material they already know. In most of the classrooms we have studied, each student already knows about 40-50% of what the teacher is teaching.” p.24 Nuthall’s work shows that students are [...]

Learning is invisible – my slides from #LEF15

2015-03-01T11:45:18+00:00March 1st, 2015|Featured, learning|

For all those who asked for my slides after my presentation of the London Festival of Education at the IOE, here you go: #LFE15 Learning is invisible from David Didau For all those who weren't there, here's a commentary: The idea that learning may not be visible isn't widely accepted and in order to challenge beliefs without annoying people, I began by the perceptual and cognitive illusions to which we all fall victim. Then, with everyone suitably softened up I offered some definitions of learning: The long-term retention and transfer of knowledge and skills A change in how the world is understood. We [...]

The problem with lesson planning

2015-05-18T16:23:06+01:00February 1st, 2015|leadership, learning|

Time brings all things to pass. Aeschylus Because the curriculum is divided up into units - terms and lessons - our thinking about how to teach is constrained. The school year is sectioned into six more-or-less equal terms and so it's become law that each year be split into six self-contained units. Similarly, the school day is divided into units of delivery - lessons - and for the entirety of my years in classrooms the lesson has been viewed as a self-contained unit of learning; the lesson has been the ultimate expression of teaching quality. My resistance to the lesson as the apogee [...]

A defence of the fixed mindset

2015-01-24T15:13:16+00:00January 23rd, 2015|learning|

The growth mindset has been so universally heralded as 'a good thing' that it's in danger of becoming one of those memes we think with rather than about. A number of commentators have been critical of the way mindset theory has been uncritical adopted and unthinkingly applied, but what if growth isn't always good? What if sometime we might be better off to be 'fixed' in our attitudes and beliefs? This is something that has been simmering away on my back burner for months, but then I encountered the following passage in the philosopher, Daniel Dennett's magnificent (and very witty) treatise on the human [...]

Revisiting lost learning by Gerald Haigh

2014-11-30T10:06:16+00:00November 30th, 2014|learning|

In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important a function as recollecting. - William James As teachers, we tend to do all in our power to prevent students from forgetting what we have taught them. This seems entirely correct and not open to debate: forgetting is clearly the enemy of learning. Well, according to Robert and Elizabeth Bjork, the way our memories work is a good deal more complex than that. For all practical purposes our capacity to store new information appears limitless - our brains have sufficient space to comfortably store every experience we're likely to have over [...]

Are we fetishising marking?

2014-11-14T08:10:13+00:00November 14th, 2014|learning|

When you make something a fetish, ashes and dusts will laugh at you, because they know even the most valuable fetishes will turn into dusts and ashes! Mehmet Murat ildan Last night I innocently posted the following tweet:   This sparked something of a debate. A number of people got in touch to tell me this was 'bonkers' and a 'complete waste of money'. Other responses ranged from cautious interest to overwhelming support. But by far the biggest objection was the assertion that marking is an essential aspect of planning: if teachers don't know how pupils are performing then future teaching will [...]

Why do we overestimate the importance of differences?

2014-11-05T17:48:31+00:00November 5th, 2014|learning|

"For a difference to be a difference, it must make a difference." William James We're all different. Obviously. Just like snowflakes, human beings are all special, unique and entirely individual. But like snowflakes, maybe those differences aren't as important as we might sometimes like to think. When it snows the difference between individual flakes is irrelevant. For all we have our very own permutations of DNA, the fact our physiognomies are broadly similar means we behave in broadly similar ways. Of course we have an infinite variety of differences in ability, but the way we learn is surprisingly similar. You doubt me? Well, you're not [...]

I ♥ rote learning

2014-08-30T23:17:04+01:00August 26th, 2014|learning|

Memory is the cabinet of the imagination, the treasury of reason, the registry of conscience, and, the council chamber of thought. St. Basil I've been reading and enjoying Getting it Wrong from the Beginning: Our Progressivist Inheritance from Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget in which Kieran Egan launches a blistering attack on the tenets of progressivism. What's particularly interesting about it is that it's written by a man who describes himself as "someone who has considerable sympathy with progressive ideals." (p6) I'll write more on the general and fascinating thrust of the book another time. Today I want just to pick up [...]

The problem with SatNavs, or how feedback can impede learning

2020-05-07T18:16:23+01:00July 6th, 2014|learning|

I'm not an especially good driver, but I'm a truly terrible navigator. This used to mean that I would get lost. A lot. When I first moved to Bristol in 2001 I bought an A-Z of the city and when driving somewhere new I would have to stop the car periodically and try to align the map to the streets around me. Needless to say, I found this pretty stressful. Luckily, I'm a lot better at recognising landmarks than I am at reading maps. Slowly, through a process of trial and error, I started to learn how to find my way around. I've got [...]

Teaching for independence: thinking, memory & mastery

2014-07-02T17:08:59+01:00July 2nd, 2014|learning|

Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think. John Stuart Mill It's been a while now since I last wrote about the Teaching Sequence for Independence, so I'll start with a brief recap on what has come to be meant by 'independent learning'. Up until relatively recently there has been a strongly held belief amongst many teachers that pupils will only become independent if we encourage our pupils to learn independently. In essence, this [...]

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