The Master Teacher Blog

The term “cognitive science” isn’t new, but the research-based, experience-proven practices that make up the body of cognitive science are compelling. Yet, for many educators, the collective body of knowledge and practices that comprise cognitive science may be less than familiar.

Nevertheless, cognitive science is rapidly becoming one of the hallmarks of the education profession. It provides vocabulary to describe, a language to use, and a framework to discuss key elements of teaching and learning. Interestingly, cognitive science tends to be more widely known and practiced as a comprehensive approach in countries like the United Kingdom and Australia than in the United States. Meanwhile, most of the research supporting cognitive science has its origins in the United States.

At its core, cognitive science explains key aspects of how our brains process, think, and remember what we learn. Implementation of cognitive science principles and practices have been credited for steady academic progress among English students and a fifty-percent reduction in their reading gender gap. Other countries are taking notice and are applying cognitive science principles in their school and with their students.

So, what are the key elements of cognitive science? Here are nine of the most common and relied on principles and practices. (We have also provided links to other In Your Corner blogs that discuss many of these elements.)

Instructional strategies

Activating prior knowledge. Connecting what students are going to learn with what they already know is a great way to prepare students to grasp unfamiliar content and build new skills. We can engage students in discussions, conduct refresher lessons, ask linked questions, and other activities to connect with past learning, draw on prior knowledge, and relate to student life experiences. This also is a key time to be alert for misconceptions that may interfere with new learning.

Dual coding. This practice draws on two key learning modes: visual and auditory processing. The power of the approach is that the brain responds and retains more information when information or experiences feature multiple entry points. Combining explanations with graphic organizers, matching what students read with visual representations, and having students draw as they build understanding of a new concept are examples of dual coding.  However, it is crucial that the visual and auditory input be aligned and focus on the same concept, content, or skill to avoid confusion and misconceptions.

Cognitive load. The entry point for new learning is working memory. This temporary holding place sorts and processes information for later storage and recall in long-term memory. Unfortunately, it has limited capacity to hold new information. It is easy to overload working memory, and it is susceptible to distractions. When we overload working memory, we risk students missing key information or not recalling it later. To maximize the functioning of working memory and avoid cognitive overload we can minimize distractions, break information into manageable parts, and provide timely breaks for the brain to process what is being learned.

Learning strategies

Metacognition. Metacognition describes the process of thinking about one’s thinking. As students develop this skill, they become increasingly aware of their thinking strategies and how to monitor and modify their thinking processes. Metacognition can be developed by teaching reflection practices, planning actions, and sharing monitoring and adjustment strategies.

Interleaving. Interleaving is a powerful study strategy that mixes topics and subjects intentionally to encourage the brain to process and connect information as students learn.  For example, students might study English for twenty minutes, followed by a similar amount of time spent studying history. Students might focus on new information followed by a review of content they already know. Or they might engage with content out of chronological order. Interleaving keeps the brain alert and improves its ability to differentiate elements and aspects of the content students are learning.

Learning support

Motivation. We need to tap motivation that comes from within students whenever possible. Learning that features opportunities for autonomy, features a clear and compelling purpose, presents the potential for mastery, and allows students to practice self-determination is nearly impossible for students to resist. We can supplement these elements by varying learning formats and activities to gain and hold attention.

Feedback. Feedback can be a powerful support for learning. However, to make a difference it must be timely, specific, actionable, and purposeful. Students need to receive feedback as soon after a learning experience or action as soon as practical. Feedback needs to focus clearly on what the student has done. Effective feedback also includes the next step students can take to move their learning forward. Finally, feedback that has an impact needs to be connected to a worthy purpose, such as accomplishing a goal, mastering a concept, or making important progress.

Deepening learning and extending recall

Retrieval practice. Retrieval practice is a particularly effective way to help students refresh previously learned content and skills and extend their recall of past learning.  Students might be asked to conduct a “brain dump” of everything they can recall about a previously learned concept or skill. They might be given low stakes quizzes that refresh past learning. Or students may be asked to retrieve past learning as warm up activities and/or to complete exit tickets.

Spaced practice. Intensive, compressed studying can offer short-term learning benefits. However, learning sticks better when practice is spread over time. Spaced practice also tends to deepen learning and extend recall. The brain reads repetition as important. For example, we might introduce new content or a skill and help students to build initial understanding or competence and then follow up in a few days with practice and extension of the new concept or additional elements of the new skill. This process might repeat in several days or a week and over an extended period. The cyclical nature of this approach continually strengthens learning and extends students’ ability to recall and apply it.

Cognitive science can provide excellent guidance and useful tools to help our students ramp up their learning and extend their recall far beyond what they typically experience without these practices. If cognitive science is part of your instruction and support repertoire, keep up the good work. If some of these approaches are unfamiliar, now is a great time to try them.

We want students to feel successful. We also need to protect them from unnecessary pain and disappointment. However, we cannot and should not protect students from all consequences. Consequences are an important part of learning. Consequences help students to see links between cause and effect. Consequences invite students to connect actions and outcomes. Consequences can help students to modify their behavior as they see and experience the effects of their choices and actions.

Yet there is considerable ambivalence related to today’s young people and consequences. Some parents seek to protect their children from any negative consequences. When students’ behavior leads them to face consequences, parents may feel they should step in and attempt to prevent the experience.

Of course, there are limits to our advice and influence over parent choices. However, there is much we can do in a learning context to help students anticipate, understand, and learn from the consequences they experience. In the meantime, it is important to be clear about what we mean by consequences, what they are and are not, and how they can play a role in learning.

First, consequences and punishment are not the same. Consequences focus on learning and responsibility. Consequences help to teach and prevent behavior. Consequences are intended to give students insight into and control over future choices. Punishment is a means to exert control and exact pain and discomfort. Punishment is indeed a consequence, but not all consequences are punishment. The most useful consequences provide information and inform future behavior. Punishment, on the other hand, is more likely to be backward-looking, focused on payment for past behavior.  While punishment can be effective in stopping current behavior, useful consequences build better behavior in the long-term.

Second, consequences generally fall into two categories: natural consequences and logical consequences. Natural consequences include phenomena such as touching a hot stove and failing to dress appropriately for the weather. The discomfort experienced serves as a lesson to inform future behavior. Logical consequences involve behaviors such as violating reasonable rules, failing to complete expected tasks, and cleaning up a mess one has made. Here the consequences are connected to behavior, but they follow logically rather than naturally. In both contexts, consequences can offer lessons to be learned.

Third, consequences in schools tend to be more logical than natural. Although there are opportunities for students to experience natural consequences, the consequences students experience in school are more likely to result from failure to heed rules, expectations, and structures intended to create a safe, orderly, and productive environment. 

Fourth, productive consequences create conditions that encourage learning. Consequences are not learning. Learning happens through reflection, understanding, and adjustment. History is filled with examples of consequences that did not lead to learning and resulted in repetition and even more consequences. Our challenge is to help students understand and make sense of the consequences they experience and to learn from them. We also control the conditions that lead to most consequences and can position them to maximize the probability that learning will result in. Here are five characteristics of consequences that support learning:

• Consequences are connected to the behavior. “If you do/or fail to do _____, then _____ will happen.”
• Consequences are understood. Students can explain how their behavior led to the consequence.
• Consequences follow soon after the behavior. Proximity makes it more likely that the behavior and consequence will be understood as connected.
• Consequences match the behavior. The severity of the consequence is proportional to the conduct.
• Consequences encourage behavior modification. Students have opportunities to try again, fix what they did, and apply what they learn.

In life, consequences are unavoidable. The choices we make and the actions we take matter. Sometimes the consequences we experience are positive and welcome. At other times, the consequences are disappointing and painful. Regardless, they are opportunities to learn and inform future behavior. These are important lessons to teach our students. However, we need to be certain that the consequences our students experience are learning-focused, not punishment-driven. 

Gaining and holding student attention is a daily, hourly, and—sometimes—even a minute-by-minute challenge. We need students’ attention if we want them to learn, whether we are engaging with them individually or as a group. However, finding and choosing the right approaches can be challenging.

Of course, we can take a direct path by telling students to pay attention, but such admonitions can become routine and their power to attract attention can diminish. Threats can lose their impact and often repeated exhortations become background noise.

The best attention-grabbing approaches tend to be interesting invitations, surprising promises, and compelling requests. Additionally, holding student attention is easiest when they see a purpose for what they are learning, or how it will play a meaningful role in what will happen. Here are seven phrases we can use as starting places to capture and hold the attention of our students, depending on the topic, issue, or subject.

“Have you ever wondered why ________ happens? Today we are going to find out.” This question can be a great way to create interest and spark curiosity. Of course, some students may never have given the issue or circumstance any thought, but our introduction is an invitation to consider and a promise to discover something new.

“I am curious to hear your thoughts on something I am considering.” This statement communicates our interest in how students will respond to something that we are thinking about or planning. We are seeking their perspectives and offering to consider what they think before we decide.

“Let’s think about this in a different way.” These words send a message that there are different ways to approach an issue or think about a problem. The invitation can be a timely way to nudge students from becoming stuck in a less than helpful way of considering a problem or confronting a challenge. It also can be a strategy to help students reframe something that has happened in their lives or with their learning.

“I think you are going to find this interesting.” This statement sets the stage and invites students to listen for something novel, surprising, ironic, or engaging. It can be utilized to introduce a mystery, a surprising fact, or an unusual happening. The idea is to draw notice, create readiness, and build curiosity for what will come next.

“Tell me a little more about that.” This request invites students to continue to share information or details on a topic about which they have already spoken. It can be a way of collecting information related to an incident, a feeling, or an area of confusion. Importantly, this statement communicates our interest in, and our valuing of what students say.

“Can I ask a favor?” This question may seem curious. Yet, it is powerful. Asking a favor is a compliment. It implies that the other person has the power to accomplish something that would be helpful to us or others. It also gives the person who does the favor a sense of value and our respect.

“Let me tell you a story.” The prospect of a story is inherently interesting. Our brains are wired for stories. We might recount something from our experience, share a metaphor, provide an example within a narrative, or place an aspect of what is to be learned in the context of a storyline.

What other phrases, invitations, questions, or requests have you found to be useful in attracting and holding students’ attention? Be sure to share your best strategies with colleagues and collect the “best of their best.” The more options we have to choose from, the more likely we will be to find what works.

Teachable moments can be magical times for teaching and learning. After all, they hold the potential to open doors to exploration. They can capture intrinsic interest and lead to amazing learning adventures. However, they often arrive unannounced and can be easily missed or misinterpreted. They can even seem like interruptions and distractions rather than invitations to learning. 

These (often serendipitous) events can emerge as questions, mistakes, misconceptions, unfounded assumptions, and other seemingly innocuous comments and observations. Unless we are open, aware, flexible, and attentive, teachable moments can present themselves and dissipate without our realizing what we missed. Fortunately, there are practical strategies we can employ to recognize and make the most of teachable moments. Here are seven ways we can be ready to recognize and exploit these special teaching opportunities. 

First, we can be fully present. If we allow ourselves to become preoccupied with what we have to say and what we intend to happen, an unanticipated connection, useful observation, or provocative question can pass us by and leave a teaching and learning opportunity unexploited. Noticing and capturing teachable moments often is referred to as practicing attentive flexibility. 

Second, we need to listen closely and deeply. Students often tell us more about what they want, need, and are interested in than we realize. An important misconception may lie beneath confidence. Curiosity may hide behind a promising question or comment. Listening for what is not said can be as important as what is spoken. We can ask ourselves, “What are students telling me without saying it?” 
 
Third, we can watch for and capture connections to students’ lives. When students see how what they are learning may be relevant to their lives, casual attention can turn into engagement and compliance can shift to commitment. 

Fourth, we might make mistakes and elevate errors. Powerful learning experiences can emerge from examining the nature and causes of mistakes. Confusion and misconception can become the source of new understanding and memorable learning. Normalizing not knowing can make exploration and risk-taking safe and open the door to memorable learning moments. 

Fifth, we can teach with peripheral awareness. We can listen for side comments, confusion, or excitement. These and other similar behaviors can signal a change in energy in the room and may signal an opportunity to shift our attention and pace to explore the cause and implications. Teachable moments are often found in the unplanned and unanticipated responses students have to our instruction. 

Sixth, we might ask purposeful follow-up questions to explore what is behind a student’s response, what drove a perplexing question, or where a comment might lead. Teachable moments are more likely to surface in response to a secondary question than an opening or initial question.

Seventh, we can resist planning in excessive detail and with rigid pacing. Thinking of the lesson as a guide rather than a hard and fast blueprint can build in flexibility to pursue potentially teachable moments. We might identify the “must do’s” in the lesson so that we can adjust as the lesson unfolds and we see how students are responding. Too much structure can create pressure to follow the script rather than follow the learning. 

Capturing teachable moments does not mean that we must chase every unanticipated happening or pursue every off-topic comment or question. Rather, we can trust our instincts, use what we know about our students, and remain flexible enough to adjust and refocus when we sense something important may be available to pursue.   

Are you wondering where you will find the next generation of teachers for your school? You might find yourself searching far and wide to recruit and hire… but the good news is that reality is much simpler. Many of the teachers who will work in your school in the future are sitting in your classrooms today.

Consider the following:

• More than 60% of teachers work in the same state where they grew up.
• More than half of early-career teachers work within 15 miles of where they grew up.
• More than 75% work within 40 miles of their childhood home.
• Approximately 75% of teacher applications are for jobs within 150 miles of their current residence.
• Teachers who work close to home tend to stay in the profession longer.

The implications of this information are both important and useful. First, the quality of the learning experiences that students who will be future teachers have today will likely carry into their expectations and performance in the future. Ensuring high-quality learning today can increase the quality of tomorrow’s teachers.

Second, students who later become teachers often form interests and aspirations well before entering college. Early exposure to teaching opportunities and exploration of what a career in teaching can offer can increase the likelihood that today’s students will choose an educational professional.

Third, because we have access to them now, we can encourage students who may have an interest in teaching and support them in exploring what teaching is like, including the wide variety of roles teachers play in schools. This opportunity can also make our school a location of first choice.

Fourth, students who see themselves in the role of a teacher are more likely to choose to teach. Giving students practical, hands-on experiences (such as having them plan and lead a lesson as part of a project-based learning activity) can help them to see the possibilities for themselves.

Fifth, we can structure formal experiences through career pathway programs, internships, and apprenticeships to increase the knowledge and confidence students bring to their career decisions. Importantly, these programs are most effective when formal, skills-based learning opportunities are integrated in these experiences.

Sixth, when students have developed teaching-related experiences, skills, knowledge, and confidence, they are likely to find greater success in post-secondary programs and be better prepared for the reality and rewards of teaching when they enter the profession.

Finding and hiring teachers to serve our students is challenging. However, with long-term planning and investment in today’s students, we can increase our potential to hire teachers who understand our community and students, are well-prepared to enter the profession, and who will stay longer.

Visit our Paraeducator Career and Technical Education Pathway page to see how this program for high school students aligns with your school’s Grow-Your-Own program!

References:

Blaushild, N. L., Mackevicius, C., & Wigger, C. (2023). Investigating the “draw of home” and

teachers’ career decisions. EdWorkingPaper No. 23-826, Annenberg Brown University. https://doi.org/10.26300/rcph-kq59

Edwards, W., Kirksey, J. J., Burden, K. Q. L., & Miller, A. (2024). Teaching close to home:

Exploring new teachers' geographic employment patterns and retention outcomes. Teaching and Teacher Education, 145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104606

Convincing students to do what we want and need them to do can be a challenge. Admittedly, some students are easily motivated by a challenge, a relevant topic, or even the expectation that they accomplish a task or learn a skill. Yet, other students respond less positively or not at all to generic motivational efforts and approaches. We may think that the only way to motivate them is to rely on fear, threats, shame, or criticism. 

Negative motivational approaches often seem as though they work—at least in the near term. When we threaten students with negative consequences such as failure or public shame, they often comply—at least while we are watching. When the choice is to criticize students as being lazy or careless, it may seem that they give more effort or pay closer attention—for the moment.

However, negative motivational approaches often come with a high price. Consider:

• Demands for compliance rarely result in long-term learning commitment.
• Criticism can erode confidence in learning potential.
• Threats can lead to avoidance of punishment or disapproval rather than learning driven by curiosity and creativity.
• Discouraging and harsh comments are more apt to leave students feeling unsafe and disliked than motivated.
• Coercive approaches are more likely to generate resentment, avoidance, and even defiance rather than to motivate.

Some people may argue that they know their students, and they are able to discern when a negative approach is necessary. In the short term, they might appear to have a point. They may seem to stimulate the behavior they demand via negative approaches. However, what is less obvious and more important are the long-term consequences that negative motivational attempts can generate such as:

• Diminished trust.
• Reduced self-respect.
• Lower levels of self-confidence.
• Weaker self-regulation behaviors and skills.
• Increased dependence on others for direction.
• Greater needs for external validation.

So, what are some positive alternatives to dependence on negative motivational strategies? Here are six options to consider and build on:

• Correct behavior while affirming the student’s worth and potential.
• Reaffirm student agency through choices, recognition of progress, and goal setting.
• Offer positive pressure through attainable challenges, clear goals, and timely feedback and encouragement.
• Connect learning to student interests, purpose, growth, and service to others.
• Notice and reinforce effort, progress, and goal achievement.
• Hold high expectations and support students to meet them.

Without question, motivation is a crucial element in learning. Finding ways to motivate and teach students how to motivate themselves can be challenging. However, resorting to negative motivational strategies comes with significant risks for students that can be lifelong. The additional time and thought required to stimulate learning interest and commitment via positive approaches are more than worth the effort and can benefit students long after they leave us.

Teaching involves lots of talking. We introduce new concepts and skills, provide guidance and support, offer feedback and direction—all of which require verbal cues and interactions. It is also true that what we say, the words we choose, and the timing of our communication matter.

Unfortunately, over time, our speech can fall into patterns that feel natural, but we may give little thought to the messages they carry. They may be phrases and statements that we heard from our teachers, or they may just seem useful in the moment.  Nevertheless, what we say can have a greater impact than we realize. Let’s examine seven common teacher statements that can shut down engagement and undermine learning.

We don’t have time for questions.

We might be reluctant to interrupt a planned lesson or the flow of an ongoing explanation. However, questions are indicators of curiosity, confusion, and interest in learning. Ignoring or refusing questions risks stifling curiosity, deepening confusion, and fostering disengagement. Whenever practical, we need to take questions as they surface. If the answer to a question can wait, we might invite the student to hold the question and promise to address it at the conclusion of the current activity. Or we might signal that an opportunity for questions is coming soon and ask students to jot down their questions so they are captured and can be addressed.

I just explained this.

This statement may be correct, but if students were not listening, couldn’t hear us, or the explanation was not clear to them, they won’t be able to use our explanation to move their learning forward. Rather than pointing out that an explanation has been given, we might focus on what students did not hear or understand. Checking for understanding is likely to be more supportive of learning than focusing on what students should have heard and understood. 

You need to try harder.

The amount of effort a student is giving may be inadequate to support development of the intended learning. However, effort is only one contributor to learning success. Focusing on effort alone can leave students feeling unable to succeed and with nowhere to turn. Good strategy, deep reflection, sense making, and effective use of resources also are crucial to learning growth. Balancing effort with other contributing elements can give students multiple places to find success.

This should be easy.

The fact is that what may seem easy to us or even for some other students may not be easy for all students. Declaring that a learning task should be easy risks discouraging or undermining the confidence of students for whom the new concept or skill requires struggle. The implication of the statement is that if the learning task is not easy, it is the students’ fault, or that the student is not a good learner.

You should already know this.

It may be true that we have already taught students what they need to know to be successful with a current learning challenge. However, our teaching is not the same as student learning and recall. Our verbal observation of what may be obvious suggests that the problem lies with the student, when the cause may be shared or at least more complicated. Rather than lamenting what students do not know or do not recall, our time will be better spent, and students will be better served by refreshing, reviewing, or reteaching what students need to know to be successful. 

You are so smart.

On the surface, praising a student’s intelligence may seem like a good confidence builder. Yet, the statement implies that the student was successful because of his or her intelligence alone. Unfortunately, intelligence by itself can only take learning so far. Without good strategies and effective effort, students can encounter challenges for which their intelligence alone is no match. Consequently, students may give up, believing they are not smart enough to go any further. Alternatively, they may avoid learning challenges that risk revealing that they are not as intelligent as we assume.

Just follow these steps.

Following dictated steps might lead to a correct answer, but it does not necessarily lead to learning. Not knowing why or understanding the relationship between actions and outcomes can leave students dependent on remembering the steps to take, not why the steps are important or how they lead to a correct answer. Further, this admonition suggests that there is a single way of solving a problem or finding an answer, while in most situations multiple paths can lead to success.   

We have much to say to students and they have much to learn from us. It is worth the effort to examine the common phrases we use and the exhortations we depend on to urge students to learn. We need to lift students up and focus their attention on where it will make the greatest difference. Consequently, we need to choose our words carefully.

Every day we face the challenge of guiding students to make the transition from what they were doing before they entered our class, to getting them ready to engage in what we have planned. Some students may come to us filled with energy and excitement over news they just heard. Others may be distracted by an unfinished conversation. Some may be stressed by conflict with a friend. Still, others will show up with other emotions, distractions, and concerns.

Of course, we cannot always know where our students’ minds are, but we need to find ways to settle their emotions, spark their thinking, and help them shift their focus and get ready to learn. We know that the first minutes of class are crucial to making or breaking the quality of learning we have planned.

Consequently, we need to move quickly to gain their attention and focus their thinking. The good news is that there are several quick, high potential strategies we can tap. Here are six options to consider.

Two truths and a myth. Engaging students in assessing what is true and what is not can be a great way to focus student attention and capture their curiosity. Students might be allowed to discuss their assessments with classmates and develop arguments to support their positions. Throughout the lesson, you might point out elements of truth and hint at what people often assume or believe that is not true. You might conclude the lesson by returning to the truths and myth to discuss what students have learned and explore the likely basis of the myth.

Solve this challenge. Consider inviting students to solve a problem, question, or challenge related to what they will be learning. Obviously, students are likely to struggle to find success with something which they have yet to learn about. However, their exploration and struggle can be great way to hook their curiosity and build commitment to tune in to your instruction. You might return to the activity at the conclusion of the lesson to debrief and help students see how what they have learned has empowered them to find solutions that eluded them before the lesson.

Make a prediction. You might provide a brief description of what students will be learning. As examples, you might provide a hint or share a mystery about an historic event, a surprising invention, or accidental discovery. Students might predict what event, invention, or discovery is involved or they might predict how the event relates to what they will be learning. As the lesson unfolds, students are likely to be paying close attention to reveal whether their prediction is correct. You might conclude the lesson by revisiting the predictions and discussing with students whether their predictions were correct and what they have learned.

Dump your knowledge bucket.  One of the best ways to build strong and sustained recall of information is to have students occasionally write or discuss everything they know about a topic, concept, or skill. The technique, known as “retrieval practice”, can also be an effective way to have students refresh their prior knowledge in preparation for additional learning. The twin benefits of this activity make it a great choice to prepare students for learning.

One question to explore. Present students with three to four sentences describing what they are about to learn. You might share uses, questions, or interesting facts about what lies ahead and then ask students to consider and write a question that occurs to them in response to what you shared. Consider sampling questions to gain a sense of what students are wondering. Where you can, embed answers to some of the questions in your instruction. At the conclusion of the lesson, return to the questions and discuss with students those that have been answered and which questions remain. You might answer some additional questions or commit to address them in future lessons.

What experts/famous people say or do. Find quotes or short stories about the topic or skill to be learned from people whose names or work students are likely to recognize. You might share their words about why the concept is essential to understand, how someone uses the concept in their work or creative endeavors, or a recent discovery about or new application of a skill or concept. As examples, you might share a story about how a grammar mistake led to confusion or misinterpretation in an important event, a quote about how a math concept was instrumental in early space travel, or a scientific discovery that changed the way we understand a key force in nature.  Giving students context and making connections to famous people or people they admire can be a useful way to create readiness for learning.

Think of these strategies as starting places to try and then modify to meet your needs and respond to the age and maturity of your students. The keys are to have the activity connect with what you want students to learn, give students a role to build engagement, and follow up to provide closure and reinforce what students have learned.