How confident is your understanding of working memory?
Despite receiving a detailed and comprehensive introduction to child development and learning theories during my teacher training, one aspect of pedagogy that was missing was understanding how we learn and how to translate this information in the classroom.
Did your teacher training help you understand how we learn?
With the abundance of research, access to professional development and many new teachers being exposed to cognitive science at an earlier stage of their career, I am optimistic about the future quality of our teachers entering the classroom.
However, as with all things teaching, educators do not necessarily need to know more information to help change their behaviours. Teachers need time to practise and determine what works well in their classroom.
For example, when posing a question, how long should they wait before providing the answer? What type of feedback should a teacher provide to a demotivated student?
