Jonathan Firth's Memory & Metacognition Updates #12 – Summer reading
Hello, and welcome to my last update before the summer! This is a time when many colleagues are busy with exam marking and others are already on holiday, so it feels like the right time to take a break.
As mentioned last time, I want to take this opportunity to share some reading recommendations.
I'll begin with a few of my own articles/blog posts which I think are most relevant to the memory and metacognition ideas that I have shared in this newsletter so far.
I think they will really deepen your understanding:
On working memory: Cognition (book chapter).
On long-term memory/LTM: Is it all just memorisation? (short article).
On metacognition: Boosting learning by changing the order and timing of classroom tasks: Implications for professional practice (journal article).
On study skills: A week until the exam? Advice on revision, part 1 (blog post).
On teacher research engagement: Experts in learning (book chapter).
On myths and misconceptions: Neuromyths about learning (blog post).
And you can see my most recent blog post below:
What Is the Point of Education?. Psychologist Stephen Kosslyn’s view | by Jonathan Firth | Age of Awareness | Jun, 2022 | Medium — medium.com
This was a very broad-ranging conversation about many aspects of education and learning — well worth a listen.
All right – on to my recommendations from other authors, researchers and educators. There is a lot to choose from, and I am going to pick from the same categories I used above.
Normally I ensure that my weekly reading recommendations are accessible both in terms of content and being free to view, and I'll try to maintain that, but there are a couple of journal articles on the list that may be behind a paywall for you, but all are very well worth your time if you can get hold of them:
On working memory: overview by Baddeley (2012).
On long-term memory/LTM: recent chapter by Pan & Bjork (2021).
On metacognition: EEF's report on metacognition and self-regulated learning.
On study skills: Morehead et al (2019) and also Kornell & Bjork (2007).
On teacher research engagement: Sachs (2016) or Mills et al (2021).
On myths and misconceptions: Pashler et al (2008).
All of these are in addition to the papers I have recommended in previous weeks. There is a lot of good reading out there!
It is also really hard to pick 'favourites', as it depends on the purpose and the reader.
All the same, these are all articles that hugely impressed me, and that I come back to and cite again and again.
One more thing – excuse the self-promotion, but if some of the issues in the papers above feel a bit too technical, then you could do worse than reading my co-authored book Psychology in the Classroom first, in order to get a basic grounding (especially chapters 1, 2 & 8).
As an author, I certainly appreciate the support!
That's it for now. Have a great summer, and I will be back with more memory and metacognition updates in August.
All the very best,
Jonathan
Last week: Reflections
Twitter: @JW_Firth
Website: www.jonathanfirth.co.uk