Recent Highlights and Future Plans
Jonathan Firth's Memory & Metacognition Updates #117
Hello, all! I hope you enjoyed my recent trio of posts about how learning transfers (or fails to). If you missed them, you can start with the first one here.
As summer has more or less arrived here in Scotland, I’ll be taking a break from these updates for a couple of months. Before I do so, here are some selected highlights from my recent posts:
In April, I celebrated three years of this newsletter, and asked, is metacognition too complex for teachers?
I shared research that suggests that we underestimate the enjoyment of just thinking, and also explored the psychology of how to enjoy free time.
At the start of the year, I did a lengthy deep dive into desirable difficulties.
I discussed the links between creativity and cognitive science, and announced my recent book ‘Creativity for Teachers’, co-authored with Claire Badger.
Reading and more
I’ve been reading a lot recently – really a lot (and not just about cog sci). In fact, I think I am reading at least five times as many books as I did in the past. I think this is partly a response to all of the discussion about the decline of reading (and writing). Books had such a formative influence on my life, and so I’ve made a conscious effort to put aside the tech and spend more time reading.
I won’t share all my fiction recommendations here (you’re welcome to ask!) but here are a few recent non-fic reads that might be of interest:
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism – Amanda Montell
The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks
Proust and the Squid – Maryanne Wolf
When – Daniel Pink
I’d be interested to know if your reading habits have changed … and if you are similarly concerned with the decline in reading and writing skills. A shout-out to educator and author Carl Hendrick, whose Substack post on the end of deep reading was very thought provoking.
Next year
Looking ahead (and having now covered a lot of the ‘basics’ of cognitive science and education), I wonder what you would most like to see from these updates. Would it be useful to delve more into specific examples about how to apply the research (perhaps based on issues submitted by readers)? Would you rather I reported on recent studies? Or, perhaps, something else, like longer essays about education?
Here’s a poll; let me know what you’d like in your inbox!
I’m also writing a new textbook on the psychology of education. It will be a while till it comes out, as the manuscript isn’t due until May next year, but I’m more than halfway through a first draft, and will be doing a writing retreat during the summer.
I’m excited to see it take shape, and will share more in the autumn.
Well, that is all for now. I hope you enjoy your summer, whatever it has in store. And if any of you get the chance to visit Scotland, go for it – it’s great this time of year.
All the best,
Jonathan
Please note that my slides and similar materials are shared 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.