The Science of Learning: What Every Teacher Should Know

Duration: 10:59 1904 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

Ross introduces his new book, *The Guide to the Science of Learning*, which aims to simplify teaching by leveraging scientific insights to significantly boost students' attention spans. The core of the book relies on advanced brain imaging technologies like MRI and fMRI scans to visualize the physical anatomy and functional blood flow within the brain. By examining these biological processes, Ross explores how specific classroom actions—such as using a finger wag, allowing fidget spinners, or employing retrieval practice questions—affect cognitive function. He emphasizes that while many studies originate in laboratory settings due to ethical constraints regarding live EEG monitoring in classrooms, the findings provide crucial evidence on how learning occurs anatomically and how teachers can optimize retention and reduce anxiety. A significant portion of the book addresses the distinction between the art and science of teaching, challenging long-held neuromyths such as learning styles or left-brain/right-brain dominance. Ross argues that while the "art" involves idiosyncratic experiences and intuition built over years, the "science" provides a factual basis through cognitive science and neuroscience to understand what truly works. Key concepts covered include working memory consolidation, the forgetting process, and cognitive load theory, which explains how instructional techniques and classroom displays can either support or weaken a student's ability to focus. The text also delves into metacognition, describing it not just as "thinking about thinking" but as changing learning conditions to physically alter the brain's cognitive structure, moving students from novice status to expertise through repetition and problem-solving. The guide further expands on the emotional and social dimensions of learning, highlighting how motivation, engagement, and relationships directly influence memory and attention. Ross dedicates substantial attention to neurodiversity, addressing common professional development needs regarding conditions like ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia. He stresses that these differences are not behavioral issues but result from brains wired differently, urging educators to understand and support these needs rather than trying to correct them. The book also tackles the practical challenge of integrating study skills into existing curricula, suggesting ways to tweak current plans using cognitive science principles without overhauling entire schemes of work, while advocating for earlier introduction of these skills in primary education. Looking toward the future, the final chapters consider the impact of artificial intelligence and the need for robust succession planning within school systems to sustain expertise across generations. Ross outlines a roadmap for schools to implement these scientific principles logistically, ensuring that study skills are clearly mapped out rather than remaining implicit. He concludes by offering resources, including cartoons summarizing each chapter and an upcoming audio recording, inviting teachers to adopt these evidence-based methods to improve their working lives and better serve diverse learners. Ultimately, the book serves as a comprehensive toolkit for educators ready to move beyond myths and embrace the proven science of how the brain learns.

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Hello everyone, Ross here at Teacher Toolkit, your go-to person for all your teaching and learning expertise. I have a new book out start of the new academic year, the guide to the science of learning. And in this short video, I'm going to explore with you what is inside, how it can make your working life easier, and most importantly, how you can boost your students' attention span. So, [snorts] what I've been looking at, out of interest for people watching, is MRI scans. Now, if I just show you here, let me just put this a little bit bigger. An MRI scan takes a picture, and then you can look at the physical structure of the brain, the anatomy. And a few years ago, when I published Guide to Memory in 2022, I asked that single question, how does learning happen? Because I was curious about what goes on in here. If I understand it a little bit more, can it improve how I teach? And I guess as a result, I've become a bit more obsessed with this, and looked a bit deeper into something called fMRI scan. So, an f looks at the functional parts of the brain. That MRI stands for magnetic resonance image. So, the function particularly looks at the blood flow exchange, to something called bold, which is the blood oxygenated level dependent kind of differences. I guess what I was curious to understand is if I look at your in the classroom, and I give you a finger wag, could that help me understand the differences with your attention span? So, whether it's a fidget spinner, whether it's a piece of chewing gum, whether it's me asking you a retrieval practice question at the start or the end of the lesson, could we understand more about it, how it influences your attention span, by by looking at the blood flow exchange in the brain? Now, a word of caution with all everything considered in ethics, in academia, particularly in education, many of the studies that I've looked at are in laboratory conditions because it's, you know, an ethical risk putting lots of electroencephalography, those white stickers that you put on your head, in a classroom live watching students in class would be quite tricky to achieve. So, lots of this is taken from laboratory conditions. I'm going to move myself out of the way just so you can see this full cartoon. Now, for many, many years, 20 plus million people reading Teacher Toolkit, the average reading time has been 72 seconds. So, it's approximately 350 words per minute. So, what I'd like to do is just spend a bit of time going through each of the chapters in greater detail. There'll be another 10 cartoons that I'll produce over the course of September to summarize all the ideas inside the book. And later this term, I'm going to be sitting in a studio recording the full book if you're interested in getting a copy on your kind of podcast and Amazon Audible recording so you can listen to it in your ears. But, let me just take a moment to take you through each of the chapters. So, chapter one, I've looked at the differences between the art and science of teaching. So, the art of teaching I would describe as I give you the finger wagging class, it makes you behave, so I'll use that again tomorrow. And over the years, I learn what works through my experiences, all those idiosyncratic decisions that are inside my internal database. I I start to work out certain experiences work more than others. The science allows us to look at the cognitive science, the neuro-psychology, the neuro-science to understand actually what happens anatomically when we learn. Does it boost retention? Does it improve attention? Does it weaken your anxiety levels and so on and so forth. And I really dig deep into those kind of questions. In chapter two, talking again about working memory and all the different types, but also thinking about the forgetting part of memory consolidation, which is very much part of how your brain works. So, think daydreams, think sleeping, think why you forget certain memories. Your brain is built in that particular way to help that retrieval, help that forgetting process. So, digging deeper into this aspect and how it relates to what we do in our classroom, thinking about attention span again in particular, and looking at certain fMRI scans, I was really interested when I found a piece of research about fidget spinners, chewing gum, the finger wag, things like that, group work, lots of interesting things out there. Now, what I've discovered in my research data collection was that one of the chapters or areas that people struggle with the most is the neuromyths, learning styles, left or right brain, those kind of things, and myself included. So, I I was actually the most cautious about publishing this chapter, making sure that the research I was reading was peer-reviewed and could be trusted, I guess more than anything, and current research availability. Uh and this is a big challenge for teachers, understanding what myths exist in the profession, in our classrooms, and in our own bias. So, that's an important chapter. Then we're looking at cognitive load. So, what is cognitive load theory? What does it look like in the classroom? How do I support attention span? How could I possibly weaken it, whether it's conscious or accidental? And you know, what what can we do as teachers here if we think about the whole landscape of teaching from early years right through to FE, how do we understand cognitive load in the classroom? I guess everything that we do, whether it's displays or instructional techniques, how do we improve this aspect? Chapter five, if I just move myself out of the way for a moment. Metacognition is a concept I struggled with for many years and I guess I had a bit of a breakthrough during a live keynote with some school leaders when I thought, "Well, let's move beyond just that simple definition thinking about thinking. What if I change the conditions for learning so give you different problems? How does it actually change the physical cognitive structure of your brain?" Well, that's probably a better way to understand what metacognition is. So, if I ask to you to make me a cup of tea, well, that's easy for you to do, but now let me change the conditions. Make me a milky cup of tea that's sweet. You either can do it because you're an expert or you can't because you're a novice. And as I move you from novice to expertise, I change the conditions again. Could you make me 100 cups of tea for many people at this particular time, so a 50-minute break for example? And what kind of tools and components we need to find and fix this problem? So, when we change the conditions, we can boost that kind of anatomical cognition in our brain to help and if through that repetition, we can help kind of boost that cognitive that kind of processes where we do cognitive thinking, we do problem-solving, you know, all that executive function that's happening at the front part of the brain. Chapter six, I'll move myself out the way again here. Lots of things that we don't consider when particularly when we do quality assurance in our schools, motivation, emotions, engagement. How does that influence learning, you know? I'm recording this on Monday morning. How does that influence my attention span? How does it influence my motivation? You know, who's checking in on my work? How do I keep supporting students? You know, how do relationships influence memory? Lots and lots of questions asked here in terms of particularly neurodivergent needs and the pastoral aspects of our curriculum. Chapter seven, I've looked at the neurodiversity, so the cognitive differences that we have across all classrooms. Uh particularly looking here again, you know, when we think about teacher workload here, one of the greatest CPD needs that teachers ask for for professional learning is often SEND. So, how can we dig it more deeply into ADHD, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dyslexia, for example, and understand these and understand that actually it's not your behavior, it's because your brain's wired differently. How do I better support you and meet those needs? So, lots of questions here. Probably, you know, looking at a glance here, chapter 3, chapter 7 here, probably the toughest to put together. Now, quite a revolution happening in schools. Many schools still have curriculum uh that are implicit where they don't make study skills clearly mapped out in their schemes of work, but particularly secondary schools being a lot more thoughtful about teaching students how to learn as part of being taught what to learn. Perhaps maybe in some primary schools, I hear the word retrieval practice being used in the year 3 or year 4 classrooms, which is the language of learning, but maybe what could we do a bit more to bring that kind of study skill evolution at earlier stage in our school kind of lifespan. Some questions I ask here to boost that aspect across the profession. Chapter 9, how do you apply this in the curriculum? So, as ever, great ideas, Ross, great resources, but I haven't got time to build it in, so I tackle some of these headaches here. How do we build this into some things that we've already put together? So, a simple example, your curriculum plan is already laid out. How do we tweak what you currently have using the principles of cognitive science? And again, each chapter here on the screen all backed up by fMRI scans. The last chapter is that toolkit for the future. So, thinking about here um a world of artificial intelligence, a world where we understand more neurodivergent needs better. How do we improve our school systems? How do we develop better experiences for our young people? How do we develop that expertise and pass it on to the next generation teachers? What can schools do logistically and build in implementation plans so that succession is built in? Now, there's lots. This is just a whistle-stop over overview. Uh I probably spent 80 months putting this together. Uh again, the book, you know, 40, 50,000 words. Here's a short cartoon so you can get all the gist. And my plan is to put the other 10 together by the end of September 2026 and also get that Audible recording for your kind of headphones where you can listen to that uh in the term ahead. Um there are um lots of different versions coming out, but that QR code would take you to the um the shopping page where you can grab a copy. Uh for people that I meet on my travels in schools and colleges all around the country, as ever, I bring copies of the cartoons and books to your school. Um but if you are interested in the science of learning, grab a copy. And if you're interested in me bringing this to life in your school as part of your teacher training, then just get in touch. Okay, thanks for watching and bye for now.