Andrew is in biology, struggling to understand the task he is supposed to be doing.
He tried to listen to his teacher’s explanation, but he struggled to remember what photosynthesis meant. So, he lost track of the explanation halfway through and now the diagram on the board has been replaced by a timer.
He’s looking at the worksheet. It has questions at the bottom, lots of text to read and some diagrams. Andrew doesn’t know where to look first and feels like giving up.
In common classroom scenarios like this, many students may struggle. However, Andrew may be facing additional hurdles that some of his peers are not. Studies in the world of cognitiveRelated to the mental process involved in knowing, understanding, and learning. science can offer some useful insights to better understand the barriers that pupils may be facing.
Happily, cognitiveRelated to the mental process involved in knowing, understanding, and learning. science may offer approaches to help remove these barriers too.
Applying cognitiveRelated to the mental process involved in knowing, understanding, and learning. science principles could help the teacher to refine their teaching practice in the following ways:
- Supporting Andrew to remember key prior learning
- Helping Andrew to understand the explanation of new content
- Supporting Andrew to fully access the task he has been given
1. Retrieval – remembering prior learning
The first hurdle for Andrew was retrieving the key term that the class had previously been taught. As he couldn’t remember the definition of photosynthesis, he was unable to effectively understand the new information.
We can make sure that pupils make connections between the new content being taught and their prior knowledge. Looking at this model of memory can help us to understand this process:
For new information to be processed by the working memory, old information must be brought from the long-term memory. This helps pupils to make sense of the new content they are being presented with.
This process can also have the added benefit of strengthening the memory of the older information, so that it can be more easily retrieved next time.
We can support pupils by:
- Considering what previous knowledge is relevant to the day’s learning
Regularly retrieving and checking understanding of core concepts throughout a topic or unit of study
Studies have shown that pupils completing retrieval themselves can lead to better strengthening and retention of information than teacher re-explanation. However, responding to the pupils’ success in retrieval is vital. If students cannot remember, or misremember a concept, this must be addressed before new content can be taught.
2. Thoughtful explanation – understanding new content
Guiding Andrew to retrieve the prior learning about photosynthesis may have given him a more secure starting point to receive the new information, but he still found the explanation difficult to follow.
It is possible that the new content overloaded his working memory. This could have made it difficult for him to understand the new concept or how it related to his prior learning.
We must think about how we present information. We can support students by:
- Presenting new information in chunks
Allowing opportunities for practice or checking understanding between steps
3. Presentation matters – accessing the task
With the help of retrieval and a carefully chunked explanation, Andrew has understood the new information. However, he is still unsure how to start the task he’s been given or where to find the information to help him.
Revisiting the memory model may help us to understand what is stopping Andrew here:
Processing information from the sensory memory, or what the student sees and hears, is processed by the working memory takes up some of the working memory’s capacity. This leaves less capacity for the task at hand.
We must consider how we can present information and help in the most efficient way so as not to overload the working memory. We could support pupils by
- Reducing unnecessary distractions on resources, e.g., images that do not serve a clear learning purpose
- Considering how we place information and tasks on a page e.g. placing a question near to where the information can be accessed
These three strategies may be helpful for all students in the class. However, by better understanding the barriers that some pupils may be experiencing, we can ensure that individual pupils like Andrew definitively benefit from high quality teaching.
Explore these strategies further by looking at the EEF’s CognitiveRelated to the mental process involved in knowing, understanding, and learning. Science Evidence Review. For working memory look at pages 10 & 24, and for retrieval practice look at pages 21 to 23.