We asked Angie Watson – primary school teacher and Research Associate at Billesley Primary School – to talk to us about how teaching staff in her setting use their understanding of working memory to support their pupils.
She describes how their shared understanding of core cognitive science principles impacts their planning processes. She also discusses how routines and methods of giving instructions can help to support their pupils’ working memories.
“If it is structured and clear enough and also regular enough, children will know what to expect so they are not spending all of their time using their working memory processing what’s going to happen next”
Angie also explores how they have explored the principles of ‘embodied learning’ to support pupils during a ‘writing cycle’, building up to a writing task across a number of lessons.
Supporting working memory in the primary classroom
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