The Master Teacher Blog

When we teach our students new skills, we want them to apply these skills beyond the specific assignment or context in which they initially learned them. We call this additional application of skills transfer. For example, when students learn a mathematical process, we want them to be able to use the skill to solve problems involving different values, to answer related questions from other subject areas, and to understand relationships; this is called near transfer. Taking this idea even further, we might claim complete success when students use the new skill to generate new insights beyond our instruction or to create new knowledge or a unique application; this is far transfer.

Students often think of learning in school as separate and that academic skills are disconnected from learning and knowledge elsewhere. This perceived separation can lead students to overlook opportunities to use what they learn in academic settings in their everyday lives, limiting their motivation and understanding. By helping students recognize how academic skills connect to real-world contexts—such as using math for budgeting or interpreting data—they can become more engaged and see greater relevance in their learning, ultimately enhancing both their confidence and success.

Equally important, transfer is not limited to students using what they learn in class or school in a different context or in other aspects of their lives. The truth is that students develop skills, strategies, and insights outside of school that can benefit their learning in school. However, too often they fail to realize that they can transfer and apply much of what they know and practice outside of school to improve their success in school. We might think of this process as “reverse transfer.”

Helping students to see how outside-of-school skills and strategies can be applied in school can be an exceptionally beneficial revelation and learning accelerator. Let’s explore some outside-of-school skills that students can tap and leverage to support their in-school learning:

• Outside-of-school skill: Playing video games and competitive sports develops persistence, strategic thinking, learning from mistakes and unsuccessful attempts, and involves constant improvement.
  • In-school learning: Sticking with difficult learning challenges, mining mistakes for learning, finding and using new strategies, and building on past learning to support new learning.
• Outside-of-school skill: Learning from YouTube, social media, and peers without formal teaching and structured lessons.
  • In-school learning: Using varied resources to supplement formal instruction, learning from peers, and searching for information and learning independently.
• Outside-of-school skill: Pushing back on unfairness and injustice and advocating for increased personal independence.
  • In-school learning: Writing arguments, participating in debate, engaging in inquiry, and applying a claim-evidence-reasoning framework.
• Outside-of-school skill: Creating videos, writing memes, and composing music.
  • In-school learning: Using voice and focusing on the audience when writing, storytelling, and developing arguments, and choosing the appropriate format and vehicle to communicate messages.
• Outside-of-school skill: Persuading friends, organizing activities, and being aware of group dynamics.
  • In-school learning: Seeking and assuming formal leadership roles, learning and applying formal leadership skills and strategies.
• Outside-of-school skill: Engaging in hobbies, part-time jobs, and pursuing career interests.
  • In-school learning: Leveraging experience and connecting interests to increase relevance of academic content and skills.

Without question, many skills and habits students develop outside of school can benefit their learning in school. However, too many students miss this connection and fail to take advantage of the full range of skills and capabilities they possess. We can help by pointing out potential connections and helping students to transfer—or reverse transfer—what they already know to enhance what we ask them to learn. What additional out-of-school skills and strategies might you add to this list?

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