Summer Recap and What’s Next

Jonathan Firth's Memory & Metacognition Updates #144

Hello! As I am shortly going to be spending some time away with my family, I’ll take a few weeks away from these updates, returning in August. It’s also an opportunity to recap the topics covered over the past academic year, sharing any that you might have missed.

Some highlights include a series of posts on learning myths, a few posts on interleaving and spacing, a couple of recent ones on potential areas of confusion in cognitive science. Most recently, as you may have seen last Monday, I shared the first co-authored post that I have done here (on variation and creativity).

There were a few posts on a Higher Education theme, including on lecturers’ understanding of learning and on university study skills. I also shared a couple of more philosophical updates, including a pair of posts about the purposes of education about potential misconceptions of cognitive science.

There were also posts on teacher research, digital distractions, classroom questioning, and more!

Full list from academic year 2025–26

So, these are the posts since last summer, in order, oldest first:

• Update 118: Welcome back to M&M updates

• Update 119: The dangers of digital distractions

• Update 120: Motivation: Fuel for self-regulated learning

• Update 121: Combining retrieval practice and generative learning

• Update 122: Retrieval practice and generative learning: Classroom implications

• Update 123: Getting to grips with cognitive science and education

• Update 124: Does retrieval practice cause forgetting?

• Update 125: Combining Interleaving and the Spacing Effect, Part 1

• Update 126: Combining Interleaving and the Spacing Effect, Part 2

• Update 127: What makes a difficulty desirable? Philosophical reflections

• Update 128: The learning styles myth

• Update 129: More on the learning styles myth: Classroom Implications

• Update 130: Why learning myths matter

• Update 131: Promise and pitfalls of practitioner action research

• Update 132: Welcome back to memory and metacognition updates

• Update 133: Interleaving, metacognition and children

• Update 134: Purposes of education

• Update 135: Purposes of education, part 2

• Update 136: Applying cognitive science to questioning – timing

• Update 137: Does retrieval practice work in real classrooms?

• Update 138: hould lecturers know how learning works?

• Update 139: Areas of confusion in cognitive science, part 1

• Update 140: Getting ready for college

• Update 141: Areas of confusion in cognitive science, part 2

• Update 142: Can a teacher do research?

• Update 143: Desirable difficulties, variation and creativity

Next up

So, what next? Even just listing the posts reminds me of a few things that I’ve been meaning to get around to, but now it will have to wait until after the summer!

In particular, there are two posts where I am planning to write one or more follow-up pieces. As already mentioned recently, I have more areas of confusion in cognitive science to cover. I also plan to revisit the topic promise and pitfalls of practitioner action research, which I had intended as a 3-part post, with the second part delving more into the pitfalls, and the final one suggesting some guidelines.

Other areas I plan to get to after the summer include

• Episodic and semantic memory – a very well-established idea in the science of long-term memory, but rarely covered in CPD for educators;

• Flawed applications of metacognition. I often hear about schools setting metacognition as one of their learning goals or policies, but the specifics often leave a lot to be desired. Likewise, I’d like to share more practical guidance on study skills.

So, all in all, lots to think about and write about!

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A scene in Arran – image via Pixabay here.

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Summer plans

My other immediate plan is to disappear on holiday. I’ll be staying in Scotland, and plan to go to Arran (shown in the image above) – a magical place, and one that my wife’s family have a very long connection with.

Other than that, I will be pressing on with various research projects, including the school-university transitions work that I mentioned recently.

I’m also nearing the final stages of my Psychology of Education textbook (currently working through some edits following feedback on the first draft). I’ll share more info on that next month.

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Memory and education seminar

Before I sign off, just to mention that I am running a 1-day seminar in Glasgow on the theme of memory and education (broadly defined!). Somewhat philosophical in tone, but very much open to cognitive science issues, too. Are you interested in presenting or just coming along for the day? It’s free to attend. More info below:

Memory Seminar 2026 Cfp

232KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

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I hope you get a break at some point, and have a great time if so. Thanks again for reading!

All the best for the coming week,

Jonathan

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Last time: Desirable Difficulties, Variation and Creativity

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