Explore Cognitive Science in 2024
Jonathan Firth's Memory & Metacognition Updates #62
Hi, and happy New Year to you all!
Whether you are new to these updates or have been reading them for a while, it’s great to have you here and to share ideas around memory and metacognition in education. I have big plans for 2024, and they include supporting you to better understand and implement cognitive science.
Just to give you a flavour of what to expect, here are my three top posts* from last year:
At around this time last year, I discussed how memory and creativity are not as opposed as people might assume.
Creativity – What's the Role of Memory?
Hello all! As promised, I’d like to spend a bit of time focusing on creativity, and thinking about how it connects to memory, metacognition, and study skills.
It’s a big area of interest for me. I currently teach ...
As part of a few posts on retrieval practice, I explained the breadth of classroom tasks that can involve retrieval.
Retrieval Practice – How and Why?
Hello all! When I wrote last week about the evidence behind retrieval practice, it occurred to me that although I’ve mentioned it a few times, I’ve never really done a deep dive into how and why to use this technique (at least, not as part of these updates).
I explored popular ideas of attention, and whether the ability of pupils/students to focus is really limited to ten minutes.
Overcoming the Attention Barrier
Hello! As I said last time, a learner’s ability to focus their attention depends on executive functions (EFs), and is harder when a task is novel. Attention span depends on a number of factors including prior knowledge, motivation, the novelty and difficulty of the task, and the learner themselves. This complex interaction between task and learner makes …
Of course, I’ll be saying more about all of these topics (and more) in the coming months! This will include sharing and explaining recent research, putting established ideas in context, and clarifying how research can be applied to your setting.
A few other things that have been on my mind:
How to make interleaving easier to do;
Effectiveness of study skills vs. the learning curve;
Cognitive science techniques across different subject areas;
Connections between memory and understanding (revisited!);
Using the techniques in lectures;
Helping younger learners.
All in all, there’s a lot to come in 2024. If you’ve previously shared one of my updates with colleagues, thank you! And if not, now would be a great time for them to sign up.
All the best for the coming weeks,
Jonathan
* Actually I have no idea what metric Substack uses to determine what makes something a top post. I am just trusting its mysterious algorithm…
Last time: Onwards, To the Holidays
Links to my new book, What Teachers Need to Know About Memory:
Amazon UK | Amazon US | Booktopia Australia | Preview on SAGE site.
Please note that my slides and similar materials are used under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. This means you can use or adapt them with attribution for non-commercial purposes. If you wish to use my materials for other purposes, feel free to get in touch.