How Learning Works

Learning is counter-intuitive. Most study methods that feel good do not work, and most methods that work feel hard. This module covers the few things cognitive science tells teachers with confidence.

Cambridge framework: Learning and the learner
Turkish MoNE competency area: Professional knowledge — theories of learning

In this module

Account for working-memory limits when designing a lesson
Build retrieval, spacing and interleaving into ordinary sessions
Recognise the fluency illusion and explain it to learners

Working memory is small — and that decides everything

The space the mind holds new information in is surprisingly narrow: roughly four or five new items at a time. Long-term memory is effectively unlimited. A teacher’s job is moving material through the narrow gate into the large store.

One practical rule follows: present a small amount of new material, then stop and make them practise. Teaching three new concepts well beats covering ten, every time. Cover ten and the learner keeps none — they vaguely half-remember two.

Cognitive load: the learner’s mind carries three things at once — the material itself, the effort of making sense of it, and noise from the environment (a cluttered slide, a vague instruction, anxiety). Reducing the third is the cheapest way to make room for the first.

You can read the opening section of the module below.

This module is open to registered educators

The first module is open to everyone. For the remaining seven, the certification exam and the certificate, all you need is a free educator account.

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